Divers reached 190 meters depth in Vrelo

The divers in the cave Vrelo at Matka reached a depth of 190 meters, meaning that the caveis to beplaced between the deepest caves in Europe.

The Italian diver came down to a platform and reached a depth of 190 meters in Vrelo, where he found a new opening with unknown depth.

Kasati stopped his diving and it is expected to continue on Wednesday and on Friday...[Link]

International speleological expedition to research Vrelo underwater cave

International speleological expedition will research August 2-15 cave Vrelo in Matka canyon to determine its depth. The goal is to reach depths larger than 183 meters, thus declaring Vrelo the deepest underwater cave in Europe.

Vrelo, which was nominated for the new Seven World Wonders, has been researched for several times. Its horizontal length is 450 meters and 98 meters in vertical, where from a new gap opens which bottom has not been reached...[Link]

Divers bound for unexplored depths

In 2007, the worsening drought allowed divers to squeeze through a tiny opening below the mermaid stage at Weeki Wachee Springs and explore a new frontier of underwater caves.

They went as far as 4,600 linear feet into the caves and reached a depth of more than 400 feet, which is believed to be a record for the deepest underwater cave tunnel in the continental United States.

Now the explorers are back at it - and are pondering their longest dive to date in the coming weeks.

The continued drought conditions and the peak of the dry season have once again caused flow levels through the spring vent to slacken enough to allow access. A team from Karst Underwater Research, Inc., or KUR, hopes to continue the cave and passageway mapping project that made unprecedented progress two years ago.

"We're shooting for a five-hour bottom time so we can solve some of the mysteries," said Brett Hemphill, KUR's director and head of exploration for the project.

Among those mysteries is whether the tunnels connect to the so-called Twin Dees Spring and its network of caves about a mile south of Weeki Wachee Springs. A KUR team explored and inserted guidelines in that network of caves back in 1995. Divers starting from Weeki Wachee came within about 1,000 of the Twin Dees caves during the 2007 expedition.

Divers use special propeller-driven "scooters" to motor through the passages. Carbon dioxide "scrubbers" allow them to recycle air in their tanks...[HernandoToday]

Repairing underwater vandalism

Some 80 feet underwater and 700 feet into the bowels of a spring in Lafayette County, they've combined art and science to restore a cave that vandals damaged last year.

Those who worked for months on the project say it's the first known successful underwater cave restoration, and it took place in late December at Cow Springs, a small, remote spring off State Road 51 near Luraville, north of the town of Mayo.

To achieve the restoration, they enlisted the help of Michael Angelo Gagliardi, professional artist and actor from Chicago, who led a team of divers to document the restoration of the spring's vandalized clay bank.

"I happily volunteered my time and money for this project," Gagliardi said. "But it wouldn't have been done properly without the help of my dive team."...[Ocala.com]