On 3/31/2012 at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, KARST Underwater Research (KUR) team members were performing a series of dives which included entering and exiting the cave system. Marson Kay, a two-year veteran of KUR's all volunteer team, drowned while exiting the cave system. The following information, based on eye witness and forensic evidence, provides some insight into this tragic accident.

Following a successful dive into the cave at 180 feet, Marson Kay signaled he was exiting. From that point, a 1/2" braided white rope leads upwards to 142 feet, where the crevasse area of the cavern begins. Although the cave narrows at this point, the rope, now colored orange with a diameter of 7/16", is placed in the largest easement leading to a depth of 68 feet, where daylight clearly can be seen at all times. Instead of following the ropes as he had done multiple times in the past, Marson rapidly moved into a highly restrictive area of the crevasse. It is believed that this behavior was not a calculated decision but a reaction caused by the affects of an embolism he incurred while rapidly ascending from depth. According to the coroner's evaluation, Marson developed a cerebral arterial gas embolism prior to his death. Typically, this condition causes profound changes in mental functioning including disorientation, blindness, paralysis, seizures and loss of consciousness within minutes or even seconds of onset. If it occurs after surfacing, it is often fatal or profoundly disabling even with prompt recompression therapy; when it occurs underwater, the incapacity or unconsciousness it causes almost always results in drowning.

Although safety divers were in visual contact and additional safety gas cylinders were in place, he rapidly pushed himself upward into an area where even side-mount divers could not easily access. Several attempts were made to communicate, by means of light signals as well as touch contact. Although Marson was still moving at this time, he did not directly respond to these communication attempts. After approximately 5 minutes, divers reported Marson was no longer utilizing his regulator. A subsequent review of his equipment indicated that Marson had approximately half of his gas supply remaining in both of his tanks and his regulators appeared to be working properly.

Cave diving is an inherently dangerous activity, just as rock-climbing, mountain biking and even horseback riding. All cave divers understand the risks of diving in underwater caves and accept them as an inescapable part of the activity they are so passionate about. Marson's accidental death is great personal loss to all that knew and loved him as well as to our team. We will do the best we can to honor his memory.

Although the 2011 exploration season of Twin Dees was short, a lot of exploration was performed. New passages and new opportunities. We are currently completing the Exploration Report which will be available here.

We are surprised (and saddened) by the unusually low discharge rate at Weeki Wachee currently.  For one, it means that aquifer recharge is more or less not happening.  In my opinion, the recent approval of large (>5,000 home) developments in the area will not help this situation.  However, this does mean access to the cave.  The entire team is excited about pushing the end of the line in the deepest naturally formed spring in the United States.

We have already started training new team members and acclimating them to the unique issues diving at Weeki Wachee presents.  My congratulations to the new team members that have already been able to gain access to the cave at discharge rates > 115cfs.

We are anticipating the lowest discharge rates ever for 2011.  That means more diving and more exploration.  Check back often to follow our progress exploring this amazing cave. 

In 2009, the Karst Underwater Research (KUR) team had just under 80 days of theoretical access (March 11 - May 28). During this period, the discharge at Weeki Wachee Spring dropped enough to allow the KUR cave exploration team to gain effective entry into the cave system beneath the spring. During this period, over 20 working dive days were conducted in a safe and efficient manner.

Based on KUR's direct experience, our team has determined that the safe cave diving can undertaken when the USGS Weeki Wachee Well (reference 283201082315601) stage level falls below 11.7 feet. As a point of comparison, the range of 11.5 - 11.7 feet of well stage is approximately 97 cubic feet per second (cfs). This equivalence is based on the well regression model for calculating discharge (Knochenmus and Yobbi 2001, SWFWMD 2008). It is important to recognize that a .1 foot fluctuation in the well stage can have a perceptible impact on the force of discharge, particularly at the restricted entrance area from the depth of 150 to 180 Feet Fresh Water (ffw). At 11.7 feet of well stage, the spring is viable to dive, but still far from easy. See further discussion of this topic under the "Diving Operations" section.

The 2009 window of opportunity varied in many ways from our two prior years (refer to Chart 1 below). We gained access earlier in the calendar year then either of the previous years (due presumably to the cumulative effective of the ongoing regional drought and a dry winter). Unfortunately, we also experienced earlier than normal seasonal rainfall which abruptly ended the season sooner than our two previous access intervals.

This year also saw a record minimum discharge on May 13, 2009 with the lowest recorded well stage of 10.67 feet (or 84 cfs per the well regression model). This eclipsed the previous record set in 2007 of 10.96 (or 88 cfs). It should be noted that discharge estimates using the well regression model applied to the USGS Weeki Wachee Well are considerably lower than the reported discharge for the Weeki Wachee River (USGS Site 02310525) and the well regression model appears to underestimate spring discharge, but it is a useful tool for judging diving conditions for Weeki Wachee Spring.

We could not guarantee that flow conditions would be conducive to access in future years. Given this uncertainty, rather than prioritizing further exploration during the 2009 access period, KUR decided to focus on collecting samples and video documentation of the system explored to date. The goal was to round out the body of information surrounding the spring to provide academia as well as the interested public with a richer appreciation of this unique underwater environment.

During 2009, KUR was able to:

• Capture over 30 minutes of high definition digital video in various portions of the system


• Confirm to two additional radio location sites to further validate the underwater survey


• Assist in effort to locate dye from the SWFWMD dye trace study


• Explored an additional 600 linear feet of cave, yielding a chamber along the East wall, just before reaching Helms Deep, where unusual cave formations were concentrated

Click here to view the entire 2009 Weeki Wachee Exploration.  As always, we thank our sponsors and supporters for making the exploration at Week Wachee possible.

Last week's dives were more training related, so there really isn't too much to talk about.  The real news is the video that was shot a couple of weeks ago by Liquid Productions.  It is breathtaking!  The beauty of Weeki Wachee never ceases to amaze me.  The colors, morphology and features are unlike any I have ever seen. 

In the collage of pictures below, you are able to see the beautiful striations in the cave wall, a diver inspecting speleo-crobes along the cave wall and some views of support divers removing gear from the cave after a mission dive.

Images are Copyright © 2009 Karst Underwater Research. All rights reserved.