Schools of fish glide through their 



creatures of the sea. Amberjack, angel 

 and butterfly fish now meander the 

 decks and hide in the crevices. 



North Carolina diving 



More and more Americans are tak- 

 ing to the seas to dive and North 

 Carolina waters are particularly good 

 seas to take to. 



For divers seeking a history lesson, 

 the North Carolina coastline is littered 

 with thousands of wrecks ranging from 

 Civil War blockade runners to German 

 U-boats. 



For divers interested in observing 

 the creatures of the deep, snapping 

 their pictures or maybe spearing a few 

 for dinner, the wrecks offer another ad- 

 vantage. They act as artificial reefs 

 and attract a variety of marine life. 



"I dive because you can see more life 

 in the ocean in one hour than you can 

 see in your whole life on land," says 

 Jay Greenblatt, former president of the 

 University of North Carolina at 

 Chapel Hill Dive Club. 



The warm Gulf Stream curves north 

 along the North Carolina coast, while 

 the Labrador arctic currents move 

 southward. The two meet near Cape 

 Hatteras and go out to sea, but their 

 meeting serves as a mixing ground for 

 tropical and cold-water fish. 



undersea world 



"It's amazing," says Shirley Kelley, 

 a diver from Raleigh. "You can see a 

 barracuda and a codfish swimming side 

 by side on a wreck in these waters. 

 There are very few places in the world 

 you would find that sort of thing oc- 

 curring." 



Wrecks are not the only places sea 

 life congregates in North Carolina 

 waters. The coast also has a few 

 natural reefs where divers can see 

 marine creatures in a natural setting. 



While some divers are attracted by 

 the wrecks and the fish, many people 

 initially dive to experience the weight- 

 less feeling that comes with being un- 

 derwater, says Paul Goetz, a dive in- 

 structor and president of the North 

 Carolina Wreck Diving Club. Even- 

 tually though, he says, the divers turn 

 to other underwater hobbies like 

 photography, selecting fish for an 

 aquarium, or collecting shells. 



Whatever the reason for diving, 

 more people are investing the time and 

 money it takes to do it, say North 

 Carolina dive shop owners and instruc- 

 tors. Divers are now having to arrange 

 their dive parties and charter their 

 boats two and three months in ad- 

 vance. Bob Eastep, owner of Discovery 

 Dive Shop in Beaufort and a diveboat 

 captain, said he is already booking 

 diveboat charters for next summer. 



Photo by Ron Thrower 



Even though the charter may be 

 booked months in advance there is still 

 a chance the divers may never leave 

 the dock because of weather condi- 

 tions. Eastep says he doesn't like to 

 take divers out in stormy conditions or 

 seas over three to four feet because of 

 the difficulty getting them in and out 

 of the boat in the ocean. 



Also, if waters are rough, underwater 

 visibility is likely to be low because 

 sand and silt are being stirred up. 



Certification 



But there are few other limitations 

 to diving. Instructors emphasize that 

 anyone who is an adequate swimmer 

 and in good physical shape can become 

 a diver after a thorough diving cer- 

 tification course. 



Diving certification is not required 

 by state or federal law, but divers, dive 

 shop owners and boat captains regulate 

 the sport themselves. 



"Almost all diving operations ask for 

 a certification card or evidence that a 

 person has been trained in diving 

 before they are going to let him go on a 

 dive trip, rent equipment or sell him 

 breathing air," says Ron Thrower, in- 

 structor and owner of the Sea Wolf 

 Dive Shop in Raleigh. "It's sort of a 

 common law. We have a certain 



