Finding The Name Under The X The guessing will soon end, won't it? For the past three years DIVER Magazine has been covering the story of Mystery Ship X. Late last month it was learned that an expedition led by a Halifax based television production company, was close to identifying a recently discovered wreck that sits upright on the bottom of Lake Erie near Port Dover, Ontario. "We spent the better part of a week diving on the wreck," said John Davis co-producer of the TV science show Oceans of Mystery (Discovery Channel) "We got close-up video pictures of everything that Art Amos (Toronto based marine historian) will need to identify the ship. I believe that Art has boiled it down to being one of two ships." Port Dover SOS member and commercial diver Rob Cromwell first brought public attention to the wreck three years ago. Since then two submarine expeditions led by the Canadian Navy and an American research ship have brought back startling sharp pictures of this perfectly intact two-masted 19th century schooner. However, the wreck, which sits in approximately 190 feet of water, is covered in quagga mussels and has not been immediately identifiable. The Save Ontario Shipwrecks and Natural Resources Canada's Dartmouth, Nova Scotia based Bedford Institute have been using photographs and video tapes to study and date the ship. The SOS have been finding and documenting so many ship wrecks in the eastern portion of Lake Erie that there is a move afoot to create a protected, underwater shipwreck park in the waters around Port Dover and Long Point. The ship has an attraction beyond the dive community! The Bedford Institute, under the direction of engineer Stephen Blasco (Breadalbane and the Titanic) is interested in studying the lake bottom around the wreck as part of an ongoing study tracking the movement of sediment through the Great Lakes. The Ontario Government's Ministry of Natural Resources is also looking at the wreck because of the encrustment of mussels at a depth that was originally thought to be out of the range of this invading species. "We expect that our show will air in the spring (1998) on the Discovery Network," continued Davis. "We aren't finished with the program yet, but, I can tell you we are looking at three aspects of (Ship X). There is the work that Rob (Cromwell) and the SOS has put into this remarkable wreck. It is amazing what these people have done on their own! We also took samples for Donna Graham (Natural Resources mussel expert) and of course Steve Blasco was on board with us, so we got the data he was looking for!" Eco-Nova, along with Rob Cromwell and Steve Blasco spent a week in August at the wreck site. The camera crew working at deep depths were able to spend 20 minutes per dive on the shipwreck. "We got some good images on the ship but the visibility was less than 20 feet during most of the dives, but it did stabilize towards the end of the shoot," continued Davis. "We were able to put a probe into the hold and we can tell you the ship was carrying a grain cargo!"   Oceans of Mystery Looking for Franklin's ship too Eco-Nova was less successful in another summer filming project. The Halifax based company was in the Arctic looking for the remains of a ship which sank under the command of British explorer John Franklin (1821). "There is a lot of water up there," explained John Davis co-producer of the TV science show Oceans of Mystery . "We found traces of the Franklin expedition, but so far (no X ship)." The Halifax crew hope to return to the Far North in 1998 to continue searching for the 170 year old wreck.   Whale of a Tale spreading across Canada. Whale, Whale, the gangs all here! In 1997 Canada has gone whale crazy. The city of Vancouver is about to get a radio station which plays only whale music-the recorded underwater voices of west coast whales-seven days a week! The love affair with the big guys isn't confined to British Columbia, people in Ontario feel it too! Witness a number of events that have played out in the city of Toronto over the fall and summer. The Redpath Sugar Company has a large facility along the city's Lake Ontario waterfront. This summer they turned over one wall of their multi-story warehouse to artist and environmentalist, Wyland. The painter, who goes by his last name only, has spent the last sixteen years painting murals about whales. Wyland's whaling walls can be found on buildings in the United States, Canada (Wall #12 is in Victoria, BC), Australia, Asia and Europe. His goal is to create 100 whaling walls-the Toronto piece is number 70! Meanwhile, uptown from Redpath, the Royal Ontario Museum opened its new show Whales, on October 11th. Whales is a travelling exhibit organized by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and augmented by a special section entitled Whale Watch which was developed in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWFC). "Whales bring together a number of playful and hands-on displays, spectacular underwater photography and informative facts, but it also leaves visitors with a series of practical things they can do to help save these magnificent creatures," explains Dr. Mark Engstrong, a Royal Ontario Museum curator. "Once you've seen the exhibition, you won't be able to think about using a commercial weed killer on your lawn without realizing that the chemicals ultimately will have an impact on whales." WWFC's Whale Watch, has