Vortex Spring near Ponce de Leon, Florida.
Vortex Spring is a commercially operated recreation, camping and dive park located near Ponce de Leon, Florida. It is the largest diving facility in the state of Florida. Vortex Spring is a cold, freshwater spring that produces approximately 28 million US gallons (110,000 m3) of water daily. The spring consists of a 200 ft (61 m) basin with sloping sides and a cave which links the spring to the Floridan aquifer. Water temperature is steady at 68 °F (20 °C) with no thermocine, and is typically very clear. The spring runoff flows into nearby Otter Creek, which joins Sandy Creek a short distance upstream of Ponce de Leon Spring. There are many fish in the spring; large carp swim in the basin while freshwater eels live in the cave. The cave has been measured to a total of 1,642 feet (500 m).
Ponce de Leon Spring
Ponce De Leon Springs Virtual Tour! ABOVE AND BELOW!!
Ponce De Leon Springs Virtual Tour! ABOVE AND BELOW!!
Vortex Spring is a popular diving area both for experienced and novice divers. Dive training is offered at the park. There are two underwater training platforms at 20 feet (6.1 m) which are often used for Open Water certification dives, and a "talk box" that divers swim into, allowing them to talk to each other while under the surface. The cavern entrance is at 58 feet (18 m) below the surface, and has an opening of 9 by 12 feet (2.7 m × 3.7 m). A handrail is mounted along the wall of the cave. The cave is accessible to 310 feet (94 m), further passage is blocked by a steel grate. Experienced divers are allowed to dive to 115 feet (35 m).
Vortex Springs April 19th 2009 - One diver waits his turn to go inside the talk box at 28 feet.
Vortex Springs, Florida
Vortex Springs, Florida
At the site, many facilities are provided for visitors. Lodging, dive shop, and changing rooms with heated showers are on site. Recreational features include diving boards, rope swings, and slides into the swimming area. Camping facilities, picnic areas, a basketball court, volleyball court, paddle boats, floats, and canoes are also provided. The cave has been a controversial aspect of the spring. During the early 1990s, 13 divers died while exploring it. The state of Florida threatened to ban diving near cave entrances as a result of frequent cave diving accidents, but local divers responded by developing a special cave diving certification that became the standard requirement for sections of underwater caves known to be particularly hazardous. Vortex Spring complied with this by erecting a locked underwater gate at the entrance to the dangerous section of the cave. Only those who have valid cave diving certificates are permitted to enter, requiring a staff member to unlock the gate, and typically accompany them during the dive. Nearby springs include, Beckton spring, Jackson Blue Spring, Cypress Spring and Morrison Spring.
Image Above - Vortex Spring Piano Room, Notice this room is lit up with rows of colourful LED lights.
The locked steel constructed gate at Vortex Springs - November 22nd 1997
diver squeeze into Vortex cave
diver squeeze into Vortex cave
Ben McDaniel was born on April 15th 1980 in Memphis, Tennessee United States. On the 18th August 2010 Ben mysteriously disappeared while scuba diving inside Vortex springs. Bens pickup truck was a familiar feature at Vortex because of his love for cave diving and he regularly dived sometimes three times daily. Ben lived at his parents nearby beach house on the Emerald coast while he undertook a sabbatical to get his mind in gear after suffering several setbacks in life. Ben had suffered a divorce, a business venture that bombed and the death of his younger brother who had died two years previously. Ben had always been a devoted diver ever since his teens and his passions were deep cave diving exploration. Regardless of the risks Ben would dive deep and beyond his means as he was only qualified with the Advanced Open Water course which allows you to become certified to dive to recreational limits of 130 feet (40 m). You also need a Cavern certification, or a similar course that shows you've got experience in an overhead environment.
Image Above - Ben McDaniel
In the late 2000s Ben McDaniel was going through a difficult period in his life. The oldest of three sons born to Shelby and Patty McDaniel, a wealthy couple who lived in Collierville, Tennessee, outside Memphis, he had returned to live with his parents after his marriage ended in divorce and his construction business failed, the latter leaving him with tax debts of almost $50,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Tennessee. He was also still grieving for his younger brother Paul, a frequent rock climbing partner during their youth, who died in 2008 at the age of 22 from a stroke. Ben had found Paul unconscious in the family home and tried to revive him; he later became active in raising money for the foundation his parents established to support research into prevention and treatment of strokes.
