Isolation Room whale Bone Restoration Dive 1

[victorzamora]

I might have missed it, but is anybody funding this restoration?

I'll be super interested to see before and after pictures as well as any media regarding the actual restoration. The effort is incredible and helps restore some of my faith in humanity. Once again, your restoration work is awesome!

[adam_Hughes]

The effort is incredible and helps restore some of my faith in humanity.

My thoughts exactly. Aside from no real media coverage, and all restoration work being funded only by the dedicated members of the cave diving community, this really is a remarkable thing happening here:

Here, we have a 34-56 million year old vertebrae of a 60+ foot Archaeoceti whale. Which has gone 99.999999% of it's "intact life" unbeknownst to humans. Only upon discovery to be immediately marveled by, destroyed by, and subsequently restored by humans. This is such a good example of how much impact we really have on this planet, and the capability that we have to repair it.

IMO, I see a whole lot going on here besides just fixing a broken rock. Like everyone else, upon hearing that this item was destroyed, my personal feelings were just as cynical as the rest. I hated whoever did it, and my blood boiled. I was very tempted to actively seek them out so I could replace this whale bone with one of their own.

Only to find out, someone whom I've never met, Michael Angelo is going to take it upon himself to fix. What does that say about him? While the rest of us gripe and whine about how awful people are, Michael Angelo thinks "Hell, I could fix that. Little glue and tape should be good as new".

There is a valuable lesson to be learned in this, and I feel lucky to have witnessed it.
- Adam

[FW]

I might have missed it, but is anybody funding this restoration?

I'll be super interested to see before and after pictures as well as any media regarding the actual restoration. The effort is incredible and helps restore some of my faith in humanity. Once again, your restoration work is awesome!

That is a great idea! There are several costs involved. We need something like a PayPal account that people can donate to.

[jlillest]

That is a great idea! There are several costs involved. We need something like a PayPal account that people can donate to.

There's also this:
http://caves.org/grants/nss_conservation_home_page.htm

The NSS provides all sorts of cool grants, might as well take advantage of them.

-Jon

[patpicos]

Dive #2 didn't happen today as MA was not feeling well.

I still went to the insulation rooms to visit and it was a great dive. Since the bone isn't on the wall I couldn't locate its location. Didn't see anything on the floor either.

Such a fun dive there

[MichaelAngelo]

As Pat has said I canceled todays due to a chonic back issue going acute. I hope to be able to get back in the water and finish the recovery section later this week. After that it is my hope to restore as much as possible above water then finish the restoration in water on site over several dives. The Epoxy system I am working with was designed to repair but Ocean and Aquarium reefs. The system is designed to work underwater, is non-toxic and intert. It so far gives great promise. We are documenting each step. If it is sucessful here, it means we have a way to restore other formation. Several divers have helped so far on this and both Amigo's and Cave Country Dive have given free gas to support the project. thank you
MA

[MikeT]

Outstanding. The world needs more people like MA.

[Avs123]

Cave restoration by MA would be a cool specialty class to take.

[victorzamora]

Cave restoration by MA would be a cool specialty class to take.

And it might help fund future restorations

[cavewoman]

As Pat has said I canceled todays due to a chonic back issue going acute. I hope to be able to get back in the water and finish the recovery section later this week. After that it is my hope to restore as much as possible above water then finish the restoration in water on site over several dives. The Epoxy system I am working with was designed to repair but Ocean and Aquarium reefs. The system is designed to work underwater, is non-toxic and intert. It so far gives great promise. We are documenting each step. If it is sucessful here, it means we have a way to restore other formation. Several divers have helped so far on this and both Amigo's and Cave Country Dive have given free gas to support the project. thank you
MA

I was wondering what you were going to use and thought of an epoxy actually. My mom used to be huge into salt water aquariums and often used an epoxy to fix coral in place in her systems. I figured that would work! Cave Country is happy to supply as much gas as is needed for this. Bravo on the good work you guys are doing!