Ellington

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;37;10
Unknown
Hello, everyone. I'm Jeremy Weber, and this is Maritime Mysteries of the Flathead. I am once again joined by Flathead Marine Archeology project leader Kieran's Zimmermann. And we are delighted to have you with us today as we once again dive into the history and mystery of what lies below Flathead Lake and the waters of northwest Montana. How are you doing, Kai?

00;00;37;12 - 00;00;53;29
Unknown
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. But also, since our last podcast, the project team has been hard at work on a couple of new sites, including more working with Bay Painted Rocks and a trip back to the Kiyomi. We are still coming through. The results from those surveys in preparation for detailed shows on our findings in the near future.

00;00;54;01 - 00;01;14;14
Unknown
Today, we're going to talk about some of the challenges we have faced during these surveys. One thing that we have learned for sure is that Flathead Lake does not give up its mysteries easily. Yeah, that's the truth, buddy. so yeah, undertaking such a comprehensive survey like we're doing now, there are a lot of unforeseen challenges, right?

00;01;14;17 - 00;01;34;09
Unknown
we really have to factor in the weather. You know, wind could blow the boat around. We've had a lot of issues with maintaining and holding Anchorage. just general visibility. You know, we've got big spring runoff that's still kind of, causing a lot of sediment stirring up in the lake. So that makes things a little bit of a challenge if we're doing visual surveys.

00;01;34;12 - 00;01;51;00
Unknown
dialing down the equipment. You know, we do have that new side scan sonar that we're employing this year that's been amazing for helping us, you know, pin down potential targets that are under the water, but, you know, making sure that our readings are effective and we're getting the most out of the data that we collect. So let's talk about woods Bay.

00;01;51;00 - 00;02;12;16
Unknown
What's been going on out there? So woods Bay, back in May was our first survey. and we were targeting, trying to track down some boats that were, you know, supposedly had sunk in the area. a lot of, locals around woods Bay were coming up with these amazing stories and potential targets for us to go and investigate.

00;02;12;18 - 00;02;32;11
Unknown
so our first survey was back in May. Water visibility was pretty good. our side scan picked up several potential targets and, you know, that's kind of one of the things about using side scan is it takes a bit of an art to be able to interpret the returns or the images that you're getting back off of that unit.

00;02;32;14 - 00;02;56;23
Unknown
so we got lots of really suspicious looking targets. however, diving on those, they turned out to be very conveniently, suspiciously stacks of logs. There's a lot of logs. And if you get a series of them stacked together, the image return on the sonar does look very much like a boat. So you got, use, visual observation methods, like deploying divers or the ROV to go ahead and verify those targets.

00;02;56;25 - 00;03;16;22
Unknown
So basically, when you're running a side scan sonar unit, this is kind of a new, newer piece of equipment that we're still, really dialing in or fine tuning the survey method with that. you have a large torpedo shaped sensor. You know, it's about, you know, two and a half three feet long and, it's towed behind the boat.

00;03;16;22 - 00;03;41;03
Unknown
So depending on how fast you're going, the sonar could rise up in the water column or sink if you slow down. Your goal is to maintain a constant speed and also a constant distance above the bottom of the lake, so that you can get a really consistent read every single time. now, the sonar, as you're pulling it behind the boat, it can be anywhere from 70 to 100ft behind the boat, depending on our speed.

00;03;41;05 - 00;04;09;12
Unknown
Right. So when we, when we're towing it behind us, we have to factor in the distance behind the boat. But also the side scan sonar can scan about 400ft on either side of the unit itself. So as we're piloting the boat, we're getting an image return, and we're using a GPS reference here on the boat. So but in actuality, it could be 100ft behind us and potentially 400ft on either side, left or right.

00;04;09;12 - 00;04;27;01
Unknown
So a large area, it's a huge area. So just because we get an image return on our screen, yeah, it's still a pretty big spot behind us. So typically what we do is when we do come across a target that's worth investigating will mark a waypoint as soon as we see it. we'll finish our transect, come over about 200ft.

00;04;27;01 - 00;04;49;16
Unknown
If we're scanning 400ft, we'll do a 200ft transect so we can get a good level of coverage on either side. And when we come back over that scan again, we'll mark another waypoint. So now we have two waypoints that we can reference. So then after that we'll do a 90 degree search pattern. So if we were going north to west we have two waypoints on the north and the south side transect.