Ben McDaniel
His parents the McDaniels suggested their son take a sabbatical, offering to support him financially while he and his dog, a chocolate Labrador he had rescued, lived in the family's beach home at Santa Rosa Beach on the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle. He accepted the offer and moved into the house in April 2010. His parents and girlfriend say the move was proving beneficial, as Ben was beginning to think and talk about moving on from his recent personal setbacks. Ben first took up scuba diving when he was 15 years of age and would practise in the family pool with his tanks and equipment. Despite living on the coast Ben much preferred to scuba dive in fresh water and the Vortex was the ideal place for that activity.
Gulf Place 30A - Santa Rosa Beach Florida
Henderson Beach State Park
Pristine white sugar sand beaches and more than 6000 feet of natural scenic shoreline border the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Natural features of the park include sand pines, scrub oaks, and dune rosemary. Boardwalks provide access to the beach for swimming, sunbathing, and fishing. Four large and two small pavilions allow for picnicking and grilling. A playground is the first stop on our nature trail and is sure to be a success with the kids. The nature trail provides visitors a rare glimpse of the coastal dune ecosystem and abundant wildlife and is also pet friendly. Camping at Henderson Beach State Park provides 60 campsites that are located in our secondary dune system. The sites include water and electric hookups and access to air conditioned and heated bathhouse facilities. A separate beach access boardwalk with outdoor showers are included in our campground. Henderson Beach is A.D.A accessible and includes beach wheel chair availability. Visitors can enjoy truly breathtaking sunsets while relaxing by the warm crystal clear water of the Gulf of Mexico.
The view from the rooftop bar of the Pearl Hotel in Rosemary Beach—an ideal spot for a sundowner with a view of the sea and the beach. Image: St. Joe Hospitality
The beaches of Florida's Emerald Coast are bright white, and look particularly pretty at sundown. Image: Getty Images.
The main street of Rosemary Beach, on Florida's Gulf Coast, is home to a beautiful collection of colorful properties and restaurants. Image: Alamy.
For the most experienced divers, some of whom come from around the world, the main attraction of Vortex Spring is the cave, which starts 300 feet (91 m) from the cavern, at a depth of 115 feet (35 m). At the entrance is a sign depicting the Grim Reaper and warning divers that the consequences of continuing past that point could be fatal. The cave continues, steadily narrowing, to a locked gate almost 300 feet (91 m) from the entrance. The dive shop gives the key only to those who can show that they have cave diving certification, which requires two months' training including 125 dives with an instructor or certified diving partner. This policy was instituted after the deaths of 13 divers in the cave during the 1990s, in response to threats from the state to ban diving in the cave entirely. Starting from the gate, over 1,600 feet (490 m) through the area's limestone bedrock have been mapped, to a depth of 310 feet (94 m); the cave's full extent is not known. At some points the passage narrows to 10 inches (25 cm), requiring divers who would pass through to take off their tanks and hold them at their sides or in front, and twist their bodies.
Cave diving beyond the locked gate at Vortex Springs
Cave diving beyond the locked gate at Vortex Springs
Ben's dives at the site were regular enough that the dive shop employees and other frequent visitors came to know him. One of the employees, Chuck Cronin, believed that while Ben had the proper equipment and considerable diving knowledge, he was often overly confident in his abilities and not shy about saying so. (According to a 2014 online comment by his father, he could not find anyone at Vortex Spring willing to be his diving partner, so he would dive alone without a buddy. McDaniel was not the only person associated with Vortex Spring at the time facing serious legal issues. Lowell Kelly, at the time the owner of Vortex Spring, was facing criminal charges. He had allegedly taken a temporary employee who he said owed him thousands of dollars out into an isolated wooded area and attempted to beat him with a baseball bat to make him pay up. The man escaped, and prosecutors later charged Kelly with assault and kidnapping in the incident.
An image of inside the Vortex Cavern system.
