The flow is intense, constant, and there’s nowhere to hide. On previous dives I felt like a news reporter in a hurricane trying to explain how strong the winds were, hanging onto small rocks on the bottom, and flapping in the water flow.

On Saturday the Cambrian Foundation once again visited Wekiwa Springs State Park to collect data as part of our grant with the National Science Foundation, but with a twist. Upon request of the Park management, the team had planned to conduct a cleanup of the springhead and surrounding submerged area.

At around 8:30am, the team arrived at DeLeon Springs. Topside field sampling crews set up the analysis kits while the divers readied their gear.

Our goal for the day was to travel to three non-divable springs in Central Florida and take some grab-samples of bacteria and water.

Jef, Karl and Renee entered the cave one at a time due to the high flow and small opening. Our job as divers in this role is to collect bacterial and water samples at 6 pre-determined stations at the entrance of and inside the cavern and cave.

Wekiwa Springs is a good representative of the Floridian aquifer in central Florida and can provide an insight to biogeochemical activity within karst environments.

This is the first time that we have included Blue Springs as a data collection site for comparison to our long-term microbe monitoring sites. The goals for today included gathering water samples and microbial mats from a variety of depths and strata within the underwater cave.