00;04;49;17 - 00;05;13;03
Unknown
If we do a north, the south we come over and we do a south to north. We do a 90 degree cut. So then we'll go east to west and then west to east. So if we cross over that same area going west, east will have an additional two more waypoints that we can cross-reference. And if the sonar is angled properly, we can actually draw a line between those four waypoints.

00;05;13;03 - 00;05;32;02
Unknown
And we'll have a perfect X, and our target should be right in the middle of the x. So for all you treasure hunters out there, X marks the spot that actually is a term that was coined with, with sonar sonar technicians. We're using that to reference the targets. So yeah, I just learned that a couple of weeks ago talking with, Sonar Tech, who's been helping me out.

00;05;32;08 - 00;05;51;02
Unknown
There you go. The things that you can learn on this show. Yeah. So for sure. But, Yeah, reading, reading sight scan sonar really has, a lot of skill, and, it's it's an art form in and of itself. So if you guys aren't familiar with how sonar works, basically it's, it sends out an acoustic, wave.

00;05;51;06 - 00;06;11;27
Unknown
Right. So it's very comparable to, like, if you were in a dark room and you have a flashlight beam and the flashlight will send out the light, you know, it'll reflect off of a chair or whatever. You'll see the chair, but you're also reading the shadow that it casts behind the object. So you have the reflection, and then you also have the shadow.

00;06;11;29 - 00;06;33;00
Unknown
So when you're under the water, you're trying to interpret, okay, here's a really, really bright return. Right. So it's like the sound waves reflecting back, but then it also casts a shadow behind the object. So you're kind of like okay, that that looks like a structure. Looks like it might have towers on it. You know, it has a really well defined shadow behind it.

00;06;33;00 - 00;06;56;09
Unknown
So, you know, that's how we try our best to determine, okay, this is just a stack of rocks because it's a very irregular return. You can see the shadow pretty easily. But yeah, when it comes to logs, you know, if they're stacked up just right and you're looking at it from basically a silhouette, you know, yeah, it could be very, very tough to determine, you know, is this a target of interest or is this, you know, a pretty cool stack of logs, which we've definitely come across.

00;06;56;16 - 00;07;17;02
Unknown
That does not sound easy. It's a process for sure. But, we do have a pretty amazing team that we are working with. so we did we did have a very, very convincing return, or image on our side scan. So, we're going to make another attempt to go dive on that to verify the age and, the state of that boat.

00;07;17;04 - 00;07;40;10
Unknown
we also have a couple of other local divers who know of another boat in the area. it was actually just outside of our targeted survey area, so I know, right? I mean, you can have a search area the size of the whole lake, and you're still going to find something that's just outside your survey area. and that kind of pins down to how we determine or what, how big of an area we decide to map out.

00;07;40;12 - 00;07;55;12
Unknown
we can allude to that more in like the research stage of things, but, you know, yeah, it's a huge lake and we can't cover it all in a single dive. So, you know, we got to break it up into small little pieces. And yeah, if there's something just just be on our camera view. You know, we have no idea where it is.

00;07;55;12 - 00;08;20;27
Unknown
So, All right, so let's go over to Painted Rocks. What's going on over there? Right now? Okay. All right. So Painted Rocks is a very significant, archeological site on the southwest corner, flooded lake, just north of Rollins there. And, it's this really unique, exposed cliff face where, the Salish and Kootenay tribes had painted, these, these these portraits or these paintings on the rock face.

00;08;21;00 - 00;08;44;23
Unknown
There's been a lot of surveys done above the rocks. Right? But there's never been a comprehensive survey of anything that could be underneath the water. So whether or not, sometime in pre-history, where, the cliffs might have eroded or broken off, or if there were, other significant artifacts that, you know, were deposited or lost in the lake.

00;08;44;25 - 00;09;14;01
Unknown
we just haven't had the technology or the research resources to go down and dive and investigate what could be lying below the water, in proximity of those painting sites. So what we were doing is a similar survey. We were trying to collect a photogrammetry model. So a photogrammetry model is where you take hundreds or thousands of pictures of a structure and using, some advanced, software, you could create a three dimensional replica of that site.

00;09;14;03 - 00;09;35;08
Unknown
So we, we did a very, very detailed, a very, very awesome I'm actually quite proud of this. It was a very awesome, 3D photogrammetry model of the painted Rock site itself. Everything above the water. we were using aerial drones to capture all that, and, we were going to pair it with a photogrammetry model of everything underneath the water.