In mid-August, four months into his Florida sojourn, Ben returned to Tennessee for a week. His parents and girlfriend, Emily Greer, said he seemed optimistic. He told them he was working on getting certified as an instructor so he could find a job and that he was researching cave diving with an eye toward getting that certification as well. On his nights out with Greer, he told her of plans to eventually start a diving-related business. On the weekend of August 14–15, he returned to Florida, leaving behind a letter thanking his parents for the sabbatical and promising to look after them as they grew older. They never saw him again. On August 18, the Wednesday after he returned to the Santa Rosa Beach house, he went up to Vortex Spring again. In the middle of the day, he did one dive. Other divers saw him looking closely at the area around the cave entrance, as if, it was later reported, he was planning something. After resurfacing he filled his tanks at the dive shop, a transaction recorded on security cameras (it is not known what he filled those tanks with). He spent much of the rest of the afternoon by himself alongside the spring, witnesses said, testing equipment and making notes in his dive log.
Vortex cave diving
Survey of the Fourth Restriction @ Vortex Springs 12152013
Survey of the Fourth Restriction @ Vortex Springs 12152013
The day had been hot, with temperatures around 90 °F (32 °C), and as evening came Ben began preparing for another dive. He called his mother on his cell phone, the last contact he has had with his family. Around 7:30 p.m., as the sun began to set, he went in again. Cronin and fellow employee Eduardo Taran, on their way back from a dive themselves – something they often did on Wednesdays after the shop closed – saw Ben as he began descending, with his lights on and wearing a helmet, suggesting he was venturing into the cave. Taran, who had suspected for some time that Ben was forcing the gate open, went down to him and unlocked it, watching Ben go in and then returning to Cronin. No one is known to have seen him since. On some nights when they had seen Ben dive late, the two had stayed at the spring after resurfacing until they saw bubbles on the surface, indicating that he was beginning to decompress in order to safely resurface. But on the night of the 18th, they instead went back to Taran's house for coffee. Ben's truck was still in the parking lot the next morning, but with many summer visitors coming to enjoy the site's many water-based recreational opportunities and picnic grounds in addition to diving, the employees were (or later claimed to have been) too busy to notice. They did see the truck the next morning. After determining that no one else had seen Ben, Taran called the Holmes County sheriff's office.
Vortex Cavern
Upon arrival, the sheriff's deputies sealed off the spring with crime-scene tape. Ben's tanks, wet suit and other diving equipment were not present and there were no signs of a struggle near his truck or anywhere else he could have been. His wallet, with almost $700 in cash, and cell phone were in the cab of his truck; dive logs showed that he had explored the cave and a map he made was also found. At the Santa Rosa Beach house officers found his dog, hungry from having been unfed for two days. Based on these circumstances, police and dive shop employees assumed that he had never resurfaced and had in all probability drowned somewhere in the cave trying to get out. Cadaver dogs alerted on the water surface, further supporting that theory. As the word of a missing diver in the Vortex Spring cave got out, other cave divers came for what they assumed would be a recovery operation, taking advantage of the weekend. The McDaniels were called, and they drove down to Florida, along with Greer, to watch what they could from the shore. News media in the Panhandle and Memphis followed the search closely.
Vortex Spring Cavern
Divers scoured the cave, looking in every small crevice and fissure where Ben might have crawled in a panicked attempt to get out as his tanks ran low, a pattern found in other cave diving deaths; many said later that they felt they had risked their own lives to do so. But over the ensuing weekend they found no sign of Ben. They did, however, find some of his equipment. Two tanks known to belong to McDaniel were found near the entrance to the cave. But this discovery struck some searchers as inconsistent with Ben's supposed intent to explore the cave he was technically not permitted to enter. Most cave divers place their extra air tanks, which they need for decompression, at points along their route so they can follow them out, not at the entrance to the cave. And when tested, the tanks were found to contain just air, not the specialized gas mix Ben would have been likely to use had he been researching cave diving as his parents said he had been.
The Vortex Spring has an abundance of fresh water eels.
By Sunday, August 22, no other signs of Ben had been found. A text message was sent to Edd Sorenson, a veteran cave diver and recovery specialist with hundreds of dives to his credit, on his yacht in the Bahamas, where he was leading an expedition. He came to Vortex Springs the next day. Other divers, and an official with an international cave-diving rescue organisation, told him it was too dangerous to go any further than they already had. Sorenson, who has been described by the Tampa Bay, Times as being able to go where other divers cannot, persisted. He made three separate dives that day, going (by his account) 1,700 feet (520 m) into the cave, 200 feet (61 m) further than those sections Ben had mapped, using a diver propulsion vehicle and smaller tanks to increase his range. He found nothing – no body, and no evidence of one such as increased activity by carnivorous aquatic scavengers, nor any evidence that Ben had gotten into those sections, such as marks on the cave walls or disturbed silt.
