Cooper River Fossil Dive!
Charleston, S.C.
July 23rd, 2006

We hit the bottom and began searching for gravel beds. At this site they were few and far between but we managed to find some interesting material. I located a big anchor that was to heavy to bring up. A fishing pole and a Pepsi bottle from the 60's, hardly an artifact worth saving. I did spot some neat bones and pottery which I retrieved, at one point I saw a huge silver coin! I picked it up and held it up to my face mask only to find it was a 1976 nickel, everything looks bigger through the mask.

Jerry at 40 feet.

Fossil turtle shell and Indian pottery in gravel pocket.

I want YOU, to come diving with us.

Well, I was just having a blast in the "Baby Pool" as Jerry called it. We started to ascend after our dive when we heard the boat motor start, we waited until the boat stopped and then came to the surface. Once we got on board, we were informed by a nervous John D. and Tena that a big fat gator was sitting on top of our bubbles while we were down! John said he would bend in half and look under water to see where we were. Tena had started the boat to scare the gator away, I'm glad she started it when she did or we would have hit it in the gut when we came up! Of course we would have then used our Steve Erwin crocodile training to subdue the beast and had gator tail for dinner. Either that or we would have both needed to clean out our wetsuits!


So my question is, what am I going to find in the big peoples pool?

After having some lunch and regaining my will to live and dive, we cruised to our next location. We spent a small amount of time there, then Jerry took me to the big boys dive area. This is a hardcore diving spot and one I wouldn't recommend if you are claustrophobic etc. The tide had turned and the current was very strong, we descended to about 42 feet. Once you hit the bottom, you have to immediately turn on your dive light as you are in total black water, even with my dive light on, I could only see about 1-2 feet. We had to hold onto the bottom to keep from being swept down the river. We worked the bottom for about 30 minutes when Jerry decided to call the dive, he said the current was way to strong and we were burning all our energy/oxygen trying to stay on the bottom in one area.

One thing is for sure, it didn't bother me to be down there, it was a blast. If you are a rock/fossil/artifact hunter, the conditions around you won't bother you once you start finding stuff, I can't wait for the next trip!

Red Banks, Cooper River.

John and Jerry kicking back while I drive the boat for a while.

Heading home.

Some of Jerry's finds.


Above two pics are some of the stuff I found, use my treasure nickel for scale.