00;09;35;15 - 00;10;03;17
Unknown
So that way we'd have a very, two scale, very accurate, depiction of everything above the water and below the water, that we can have for archeological catalog. so in order to take that detailed of a photo scan, you know, we have to pilot the ROV a consistent distance away from the cliff face. we have to have a very strict survey grid so that we can make sure we cover the whole area effectively.

00;10;03;24 - 00;10;20;09
Unknown
So when we first went out there, yeah, the visibility was actually, not too good. we had some high winds, which made it really hard for the boat to hold anchor. so as we were, you know, piloting the ROV, the boat was dealing with a little bit of drift and it'd be pivoting around the anchor as the wind was shifting.

00;10;20;12 - 00;10;37;20
Unknown
luckily, nobody got seasick. But we did have some big wave action there, which made operations a little bit more challenging. I can attest to that. Yeah, you did good, buddy. You did really good. the other thing was, just the visibility. You know, there's some interesting currents around the, painted rock site. So sediment and material is kind of swirling around.

00;10;37;20 - 00;11;01;25
Unknown
So as you're trying to take consistent photos, you've got the backscatter of particulate matter that's altering your images a little bit. But what was really interesting is once you dropped below about 60, about 68ft, kind of in that 70ft range, all of that sediment is collected on the lesser dense, warm water compared to the cooler, more dense water below that line.

00;11;01;25 - 00;11;19;00
Unknown
So as soon as you drop to that 70ft mark, all the sediment just kind of dissipated. And you look up with the rover and you can see the ceiling of sediment kind of swirling around. So the low 70ft, we did have decent visibility. Of course, there was a lot of misses and denser particulate matter that kind of clouded our view.

00;11;19;00 - 00;11;42;22
Unknown
But, we were able to do a lot better surveys below that 30 or 70ft mark. the other thing that was really tough about painted rocks was the risk of entanglement. So I understand there was a pretty major mishap. There absolutely was, man. Yeah. So when you're diving around the cliff face or there's a lot of rocks, because Painted Rocks has a very, it's a very popular site for anglers.

00;11;42;22 - 00;12;10;07
Unknown
There was a lot of, discarded angling equipment. we've had, anchors with anchor lines still attached that were kind of drifting around, a lot of trolling lines. I get hung up on rocks and trees and other debris. So you break your line. What happens to it? It's still down there, right? So when you're piloting your ROV around fishing line is such a risk of, getting entangled in the thrusters and really jeopardizing the entirety of the project?

00;12;10;09 - 00;12;34;23
Unknown
unfortunately, one of my ROV did get entangled on some, some material down there. We haven't identified exactly what it got wrapped up on, but, on several surveys we were doing. yeah, I'd be motoring along. I'd see something shiny out of the corner of the lens. I'd angle my camera to it, and sure enough, it's a big flasher for a trolling rig or, a jig or some sort of fishing lure.

00;12;34;29 - 00;12;56;06
Unknown
And then trailing around it is a bunch of fishing line. So when we're doing surveys, you know, 180ft, just off the cliffs there, if that were to get tangled up at that depth, it would be really challenging to go down and recover it easily. So when we were second day of our dive survey, that's exactly what happened with my yellow ROV.

00;12;56;08 - 00;13;10;22
Unknown
We were just finishing up a survey. We were scanning the base of the cliffs for any artifacts that might have collected down there, and battery was kind of running low. So I'm like, we got just enough juice to get up to the surface, and, you know, I've got an extra battery. We can finish our survey. So I'm coming up from about.

00;13;10;27 - 00;13;33;03
Unknown
Yeah, 187ft. And then it was going up just fine. Once it hit that 70ft mark, it wasn't ascending anymore. That's not good. So it had got hung up on the bottom. So, you know, after a couple attempts of just trying to navigate around, I'm like, oh, it's not coming loose. It's not coming loose. we just decided to pause our survey.

00;13;33;05 - 00;14;00;19
Unknown
I have a second ROV, which is equipped with a manipulator arm. So that's very useful for driving or diving down and taking the lure or line and kind of untangle it from any structure. so I'm like, okay, we're just going to deploy the second ROV. We're going to make a good recovery. So as soon as I kick the blue ROV into the lake, about 30ft down, the second most dreaded thing an ROV pilot could possibly imagine was, a flood alert.

00;14;00;21 - 00;14;23;19
Unknown
So there's a sensor inside the electronics bay that can detect moisture. So. Yep, there must have been a small little, Nick in one of the O-rings or something that was causing water to seep into the electronics bay. So rather than losing to our ROVs. I made a quick surface with the blue rover, and, Yeah, unfortunately, we weren't able to untangle the yellow ROV that day.

