Turtle Journal

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse Snorkels in Coco Cay

Rising from the brilliant sunlit waters of the Bahamas, Sue Wieber Nourse slips through the warm sands of Barefoot Beach after a long snorkel dive in the channels off Coco Cay.  Morning temperatures hovered in the low 80s with a gentle easterly breeze swaying the palm trees shading our cabana lounge chairs.  The only cold thing on this beach was the iced Heineken.

Barefoot Beach in Coco Cay

Patrolling clear, deep channels separating fields of turtle grass, Sue cruised by her near-namesake predator, a nurse shark, hovered over an enormous ray scouring the sandy bottom for grub, and observed conchs of all sizes crisscrossing the submerged flats like Great Plains tractors.  Experiencing that eerie, chill-down-the-back sense of being followed, Sue glimpsed a barracuda through the corner of her mask, as the fish tracked her every movement.  It was a juvenile no more than two feet long, but every inch a predator, and practicing what predators do best.

Barefoot Beach in Coco Cay

Don Lewis dove north of Sue and tested the Journal’s underwater camera on a variety of tropical fish.  He discoverd a tiny live conch about 2 inches long gliding along the bottom of a shallow channel.

Minnow School in Coco Cay

While the Bahamas can’t match St. John USVI for abundance and variety of reef fish and colorful, healthy corals, for this brief winter interlude when ice storms are battering the Great White North, the Bahamas make a perfect refuge.  Yep, they’re right.  It is better in the Bahamas … and 70 degress warmer, too.

Researcher Sue Wieber Nourse Exits Nekton Beta

Turtle Journal co-founder Sue Wieber Nourse is a noted adventurer, researcher, scientist, author and educator.  We recently rediscovered documentary photographs of Sue’s exploits as a young scientist in Woods Hole when she became one of the first women to plunge to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean in the submersible Nekton Beta.  How does a young USGS biologist get that privilege?  Well, when the research vessel reached its ocean target in the midst of a North Atlantic storm, and when all the seasoned scientists turned thumbs down on what they perceived as a recklessly dangerous dive, who you gonna call?  That’s right:  the newly minted USGS scientist with adventurous attitude and indominable spirit!

Submersible Nekton Beta

Yep.  She dove to the bottom of the Atlantic in this classic, early model research submersible pictured in the 1973 NOAA photograph above.  Her mission was to document the benthic habitat off Georges Bank, which she did with an innovative photographic system.  The Nekton Beta dives supplemented her photography through direct observation.  According to “Manned Submersibles” by R. Frank Busby, the Nekton Beta measured 15.5 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet high.  It weighed 2.35 tons with a hatch diameter of 18 inches and maximum life support of 48-man hours.  It had a two-person crew of pilot and observer, a payload of 450 pounds, and a cruise speed of 1.5 knots for 3.5 hours or maximum speed of 2.5 knots for 1 hour.  Built by General Oceanographics, the Nekton Beta sported 17 acrylic plastic viewports with 6.5 inch diameter and 1.25 inches thickness.