Manatee Springs Vandalism

[jdsffa]

I was in Manatee Springs Head spring cavern today and there were two names and birth dates carved into the wall about 30ft up the gold line. The flow was normal for manatee so I don't believe ow divers did this. I Notified the office of the Initials. I was wandering if anyone has been in there this week and if the saw anything.

John

[DA Aquamaster]

Any indication if the names/initials matched divers who signed in recently?

[JE]

John,
let
Ken Hill
know about this. Send him a PM !

[Ken Hill]

Will need pictures. Law enforcement has been notified. I'm on an iPhone hard to text.

[Mark Vlahos]

I was there on Monday with "WEPIV". I haven't been in there in 6 years. I could have been close or even looked right at it, but I didn't notice any carvings at all inside the head spring.

We were a team of two diving inside the cave, we did not see any other cave divers. We did see what looked like a recreational class out in the basin, but we never saw them get even remotely close to entering against the flow.

Mark Vlahos

[FW]

I was there on Monday with "WEPIV". I haven't been in there in 6 years. I could have been close or even looked right at it, but I didn't notice any carvings at all inside the head spring.

We were a team of two diving inside the cave, we did not see any other cave divers. We did see what looked like a recreational class out in the basin, but we never saw them get even remotely close to entering against the flow.

Mark Vlahos

Is there "gold line" between the head spring, and Catfish? I thought he was talking about just past the sign in the Catfish cavern.

[jj1987]

Is there "gold line" between the head spring, and Catfish? I thought he was talking about just past the sign in the Catfish cavern.

Yeah, there's a gold line all the way now.

[RETIRED 11]

Wouldn't something like that have to be planned?? I can't think of anything I carry on a dive that I would be prepared to use to carve crap on the walls (If for some reason I were to totally loose my mind and become inclined to do so)
Who and why??? would one feel the need to do this?? we all have lasting records of where we have been.... log books... that is where this recording belongs.
Just my $.02

[Mark Vlahos]

Is there "gold line" between the head spring, and Catfish? I thought he was talking about just past the sign in the Catfish cavern.

I don't know if there is "gold line" but there certainly is "mungy brown line" between Catfish and the Head Spring.

[WEPIV]

John,

Mark and I were there diving Monday early to mid afternoon and we entered at Catfish, swam to Sue and then back and exited the head spring and I didn't see anything like you described either but I could have missed it.
There were three other divers there in the head spring basin (from American Pro Diving Center in Crystal River) but they didn't enter the cavern that I saw. By the way, the flow was down enough then to swim almost effortlessly into the head spring.

Gene