report: Mall of America aquarium dive

[chrisw]

Hi all,

Last night Jean and I from the MN Scuba Board and 3 others from my kayak club did the mall dive. I think some others from MNScuba are going on the dive this weekend too.

Cost is $185.75: includes tanks & wts, behindscenes tour, snacks, t-shirt and one free guest pass. Fresh water dive and salt water shark dive. Showers and towels available on site. Must have c-card and be 18 yrs. Hoods and gloves required (insurance purposes)

They give you a brief tour of the exhibit (behind the scenes too) and a pre-dive briefing. They dip all your gear and set it up for you. You get one 50cf tank to use on both dives.

Warning: they weight you REALLY heavy! I dumped just a wee bit of air from my BC and PLUMMETED! I sat on Jean, bounced off her and squashed a sturgeon.

The first dive is fresh water. The vis is excellent (did not have my secchi disk to report distance though ) You do a bit of exploring, then feed sturgeons. That is a hoot! They have a suction mouth part than extends out. If your finger gets sucked up it feels like you are being gummed. One of them sucked on my mask and my hood. (2 staff divers on this one...just to hand out sturgeon food, i think)

The second dive is very structured. Three staff divers keep the sharks at bay. You swim to three different spots and watch fish, sharks, turtles, look for shark teeth (none of us found any :-[) It was cool to be near the sharks and rays. One of the sea turtles swam into our group. We were told she likes divers.

Waving at your guests and onlookers in the tunnels is a kick. The little kids really like it when you take out your regulator and stick out your tongue at them.

Your guest should arrive with you to get the wristband but then they have a 1-1.5 hour wait until you go in for the first dive. They can hang in the aquarium or in the mall.

(Fred, I begged but they told me no free divers. :'()

I really enjoyed the sturgeon feeding, the clear water,the multitudes of fish and my first salt water dive!

I'd recommend this to the diving-starved, the shark-curious and as a way for friends and family to see what you're up to on all those dives!

Jean took some pictures which we will post when she returns from Florida.

-chrisw