Edd Sorenson
Edd Sorenson (born October 17, 1959) is a technical cave diver known for numerous rescues of lost or trapped divers in the underwater caves of Florida particularly in Vortex Spring and Blue Spring State Park. Sorenson began diving in 1995 and within a few years expanded to cave diving, in 1999 he joined International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery (IUCRR) as one of the original members and later founded Cave Adventurers in Marianna Florida in 2003. Sorenson became a local hero in 2012 after four rescues that year and was featured in the Duracell series Quantum Heroes.[5] For his efforts in 2012, Sorenson was awarded the Diver’s Alert Network Hero Award, Heroic Merit Awards and the Instructor Trainer of the Year from the Professional Scuba Association International. In February 2019 Sorenson, along with Mike Young, successfully conducted two body recoveries from Dudú Lagoon in the Dominican Republic. In April 2019 Sorenson successfully rescued Josh Bratchley, a British cave diver who assisted in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thai cave, from Mill Pond Cave in Flynn's Lick, Tennessee. After an considerable search Sorenson concluded that Ben McDaniel was not inside the Vortex spring cavern after an extensive an exhaustive search. Extreme technical divers have said that when you reach "The End of The Line" you can go no further without the risk of becoming trapped. The mapped portion of the cave ends at a narrow restriction about 150 feet deep and 1,500 feet of mostly horizontal penetration, about the length of five football fields. The tiny hole - as small as 10 inches from floor to ceiling - is the last known restriction. Some divers say it's impassable. Some say you can get in, but you won't get out. Did Ben squeeze through this tiny gap in a moment of madness and depression, If Ben has penetrated further than any other diver in the world a submersible submarine with lights and a go pro camera could reveal the inside of this secret passageway.
Underwater Drone - We found Nemo!
Underwater Drone - We found Nemo!
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Ben was 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg), one inch (2.5 cm) taller and 20 pounds (9.1 kg) heavier than Sorenson. Without cave diving training, Sorenson said, there was no way Ben could have gotten through some of the narrower passages, called restrictions by divers, in the cave. "I know what I'm doing and I barely made it through," he told the Commercial Appeal. "The last place I searched was pristine, without a mark that a diver had been there. It would be impossible to go through that restriction without making a mark on the floor or ceiling. He's not in there." The McDaniels did what they could to help the search. They hired Steve Keene, who had originally mapped the Vortex Spring cave in 2003, to look. After seven dives, he apologized to the McDaniels for not finding any fresh sign of Ben. "If he's in there, I don't know where he'd be," he said later. They agreed to put up $54,000 to guarantee the cost of replacing a remotely operated underwater vehicle brought to the spring by the Fort Lauderdale police, in case it was lost in the cave.[5] (Due to technical issues, it was unable to go any farther than the human divers had ventured.) In total, 16 divers spent 36 straight days looking for Ben's body in the cave with no results. Volunteer searches continued afterwards at the spring through November, often with the McDaniels and Greer in attendance.
Vortex Spring Koi Fish
With the cave thoroughly searched, some divers began questioning whether Ben was there at all. Perhaps his body had been secretly removed from the cave before searching began and disposed of on land or it had washed out through the spring's outlet. Others, including Cronin and Kelly, suggested he had staged his own disappearance to start his life over under another identity and escape his past troubles. Authorities began to consider these possibilities and adjust their search. The cadaver dogs searched the woods around Vortex Spring without success. Assisted by helicopters, they searched the swamps along the spring's outflow into Blue Creek and Sandy Creek to the Choctawhatchee River. Thirty separate tests of the water over the next several months showed no sign of an increase in the bacteria that would indicate the presence of a decomposing human body. Taran, who said he had let Ben into the cave despite knowing he lacked certification to dive in it, passed a lie detector test of his account.
