Tales from the deep

HUNTLEY – Amidst an ocean of arrow crabs, sea urchins, and octopi, Huntley resident Bob Wozniak experienced life under the sea this October, on a mission to the Bahamas to net a school of special species for the Shedd Aquarium.

When not spending time at his furniture store Strode’s, which he owns and operates, Wozniak is an avid scuba diver. Recently, he received the ultimate opportunity to collect exotic fish with his son, Stacy Wozniak.

“It was a birthday gift for me, so I found out in May, and I was sent a list of the different species of fish and crustaceans that were part of [the Shedd’s] wish list,” he said.

This opportunity to collect marine life for the Shedd came from Stacy, who is a senior aquarist at the museum. Wozniak had been on the waiting list for this type of trip for eight of the eleven years he has been a certified diver.

The exact location for this October voyage was in Bimini in the Bahamas.

“From there we went to Casal Banks, out in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight,” said Wozniak.

While at their island site, Wozniak and his son’s team of divers spent 18 of their 27 dives collecting a wide variety of sea life, including small-mouth grunts, bogues, fancy cleaning shrimp, and yellow-head jawfish. These varieties, and many others, are meant to replace or add to Shedd exhibit collections.

“The one that I enjoyed catching the most was the cherub fish. It was really small and shy and you had to be really patient to try to catch it in the gathering nets,” Wozniak said.

But small fish weren’t the only finned friends that visited Wozniak’s team during the dives.

“It was my first experience with sharks,” he said, on his encounter with the black-tipped reef variety, which he added are “not usually very aggressive.”

However, the risky rendezvous with these creatures still proved exhilarating.

“The sharks were attracted to the fish we were catching in the barrel. While we were waiting there, the sharks were circling around us. My son was standing on the collecting barrel, and the sharks came within three to four feet of him,” said Wozniak.

As for Wozniak, he divulged, “I was hanging on the safety line, with the sharks circling me too. I felt like a worm on a hook.”

In addition to the dangers of lurking reef sharks, Wozniak and his son’s collecting crew encountered a host of other hazards, such as stinging jellyfish, fire coral, and potential nitrogen poisoning from deep dives.

“The deepest we dove was about 81 feet and the shallowest was about 15 feet. Depending on how deep you were, that determined how long you could stay down, which is only about 20 minutes at the deepest point,” said Wozniak. Otherwise, he warns, a diver is at risk of developing pressure sickness, commonly referred to as “the bends.”

The perils of plunging into the deep are no surprise to Wozniak, whose many oceanic odysseys have taken him away from Huntley and to the seas of Jamaica, Florida, and Cozumel.

Wozniak has particularly fond memories of diving near a reef wall in Cozumel.

“It’s a drift dive, so you basically fold your arms and just drift along. It’s wonderful,” he said.

Wozniak’s numerous seafaring excursions are far from over. In the future, Wozniak hopes to visit the renowned diving locale of Belize. However, next on the agenda is a more traditional vacation spot.

“My wife and I hope to go to Hawaii next year, and I would like to do a few dives by Maui,” said Wozniak, confirming that his aquatic adventures have only just begun.

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