On Monday the 15th of April,
2002, four members of the sink-a-ship committee took a day off from work and
attended the monthly meeting of the DNR Regional Managers in Grand Rapids
Minnesota. Our goal was to
introduce ourselves and to meet the Region 2 DNR people who we expect to work
with to intentionally sink a vessel of considerable size on the North Shore of
Lake Superior.
Admittedly we expected a warm welcome
to begin a lively discussion about the somewhat, off the beaten path idea of
making an underwater park attraction for SCUBA Divers.
We were given a half-hour to say our piece and then it was opened up for
questions and comments. Our
audience was polite and a few had a glimmer of interest in the prospects during
the presentation. After all,
Minnesota is not a terribly large group of enthusiastic divers who are craving a
new dive site. When it was
time to open the floor for the discussion, our 16 DNR audience members were
relatively quiet.
The Manager from Division of Waters,
explained that the primary goal of the DNR was to “improve” the habitat and
waterways by way of regulation with regard to both what goes in and what
activities go on in the waters of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers.
Generally from the DNR perspective, intentionally putting a large or
small vessel on the bottom of a lake in the state is contrary to their
philosophy.
We understand that the goal of the DNR
is to protect our lakes and rivers, but we need to make a strong case to them
that Divers are Sports Enthusiast too! It
will be an essential step in the Sink-A-Ship process to prove that anything we
sink will be properly cleaned and will be safely placed for the divers who will
go enjoy the attraction. Many
Minnesotans are Sports People who hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors by using
various modes of transportation like boats, 4-wheelers and snow machines.
The DNR is heavily involved in providing appropriate spaces and
regulations for those outdoor activities. Therefore,
we need to ask, what is so bad about putting a large steel boat in approximately
100 feet of water for divers to frequent? If
it were clean and safe, what would be the real hang up against the process?
One guess might be that it is just a
case of we are not used to thinking about recreating beneath the surface of
Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. Again
it is the apprehension about trying something new.
We may need to start a letter writing campaign by all of you the
Membership of the GLSPS. If we get
on the stick, maybe we can get the support of our governor the Navy SEAL.
Regardless, the trip up to Grand Rapids
was worth the effort to give the DNR a heads up that this tenacious bunch of
SCUBA DIVERS are going to make a solid attempt to get what we are asking for.
We need a new attraction to dive on and we will have to fight for the
cause.
By Ron Johnson and Bob Olson