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David Snelson <aj005@ch*.ns*.ca*> wrote: >> ... Humber Bay, just off Toronto, >Has the lake improved any? I remember wadding there as a kid and it >wasn't clean then. Lake Ontario just off Toronto can vary considerably in flavour and consistency. There are some real horror stories from years gone by: - One of my instructors was out there sailing years ago and got thrown in hard, getting water forced into one ear. The subsequent ear infection almost made it to his brain and would have turned out the lights if it hadn't been caught in time. To this day he won't dive in Lake Ontario, calling it "Lake Chemistry". - Another of my past instructors went diving off Budapest Park with his SO, and they came out smelling so much like shit that they drove home still zipped into their suits and showered off with all their gear (no risk of this during my recent dive, as my nostrils were flash-frozen by the wind chill factor and I couldn't smell a thing). - Some sailing friends claim there's a "Sargasso Sea" of raw sewage out in the middle of the lake. Water quality in recent years has increased wonderfully, due to the zebra mussels filter-feeding everything out of the water. If the little buggers could at least be trained to stay off the wrecks we'd be all set. And the newest bit is there's a related species, the quagga mussel, now making an appearance. The zebras prefer a bit of warmth and sunlight and were seriously threatening mostly the shallower wrecks, while the quaggas now are bad news for the more technical wrecks. During the summer, they sometimes close the beaches due to coliform counts, especially after major rainstorms. The rest of the year they probably don't test water quality, thinking nobody would be fool enough to go swimming. Diving so soon after some major melting probably wasn't a good idea, especially as temperatures had nosedived again at the end of the week so we got the worst of both worlds. I probably don't want to know what else besides bad viz was coming out of the Humber River. I've always been generous with the Burosol in the ears post-dive, and I've never had any problems with Lake Ontario. YMMV. -- Anthony DeBoer http://www.onramp.ca/~adb/ adb@he*.re*.or* (here) adb@ge*.co* (work) #include "std.disclaimer" -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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