been built around an East Coast fisherman's wharf. The display illustrates the primary threats to whales living in Canadian waters including chemical and noise pollution, endocrine disrupters and shipping. Whales are also making a big splash on a big screen. During the three month run of Whales, the Ontario Place Imax Cinesphere (a provincially owned lakeside attraction) will be showing the movie Whales. This is a 40 minute underwater film that follows whales in the coastal waters of Alaska, Newfoundland, California, Patagonia, Hawaii and Colombia. Other Ontario Big Fish News: Canada's longest running annual fair, the Canadian National Exhibition, got wet this summer. The CNE converted one of its permanent buildings in a salt water attraction. Oceans was a pavilion featuring attractions and information about diving and life underwater. Aside from hourly underwater demonstrations by Toronto's Wet Shop, there was a dinamation display with seven life-sized animated sea creatures including four prehistoric animals, a humpback whale, giant squid and great white shark! The flagship building of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation is about to go underwater! The downtown headquarters of the national television and radio network signed a deal this fall which will see the creation of a privately owned aquarium in it's basement! The large building is located across the street from the CN Tower and the Dome stadium. Backers of the project feel that the building is perfectly suited to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The financially strapped CBC meanwhile is just happy to be renting out its basement! The aquarium is expected to be open before the year 2000. Meanwhile, back at Ontario Place, construction will soon begin on another aquarium project!   Diving the Web. Web pages come and web pages go, but DIVER Magazine hopes that Hawaii based Kent Backman keeps his Ident Page running for years to come. Kent regularly posts pictures of unidentifiable underwater "things" that divers find in the ocean. Kent works in the Marine Science Department and the University of Hawaii on the island of Hilo. He and his colleagues attempt to identify the posted images of fish, plant or coral. If he can't put a name to a creature usually some of his on-line marine biology visitors can! He offers a reward for anyone who can stump the experts! Post pictures or check out his gallery at, http://aloha.net/~backman/umo.html. The Toronto based Canadian Marine Manufacturers Association has launched a multipurpose web site at www.cmma. ca. The primary function of the site is to help boaters and would-be boaters find the information they need about the sport of boating. The site will create a forum for the marine industry and provide constantly updated technical and statistical information for association members. Two Ontario based divers, Sean Gilmour and William McDonald have formed an on-line dive club and have already held a late September dive for people visiting their web page. Except for posting e-mail letters to each other none of the divers who spent a day on Lake Ontario together had ever met before. Ontario divers are welcome to join by visiting http://wrpkm.rogerswave.ca/divebuddies/ or e-mail the pair at: divebuddies@wrpkm.rogerswave.ca Interested in keeping up-to-date on Caribbean travel issues? Kent Huffman, an employee of the Mining Company publishes a no-charge weekly newsletter entitled CARIBBEAN FOR VISITORS. Although not specifically aimed at divers, each week there are usually one or two articles that will catch the interest of aquatic minded surfers. In recent issues the on-line service has been operating a Montserrat Information Access Centre giving up-to-date information about the volcano ravaged island. It has also run what it calls the Undersea Gallery - Cool underwater photos and downloadable video clips from Roatan and the Turks & Caicos Islands. The magazine is located at http://gocaribbean.miningco.com Diver Magazine has had trouble logging on lately but The Hart House Underwater Club (Toronto, Ontario) now has a web page at http://www.utoronto.ca/hhuc. According to club director Martin Bonert, the University of Toronto based club is posting details about club activities, photos of past events, and scuba courses on the web page. The Canada 3000 airline issues unpublished flight discounts to people subscribing to their no-cost on-line newsletter. Each week the airline issues a sales update which lists flight information. According to the newsletter Canada 3000 is offering a discount of 10% on NEW bookings only, made via the Internet. You can access the newsletter at http://www.canada3000.com/emailpage.htm. The carrier is headquartered in Toronto and offers charter flights to a number of dive locations including Bermuda, US Virgin Islands, Mexico and Fiji. Bonneville Seabase, in Utah has been described as one of the strangest inland dives available in North America. The seabase is geothermally heated, salt water, high altitude mini "ocean". The lake is stocked with salt water fishes (trigger fish, damsels, tangs, jacks, groupers, hog fish puffers, angels, lobsters, etc.). There is a website available with some information and pictures about the Seabase. It is located at http://www.scubaon-line.com/Features/Travel/Travel19Pl.htm. PADI Society members can read more on this subject in the society's premier issue of Aqua.