Florida
Deep Salt Spring (Werner-Boyce)
Info · exploration
Information only: an exploration project of Karst Underwater Research (KUR) in a state park. No source says the cave is open to visiting divers. According to the park's management plan (2013), protective measures must be in place before any further recreational or research diving; a local post from 2011 called the spring closed to divers.
- Max depth116 m (381 ft)
- CertificationFull cave
- SpecialSidemount
Diving and fills
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Now at Deep Salt Spring (Werner-Boyce)
The dive
After a tight, horizontal entrance you descend a shaft that corkscrews on itself into two huge rooms that share one wall.
Profile and sections
After a tight, horizontal entrance you descend a shaft that corkscrews on itself into two huge rooms that share one wall. The Shag Room is tannic brown, with about 6 to 12 m of visibility and walls coated in a brown bacterial mat; a halocline lies on its floor. The Emerald Room below takes its name from the green, clear spring water, often with 18 to 27 m of visibility. At low tide fresher, clearer water flows out; at high tide the spring siphons salty marsh water in.
Brett Hemphill, founder of KUR, heard of the spring in the autumn of 1997; the openings were too small, so the team dug out the entrance. He was the first to dive here and by 2001 was already writing of a depth of more than 90 m. KUR has been mapping the cave since; according to the park's management plan, blind cave crayfish have been seen in the caves. Dives last 90 to 120 minutes on normoxic trimix, and up to five hours on hypoxic mixes.
Practical: information only; the spring lies on a kayak trail in the state park.
- Depth and profile
- Plan for nearly -116 m: KUR gives nearly 380 fsw in the Emerald Room (elsewhere 372 ft; the park's management plan more than 320 ft, other sources ~98 m) · Shag Room from ~-39 m, Emerald Room ~-75 to -101 m, Bartley Hall to ~-84 m · ~740 m surveyed, up to ~128 m from the entrance
- Configuration
- Sidemount: the entrance is very tight and slimy, the first ~12 m are horizontal with several major restrictions, and the exploration side passages have restrictions where you can't turn around. Trimix; no scooter needed.
- DPV: Not DPV-suitable
- According to KUR no scooter is needed.
Who can dive where
- At least Full cave
- Configurations: Sidemount
- Goes down to 116 m (trimix or deco may be needed)
- Experienced divers only
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
In Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park in Port Richey, at the park's eastern edge behind the Gulf View Square mall, in a tidal marsh on a kayak trail ~30 m upstream of the 'Tidal Waterfall'. The entrance lies just under water in the southern wall of the creek and is not visible from the surface. KUR requires a familiarization dive with someone who has been there before.
Around Deep Salt Spring (Werner-Boyce)
FillsNo fill station known nearby
Other sites4 within 40 km
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