Woodville Karst Plain Project News

[L Roebuck]

No link found from caves to springs

Divers at Wakulla Springs on Saturday failed to make a connection to the Leon Sinks cave system, but they did break their own previous distance record. Divers from the Woodville Karst Plain Project entered the cave system at about 8:45 a.m., said Todd Leonard, a project coordinator with the dive team. They were looking for a passage between the springs and Turner Sink in northern Wakulla County. They traveled through more than four miles of cave passages before returning to Wakulla Springs at about 7 p.m.

Tallahassee.com

[Kelly Jessop]

Huge thanks to everyone that assisted with this past weekend’s record dive. The goal was to push north and west from the Wakulla side for a connection between R-Tunnel and Leon Sinks. Jarrod and I gave it everything we had and then some but the cave refused to give it up despite adding 7,640ft in some of the most incredible cave discovered to date in the WKP. The cave stayed large and deep as we worked our way upstream; first west, northwest, north and eventually breaking it open into massive conduit bearing northeast. We believe we worked our way around a large collapse of some sort and are back on track to intersect Leon Sinks somewhere downstream of Turner Sink. Along the way we observed multiple leads, parallel conduits, tannic tunnels and a 2,000ft section containing milky white water, abundant crayfish and bacteria covered floors. We eventually tied off in massive, deep, clear conduit with noticeable flow. Todd Kincaid has the data and is updating the map this week.

The dive:
Bottom Time – 580 minutes at 270ft
Decompression – 15.5 hours
Total Run Time – 25.5 hours
Exploration – 7,640ft added
Total Distance from Wakulla Springs – 23,810ft

The goal of the dive was to connect the systems and update the map as to the specific locations of the cave conduits. The map data is then used by the State of Florida as part of their land use and land acquisition process to protect the water sources feeding Wakulla Springs. 23,810ft from Wakulla Springs exceeded our 20,000ft May, 2006 push into Wakulla’s Q-Tunnel and firmly establishes a new cave penetration record for the WKPP.

The entire team should be proud of a challenging, yet exciting weekend where everyone pulled together and adapted as needed to get the job done. Running a 30 hour operation takes a great deal of preparation and Todd Leonard along with the entire support and setup crew did an outstanding job. Each team member shares in the success and I was glad to see everyone refocus and come back strong after the May 19 dive at Turner. You guys are the best.

Casey McKinlay
Project Director
Woodville Karst Plain Project

[Brian Roebuck]

That's some serious diving! It is a great thing to not only push the cave, map it, and perhaps find new species etc but to also be part of the protection of this great aquifer. Hopefully this will lead to protection of more springs throughout Florida and help preserve the resources there.

Congrats to all who are giving so much back to the rest of us!