Vortex Spring Grim Reaper Warning Sign Post
The Choctawhatchee River is Florida’s fourth longest river, traveling approximately 170 miles from its beginnings in Alabama to the Choctawhatchee River basin, bay and into the Gulf of Mexico. This alluvial river encompasses a broad flood plain that nourishes farmland and old growth hardwood forests. Among its secrets are at least 13 springs, a history of pirates and rumors of the elusive Ivory-billed woodpecker hidden among the wetlands.
West Fork of the Choctawhatchee River Paddling Route is a 9.3 kilometer lightly trafficked point-to-point trail located near Ozark, Alabama that features a waterfall and is good for all skill levels. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
Perils to Paradise - 118 Miles on the Choctawhatchee River
Perils to Paradise - 118 Miles on the Choctawhatchee River
The Choctawhatchee contains several species of fish, including several species of sunfish, channel catfish and spotted bass, other species include Redhorse suckers and carp suckers. Gulf Sturgeon use the river for spawning activities; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected 522 different sturgeon during a study conducted in October and November 2008; sizes ranged from 1 to 160 pounds. Scientists report sighting sturgeon as far upriver as Newton; they appear to prefer the limestone bottoms for laying their eggs. The Choctawhatchee has little industry along its banks; consequently it has rather clean water, except for excess turbidity, usually due to runoff from unpaved county roads. Illegal dumping of household garbage and animal carcasses is a problem, but not enough of one to seriously affect water quality in the Alabama portion of the river, where water quality is described as "good to very good". This changes somewhat in the Florida section of the river, due to the presence of several wastewater treatment plants, animal-waste sites, and erosion. Three of the river's Florida tributaries are described as "polluted" with "waste water effluent" The Choctawhatchee is a popular river with canoeists, although access to the upper portions is difficult. The Canoe-Camping website named the Choctawhatchee "an undiscovered gem" and "a beauty", heartily recommending it to canoeists. Several public access points and camping sites make the river accessible for recreation.
The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 51 centimetres (20 in; 1.67 ft) long and 76 centimetres (30 in; 2.49 ft) in wingspan. It is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the Southeastern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and, to a lesser extent, hunting has reduced populations so thoroughly that the species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservative of Nature and the American Birding Association lists the ivory-billed woodpecker as a class 6 species, a category it defines as "definitely or probably extinct". The last universally accepted sighting of an American ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in Louisiana in 1944. However, sporadic reports of sightings and other evidence of the birds' persistence have continued ever since. In the 21st century, reported sightings and analyses of audio and visual recordings have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as evidence that the species persists in Arkansas, louisiana, and Florida. Various land purchases and habitat restoration efforts have been initiated in areas where sightings and other evidence have suggested a relatively high probability the species exists, to protect any surviving individuals.
Frustrated by the limitations the search had thus far encountered, and increasingly coming to believe that Ben's body was in an area of the cave no one had yet reached, the McDaniels offered a reward of $10,000, raised from money contributed at a benefit held on what would have been their son's 31st birthday, at the end of the year to anyone "brave" enough to go to those places and find it. The insinuation of cowardice alienated divers who had already risked their lives searching the cave, and raised fears among them that it would only encourage untrained divers to enter the cave and take potentially fatal risks for the reward money. Undeterred, the McDaniels increased the award, twice. In March 2012, by which time the reward had been increased to $30,000, the fears of the cave divers were realized. Two days before the Investigation Discovery cable channel series Disappeared aired a segment on Ben's case, a diver from Biloxi, Mississippi, Larry Higginbotham, died in the cavern at Vortex Spring. His body was found the next day after he, too, had failed to return from a dive. "He just got himself in a pinch and couldn't find his way back out", said one of the divers who recovered the body.
A Mississippi man died in Vortex Spring on Saturday, almost a year-and-half after a Tennessee diver disappeared in the same underwater caves.
Larry Higginbotham, 43, of Biloxi, Miss., had gone to the spring to dive Saturday at 10:45 a.m., said Chief Deputy Harry Hamilton and Sgt. Michael Raley with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.
“When he didn’t return, his girlfriend contacted the Vortex Spring management, who in turn contacted the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said Higginbotham’s body was recovered Sunday evening with the aide of volunteer cave divers.
