Cooper River Keeper

It was again time to hit the Cooper with my new diving buds. I gave them the option of going somewhere new or trying the same spot again. It took Ted about half a second to decide he wanted to go the same place as last week. For one, he remembered the haul I brought back and for two, we lost an anchor last and he wanted to try and find it. So it was decided - we would dive for fossils in the same place as last week. No matter, I just like to dive and the gravel beds at this spot are unimaginably awesome. As soon as I hit the water I made a bee line for the high fossil bed - its where I've always found the best stuff. I just hit the same fossil bed last week, but there were still teeth scattered all over the place. I picked up everything I saw, including a megalodon tooth with a shame of a spall fracture. I also picked up a bunch of fossil whale bones for my bone garden. No screamer shark teeth for me the first dive, though. But the quantity sure was sweet! I took my turn sitting on the boat for a little while, but after 45 minutes or so, I was back in the water. Within seconds of hitting the bottom, I found a soft weight, so I filled my quota of gear recovered for the dive. Then I ran across one of those collapsible chairs still in its bag. It didn't look like it had been there long, but I didn't feel like dragging it around for my whole dive so I left it there. I headed right back to where I left off the first dive, but this time, the falling tide was in full effect and I was getting blasted. Still I fossil hunted, though, because I had the drive to find something nice. Then, there it was. A SWEET Parotodus benedeni fully exposed. I put it in a safe place, and I relaxed. Everything else from this point on was just gravy. About 15 minutes later, I found another megalodon tooth, but this time, it wasn't a shamer. I put it in a different safe place and kept up the hunt for more gravy until it was time to go back to the boat. My new buds were pretty envious of the megalodon tooth, but I was drooling over the Parotodus. Just as an FYI, they found stuff, too, and they were pretty happy with the results of their dives, too. They both doubled their output from last week, which is always an accomplishment. We never did find that anchor, though.