Descending Into Florida’s Underwater Caves

Lengthy earlier than theme parks started sprouting from Orlando’s swamps, Florida’s freshwater springs had been among the many space’s most important points of interest.

Indigenous People made use of the springs for 1000’s of years earlier than Spanish conquistadors arrived within the 1500s. The conquistadors’ experiences of clear water gushing from cavernous holes in forest flooring fueled myths in regards to the existence of the Fountain of Youth.

A couple of hundred years later, when sulfur springs had been believed to have therapeutic properties, White Sulphur Springs, on the banks of the Suwannee River, grew to become one in every of Florida’s first business vacationer points of interest. By the early 1900s, the debut of glass-bottomed boats gave vacationers a fish’s-eye view of Florida’s springs, and the pristine underwater landscapes attracted early filmmakers. Dozens of flicks and tv exhibits had been filmed underwater at Silver Springs, a gaggle of springs in Marion County, alone, together with “Sea Hunt” and “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.”

Florida has the densest assortment of freshwater springs on the planet. Day-after-day, the state’s greater than 1,000 freshwater springs collectively discharge billions of gallons of groundwater to the floor. Springs present vital habitat for aquatic animals, together with the long-lasting Florida manatee, and anchor Florida’s inland water-based recreation business. Guests from around the globe come to Florida’s springs to fish, kayak, tube, swim and scuba dive by way of the miles of underwater caves that join springs to the aquifer and pipe water to the floor. Springs tourism injects money into rural economies throughout the state.

And but, regardless of their elementary function within the state’s tourism business, Florida’s springs are on the heart of a slow-motion environmental tragedy.

During the last a number of a long time, a mixture of growth, inhabitants progress, local weather change, over pumping of the aquifer and air pollution from agriculture and sewage have wreaked havoc on Florida’s springs. Many springs present considerably diminished water stream. Others have stopped flowing completely.

Kissengen Spring was one of many first recorded casualties. Greater than 20 million gallons of water a day as soon as poured from Kissengen Spring into the Peace River. The spring sported dive platforms and bathhouses and was used as a resort by members of the army throughout World Conflict II.

Between the Thirties and the Fifties, water stream from the spring progressively diminished to a trickle. Within the early Sixties, the spring stopped flowing completely. A United States Geological Survey report revealed that groundwater pumping between the Fifties and 1975 lowered groundwater ranges by a staggering 60 ft. As soon as the elevation of the water within the aquifer feeding the spring dropped beneath the elevation of the spring vent, the water stopped flowing.

Steadily declining water tables additionally choked off the water provide to White Sulphur Springs, one in every of Florida’s first vacationer points of interest, which stopped flowing for the primary time in 1977.

On the identical time aquifers had been being depleted, air pollution from septic tanks, sewage, farm fertilizers and confined animal feeding operations have flooded springs with extra vitamins, fueling algae blooms in springs throughout the state. The white, sandy bottoms and waving thickets of eelgrass featured in movies from the Nineteen Forties and Fifties have been changed by thick mats of inexperienced, bushy algae, which blanket all underwater surfaces. With out eelgrass, the muse of wholesome springs, the ecosystems round springs are collapsing.

At Silver Springs, a lot algae has collected that volunteer scuba divers take away it by hand. Each month, members of the Silver Springs Skilled Dive Staff descend to wash algae off the underside of the glass backside boats so guests can see the previous underwater film units, which the divers should additionally clear.

The State of Florida formally acknowledged that the majority of Florida’s springs had been in hassle greater than 20 years in the past, when, in 2001, Jeb Bush, then the governor, signed laws creating the Florida Springs Initiative. This system supplied the primary of a number of subsequent swimming pools of cash for analysis, monitoring, training and landowner help to scale back the stream of sewage and fertilizer into springs and deal with declining spring flows.

Knowledge collected on account of the initiative have allowed scientists to trace the inexorable decline of Florida’s springs in excruciating element. Importantly, these knowledge present that efforts to guard springs have to date been ineffective, as nutrient air pollution has continued to extend.

Whereas many springs are in decline, ongoing restoration work within the spring-fed Crystal River, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, exhibits that some injury may be reversed. Crystal River is the second largest spring group within the state of Florida. Many years in the past, Crystal River’s gin-clear visibility made it a well-known vacation spot for fishing and scuba diving. Within the Sixties and Seventies, nevertheless, growth, dredging of canals for boat-based communities and air pollution triggered a cascade of occasions that precipitated the river’s eelgrass beds to break down and get replaced with blankets of algae in subsequent a long time. Crystal River’s well-known visibility deteriorated till it not often exceeded 10 ft.

During the last six years, the neighborhood group Save Crystal River and the aquatic restoration firm Sea & Shoreline have used a mixture of state and federal funding to take away greater than 1 / 4 billion kilos of algae and nutrient-rich muck from the underside of Crystal River and plant greater than 350,000 eelgrass vegetation.

Because the replanted eelgrass beds have expanded, they’ve improved visibility and now even assist a year-round inhabitants of Florida’s most well-known vegetarians: manatees.

The profitable eelgrass replanting venture hasn’t solved all of Crystal River’s issues. Sea stage rise and groundwater pumping proceed to scale back the stream of water to Crystal River’s springs, and the water that comes out continues to get a bit saltier. Whereas there’s clearly nonetheless work to do, regular enhancements in water readability and a rising manatee inhabitants are supporting a thriving ecotourism business and present what may be completed when state governments and native communities work collectively and draw upon scientific knowledge to avoid wasting their springs.

Jason Gulley is an affiliate professor of geology on the College of South Florida, dive teacher and an setting, science and expedition photographer primarily based in Tampa, Fla. You possibly can comply with his work on Instagram.