Larry Higginbotham
There was no explicit evidence that Higginbotham was trying to find Ben and claim the reward. The divers who recovered his body believed he was, however. "He was found near a shovel left near a restriction so small that no one could get through it," said Sorenson, who had pulled Higginbotham's body back through four tight restrictions. The following month, amid increasing criticism, the McDaniels rescinded the reward offer. "Not only did it endanger the lives of divers who would risk going farther than they should," said Sorenson, who was by then even more firmly convinced that their son had not died in the cave, "it put all of our lives at risk because we have to go in to recover the bodies." By that time the McDaniels had also come to believe that, if he had not died in the cave, Ben had been murdered. A phone tip line they set up had not received any calls, and no one who had not yet said anything was likely to be further motivated to do so, they said. (Ben's father elaborated the following year that the family was told to rescind the reward while in the Vortex Spring area for exactly this reason)
15 min underwater AirPockets Tour Vortex Springs
15 min underwater AirPockets Tour Vortex Springs
In 2011 Kelly disposed of the charges against him by pleading no contest. In return he was fined and sentenced to seven years of probation. He did not live long enough to complete even one of those years. During a chili cook-off he was hosting at Vortex Spring in December, Kelly reportedly fell down the stairs and hurt his head. A person present took him to his home in Ponce de Leon, where he helped Kelly shower and, afterwards, put a blanket over him and left him to rest in the bathtub. In the morning, a different person came to the house, and found his condition had worsened overnight. Emergency medical services responded to a call and took him to a hospital in Pensacola. Kelly remained comatose, and after his condition did not improve he was transferred to hospice care, where he died the following month. The Holmes County sheriff's office, which had also been the lead agency investigating the McDaniel disappearance, implied that it had not gotten the full story of what had occurred the night of Kelly's injury and that it had some questions it wanted answered. However, police would not name the individuals who had taken Kelly home and found him there in the morning. The sheriff's office also refused to release the autopsy report to the Northwest Florida Daily News despite its status as a public record under Florida's sunshine laws: it claimed that release of the report would compromise an ongoing investigation.
Piano room vortex spring 2
Piano room vortex spring 2
In 2011, with it looking unlikely that Ben's body would be found in the cave, the McDaniels began considering the possibility that he had died not in a diving accident but as a result of foul play, and that the disappearance might have been staged to cover that up (or at the very least he had been found dead by the dive shop staff, who feared the consequences of that discovery). They hired a Florida private investigator, Lynn-Marie Carty, who found that other people associated with Vortex Spring besides Kelly had criminal records. "There is just as much reason to look above the water for Ben's body as there was to look below it in the cave," she told the Commercial Appeal. Some other events reported to have occurred on the day Ben disappeared supported that theory. Kelly said shortly afterwards that on that evening, a man he described as "wild-eyed" and apparently drunk showed up at the shop and asked if it was too late to dive; the possibility has been raised that this man, if he existed, may have been involved. Earlier that day, a diver had had a confrontation with several teenagers on the property about their drinking; they eventually left but may have come back in an attempt to exact revenge
# 1 Lost Diver The PianoRoom
# 1 Lost Diver The Piano Room - August 20, 2010 they search for Lost Diver in Vortex Spring Ben McDaniels
Among the divers who heard about the case was Jill Heinerth, a Canadian who has set the world record for deepest dive by a woman. Afterwards, she and her husband Robert McClellan, both certified cave divers and documentary filmmakers, went to Vortex Spring to make a short video. They hoped to show it to the McDaniel family in the hopes of giving them a better understanding of the risks associated with cave diving, and "closure", as Heinerth put it. At the time she believed that Ben, whatever his fate, was not in the cave's depths. But then during the research process, she was able to read Ben's dive logs and the map he had made. She realized that he had, in fact, gotten very far into the cave. Knowing that divers in trouble will often burrow deeper into narrow crevices such as those within the cave in a mistaken effort to get back to the surface, she revised her opinion. "I simply see no reasonable evidence that he is NOT in the cave," the Commercial Appeal quoted her as writing in an email.
Image Left and Right Gill Heinerth
Jill Heinerth is a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer and film-maker. She has made TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel and the BBC, consulted on movies for directors including James Cameron, written several books and produced documentaries including We Are Water and Ben's Vortex, about the disappearance of Ben McDaniel.
Transitions of Your-Away @Vortex Springs 12282013
Transitions of Your-Away @Vortex Springs 12282013 - We turned our attention back to the exploration of Your-Away after surveying up to the start of the Trash Room a couple of weeks .
