Page 8 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 126

8 Issue #126 July 2023
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Continued from page 6
When O’Hara became a certified
diver, she wanted to explore the St-
Lawrence River watershed. “One
of my bucket lists was to dive the
five great lakes. As a Canadian
diver, you have to get to all those
lakes, except for Lake Michigan
which doesn’t have a Canadian
shore, but I went anyways. I have
been to the Red Sea, I have done
Cuba, Cozumel; the leeward and
windward, the Lesser Antilles
Island such as St-kits, Dominica. Lawrence Gulf at Les Escoumins,
I also went off the west side of just a bit passed Tadoussac. She has
in 1901. Iroquois and Morrisburg
park. When they were first being
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Mexico into the Pacific Ocean also done ice diving, which is very discovered the divers used to
on the fabulous Socorro Island cold, but there is a strict protocol loot them, and now these are all
which is a 24-hour boat drive. It to have to follow when you go protected like an underwater park
is a collection of volcanic islands, under the ice. You are tethered so scene. Unfortunately, what they
and the big fish migrate down on you can go back up and they make find now is not as pristine as the
the way to the Galapagos. The sure the hole remains free of ice. old ones that have been removed.”
big attraction there was to see the
Diving in the St Lawrence. O’Hara loves diving in that area;
manta rays which have a wingspan
There are some wonderful “It’s like a walk in the woods,
of 30 feet. We saw five different
underwater places to explore here but underwater. We look for old
kinds of shark’s, numerous schools
around Cornwall and it is good treasure and bottles as well. It
of fishers, whales etc. It was a
for our community. When they is quite interesting to see the
different kind of a dive.”
submerged the ten communities evolution of the bottles when they
In Quebec, she dove on The St in the Cornwall and Osnabruck were just blown glass. At the time,
township for the construction of Coke and Pepsi used to print the
the Moses-Saunders Dam in 1955 date on the bottle. I have a twin
and the St Lawrence Seaway in sister and by pure luck, I found
1958, these communities became two bottles dated 1948, which is
the “lost villages,” and all kinds of the year of our birth.
points of interest were left behind. “When you go around Iroquois,
Cardinal, Rockport, we like to
There are extraordinary places
dive for wrecks around there. I
to visit underwater, such as the
was with a diver once who found
Mille Roches Dam House, built
a cannonball. It was exciting to
bring it back up and take it to a
were partly flooded and moved up, museum. It was the same when I
leaving behind the infrastructure,
the old highway 2, roads, culverts, dove the other Great Lakes wreck.
Diving there, you see all kinds
lock 21, in addition to common
of wrecks from the war time. At
household artifacts.
the time, the river was the first
The area, all the way up to
highway, because everything had
Kingston, passing by Prescott, was
to go by boats, so we see these old
also the scene of the 1812 battle
boats resting on the bottom. You
where hundreds of American and
can always research what the boat
British boats clashed, leaving
was like before you go down. Its
again some artifacts that have been
history and it’s very interesting,
subject to pillage. She says, “The
as cold fresh water preserve the
Save Ontario Shipwrecks (SOS), a
wrecks very well.”
Provincial Heritage Organization,
was founded to preserve these The Great River Network and
treasures and the underwater the River Institute.
Patricia O’Hara is now past-
Continued on page 10