00;14;23;19 - 00;14;46;03
Unknown
The wind was picking up. It was getting a little bit choppy out on the water. So yeah, I made the call to abandon the yellow ROV. rushed home that day and worked all night trying to make sure that the O-rings were sealed. Did a refresher test to make sure that the blue ROV was once again water resistant or watertight, and, the next day we dropped the ROV down to see if we can make a recovery.

00;14;46;05 - 00;15;06;22
Unknown
unfortunately, that second day, we weren't able to locate it effectively. We did find the remains of the tether. when the tether got, was lost over the side, we were able to follow that a ways. But, at one point, somehow, the tether was broken. So we were able to locate the real and the controller.

00;15;06;29 - 00;15;31;15
Unknown
So we were able to make a recovery on that. But the yellow ROV itself was nowhere to be found. So burned up three whole batteries trying to track it down that day, again to no avail. So that was another night. The yellow ROV was, in the lake. So the third day, my dad and I, we rigged up a, a cutting implement for the, blue ROV for the manipulator arm so we can dive down.

00;15;31;16 - 00;15;49;11
Unknown
We can cut the tether if it's tangled up on anything, and then use the manipulator arm to grab on to it and recover it. So, on the third day, we were navigating around. Finally, we were able to find that trailing piece of tether. Follow it to where the ROV was resting on the bottom of the cliffs again around the 180ft mark.

00;15;49;13 - 00;16;08;26
Unknown
And, there we were able to grab onto it and make a recovery. So right now, I pulled the ROV out. There was, a little bit of water in the housing for the yellow ROV. So, you know, had that stretched out, did all the, drying out of all the electronics board, there's still a chance that it's salvageable.

00;16;08;29 - 00;16;26;07
Unknown
but the only way to really find out is if we get another controller and another tether in, just to make sure that that's all good to go. So. Yeah, no, there's definitely there's definitely a lot to, to work out on this project, but it's still it's still exciting. It's still a lot of fun. So the yellow ROV was underwater for two days.

00;16;26;07 - 00;16;52;25
Unknown
Were you able to salvage any of that footage? We were able to get some of the footage off of it. Yes. So, SD cards are pretty robust. You know, they're solid state drives. So we're still processing a lot of that information. you know, the blue ROV, we were able to deploy that. We got some pictures of, and outboard motor, and we did a really good scan of, all the debris and the rocks that are below, the painted Rock site right off this vertical shelf.

00;16;52;28 - 00;17;10;29
Unknown
So, you know, there still there is still some useful information that we pulled from that, whether or not the ROV itself is salvageable, we'll find out at the end of the week. Well, it wasn't a total loss. it's still doing good. It was. It was an adventure. Right. All right. So, last week, we were back on the kill me again.

00;17;11;02 - 00;17;29;29
Unknown
what's going on over there? It was not an easy boat to find. There you go. So even sites where you have GPS reference, it's still hard to track those down. so the, the key army was, one of the first wrecks that we dove on, back in 2016 when I was getting into underwater videography.

00;17;30;01 - 00;17;53;21
Unknown
I was working with another dive team, trying to track down some wrecks. And, we use the side scan to locate where the key is presently. And one of the first things I did was Mark GPS waypoint. Right. So, I've taken the ROV out, since then. 2022 actually is 2022 or 2020. Yeah. We deployed the ROV with my underwater GPS system.

00;17;53;21 - 00;18;12;01
Unknown
We were doing a test on that, just to make sure that our surface GPS synced up properly with the underwater GPS. And once again, we verified, okay, here's here's the key. Me, we got the coordinates. We know where it's at. so taking, Jeremy and Mike Chapman, another diver we were working with, out to that site.

00;18;12;03 - 00;18;36;00
Unknown
we took our boat directly over those waypoints, and we were running a pontoon boat. So if anyone's, driven a pontoon boat, you know that those things are basically just sails, right? a lot of surface area to catch the wind. So it didn't seem like there was that much wind on that day we were out there, but, it was enough to continually kind of blow the boat off of our target.

00;18;36;03 - 00;18;53;21
Unknown
So we did deploy an anchor. it looked like it was holding pretty good. And the objective was to throw over the blue ROV to find where the wreck was, or confirm where the wreck was, and then me and Mike would just scuba dive down and we'd follow the tether to where the wreck was. Simple plan. Right? That's not how it works.

