Primeval forest discovered in Gulf of Mexico

[IRGuy]

For Harry and you other GOM guys..

Very interesting!

http://news.yahoo.com/primeval-underwat ... 26663.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Harry Babb]

Thanks Frank
That forest has to be less than 50 miles from where I am sitting right now. Its amazing......ya just never know what's right under ya nose.

When our children were in their teens we vacationed several years in a row in Panama City Beach Florida. One year I stumbled upon a jewelery store that was selling jewelery made from the precious metals taken from the Atocha. The funny thing to me was the fact that the Mel's discovery of the Atocha was big news.......but some of the silver bars that were being displayed in the jewelery store actually had fish hooks stuck in the bars.

Back to the "Forest"......when I once fished a lot, one of my favorite places to go was the Southeast Banks. Probably 12 to 15 miles off of Fort Morgan. The entire area was hills and valleys, lumps and humps on the bottom and always productive. I don't know exactly where the Forest is located but I wonder if its near the Southeast Banks.

Been thinking about visiting my old buddies at the local dive shop (and may be getting in the pool).......I will ask and see what they may know.

Thanks for sharing

hb

[scot]

Really interesting.

We have a local guy (friend of the family) that has been a crane operator for the past 50+ years in our area. He swears they hit a log bed (buried forest) once when driving piling in a local tidal, salt marsh. They were able to get some samples up and determine it was logs (trees) they were hitting, the trees were buried under 50+ ft of marsh mud. I don't know many 100's of thousands of years it takes to build up 50' of bottom in our area.. but it's a looong time. I assume the lack of oxgen under all that mud saved the trees.

Hope the Feds don't get involved with that offshore forest, they will close the entire Gulf to all vessel traffic.

[Rawleigh]

I have seen cypress stumps wash out of a clay bank along the Rappahannock River here in VA back in the early '70's that were 20' down from the surface. Lots of shells and sharks teeth there too. We cut a knee off one and it still smelled of cypress sap as well.

[Bob H.]

Harry, You better check that one out before the wood borers eat it away..60' deep easy depth ..bet it holds some fish as well..ready made reef..BH

[Harry Babb]

bet it holds some fish as well..ready made reef

The way the story has been told around here is that an avid fisherman (don't know who) stumbled on the spot while on a fishing trip a year or so after Katrina.

The guy was familiar enough with the Gulf that he recognized this as being something "NEW" that he had never fished before.

The locals story goes that fishing in this area was incrediable.....sooooo......one day he ask a diver to jump on the spot and find out exactly what was down there....

Upon returning from the dive they kept it a secret (you know how fishermen are) for quite a while before contacting the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and reporting their findings.

The next time I go to the dive shop I will ask Chas to tell me what he knows.

Bob........This coming Friday will be EXACTLY one year to the day since I launched DeNada.......

hb

[Bob H.]

Harry great minds think alike..you go fish the forest and I will launch Resolute...down to days and hours not years anymore..BH