As a child, Heinerth was inspired by Jacques Cousteau's television series. In 5th grade, she gave a Science Fair project about mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. She gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications Design at York University, and ran a small graphic design agency in Toronto while teaching scuba in Lake Huron's port of Tobermory in the evenings.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, 11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Academie francaise. Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members. Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician." He was, in reality, a sophisticated showman, teacher, and lover of nature. His work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans.
Lago Michigan
Under the clear blue water of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada sits the shipwreck known as the Sweepstakes.
In 1991, Heinerth sold her business and moved to the Caymen Islands to dive full-time, honing skills in underwater photography. She then moved to Florida to work on cave diving, where she was mentored by documentary filmmaker Wes Skiles. She collaborated with his Karst Productions, based in High Springs, Florida. In 1998, Heinerth was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave. Heinerth became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antartica, penetrating further into an underwater cave system than any woman ever. In 2001, she was part of a team that explored ice caves of icebergs, where she and her then husband Paul Heinerth "discovered wondrous life and magical vistas" and experienced the calving of an iceberg, documented in the film Ice Island.
Last Ice: Jill Heinerth Dives Under Icebergs to Illustrate Issues of Climate Change
Under the pale light of the Arctic summer night, I return to the edge of the ice floe to watch yesterday’s dive site disappear on the horizon. The iceberg that was lodged in sea ice has broken free and begun a journey to its demise as it heads out of the mouth of Eclipse Sound. Yesterday’s exploratory dive will never be seen by anyone else.
# # #
In 2000, I led a National Geographic diving team to make the first cave dives inside the largest piece of ice ever seen on our planet. The B-15 iceberg had calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, and we were drawn to explore this gargantuan portent to global climate change.
Jill Heinerth descends below the Arctic ice.
Lion’s mane jelly fish. Photo by Jill Heinerth.
Jill Heinerth describes near death experience while cave diving
Jill Heinerth describes near death experience while cave diving
Exploring underwater caves with Jill Heinerth | Ocean Stories
Exploring underwater caves with Jill Heinerth | Ocean Stories
In 2015, Heinerth participated in exploring the numerous anchialine caves of Christmas Island. She consults on training programmes for diving agencies, publishes photojournalism in a range of magazines and speaks around the world. In 2020, Heinerth spoke with the podcast This is Love about diving in ice caves in Antarctica. Heinerth was married to cave diver Paul Heinerth. As of 2012, her second husband is writer, photographer and new media expert Robert McClellan, with whom she lives in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada. Heinerth has described her hobbies as hiking, kayaking and gardening; "My favorite pastime is getting up at dawn and cycling to my local spring where a robust swim against the current of the Santa Fe River starts my day on the right track.
Exploring Bell Island - Jill Heinerth / WWII wrecks / Mine diving / Explorer's paradise
Exploring Bell Island - Jill Heinerth / WWII wrecks / Mine diving / Explorer's paradise
Heinerth is a member of the Explorers Club, a fellow of the National Speleological Society, and she has been inducted into the Woman Divers Hall of Fame. She won the OZTek Media Award in March 2013. In November 2013, she was awarded the first ever Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In June 2016, Heinerth was named as the first Explorer-in-Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In January 2017, the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences announced that Jill Heinerth was to become a 2017 AUAS Fellow by receiving an NOGI Award for ‘Sports & Education’. Later that year, on 7th March 2017, the Governor General of Canada announced that Jill Heinerth was to receive the Canadian Polar Medal. In March 2018 Jill Heinerth was awarded the Beneath The Sea Diver of the Year (Education) Award.
Jill Heinerth
Ben McDaniel disappearance continued - She and McClellan turned their private video short into a feature-length documentary, Ben's Vortex, released in 2012. It considers all the theories regarding its subject's disappearance: an accident as originally believed, a murder or coverup of the accident as the McDaniels have sometimes alleged, and the possibility of a staged disappearance to allow Ben to escape his problems, which McClellan believes. Shelby does not believe Ben had any intention of abandoning his life. He had left his dog in Santa Rosa Beach and had not given Greer any indication of such plans. Shelby also noted that Ben had seen the impact Paul's death had had on his parents. "After what we went through with Paul, we know our son well enough to know he wouldn't put us through that again," his mother told the Commercial Appeal.