00;18;53;21 - 00;19;11;28
Unknown
Oh, I haven't worked at all. So, we dropped the ROV and right on the spot, sent it down to the bottom. And when we were where we were expecting a boat there, was it about there, like, okay, well, we were under the waypoint, so it must be nearby. So then you start to employ a search pattern with the ROV.

00;19;11;28 - 00;19;28;25
Unknown
So, you know, it's in this general area, you kind of start doing concentric spirals kind of farther and farther out until you find the target. well, after about an hour of doing circles, you know, kind of progressively getting farther and farther and farther out, we still hadn't found any of our targets. So I'm like, what's going on?

00;19;28;25 - 00;19;56;06
Unknown
So I rechecked our GPS waypoint and we drifted about, oh man, maybe at least 2 or 300ft out away. Yeah. So that was the first time so burned up a whole battery, pulled the ROV back in. then we, set up a new battery, re navigated over the waypoint, dropped the ROV over a second time, and this time we were able to find remainders of the railing that was on the back structure of the Keoni.

00;19;56;08 - 00;20;23;10
Unknown
So as the KMI was floating out, back in 1937, it was on fire. So it was burning. They were pushing it away from private dock so that it wouldn't catch their private docks on fire. And then the wind started taking it east across Sommer's Bay, where it started to capsize. And, if you know kind of how that site around the KMI is structured, on the farther west section, you'll see bits of railing and then you'll see a large tank.

00;20;23;10 - 00;20;40;06
Unknown
It was either a fuel tank or, some other sort of a water tank. And then you'll have another large collection of railing and, like, structure, metal structure on the, on the top of the boat. And then you'll get the, the boat itself. So you actually have kind of like a long line of this debris field.

00;20;40;06 - 00;21;07;19
Unknown
So if you find any one of those points, you just track your compass kind of like northeasterly, and then you're going to get right to the main structure. So we found this railing up. It's right here. So Mike and I geared up. We dove down, we followed the tether. we got to where that railing was. And then the objective was to just help guide the ROV to where the strait was so that, Jeremy and our captain could take a look at the boat itself once again, not how it was.

00;21;07;22 - 00;21;23;21
Unknown
always challenges. Right. So we oriented our compasses. We started going along, going along, going along. Visibility again wasn't super great in summer's Bay last week. but as we were putting out there, I'm swimming along. I'm like, okay, we're we're at the edge of the tether, so we know we're about 300ft from the boat. So we're like from the surface boat.

00;21;23;21 - 00;21;45;24
Unknown
So the kmh did we overshoot? It was our heading off, you know. So then I start doing a dive pattern once again trying to pin down where this boat is. And, you know, we burned up almost another tank air trying to find this boat a second time. It's all. And we had to surface. And actually, as we were cutting along, we were doing a really wide arc just to make sure we didn't miss anything.

00;21;45;24 - 00;22;13;08
Unknown
And there we saw a perfectly cut trench, in the sediment. So it was just our anchor that had been dragging again. So when it came up to the surface, we saw that the boat had been drifting about 400ft to the northwest. So, yeah, we had to reposition the anchor. that by that time, the wind must have settled down a little bit because we were able to hold anchor pretty well, drop the last ROV battery in, you know, and send the ROV out.

00;22;13;08 - 00;22;30;23
Unknown
And there we were able to find the wreck, and then make a successful dive on it. So, yeah, you know, I compare it to, like, you know, you have a table with your keys somewhere on this table, you know, and you're like, okay, I know it's here. I know I left my keys here. They aren't going anywhere.

00;22;30;23 - 00;22;49;10
Unknown
But, you know, just kind of like those things that are right in front of you, but, it's just a much bigger scale. So those are the challenges of trying to find a site that you already know where it is. It's got to be much harder to find a site that you don't know where it is. I mean, obviously you have a team working with you to help you with this.

00;22;49;13 - 00;23;10;17
Unknown
What does it take to to find these, these sites that people are telling you about? Right. Oh, that's that's a it's good. It's awesome bringing up the rest of the team because, this project would not be where it is without an amazing team that we do have. So we're utilizing two different, pieces when we're research and looking for targets to investigate.

00;23;10;19 - 00;23;33;27
Unknown
the first one is the original Thane white maps. Excuse me. Thane White was a historian, and he put together the first, map kind of detailing where some of these historic wrecks may be. he did have the key or me logged, but it wasn't anywhere near where he had originally mapped out. Yep yep yep. So we have a lot of generals like, okay, could be in this area.

00;23;34;02 - 00;23;53;24
Unknown
It could be in woods Bay, it could be in summers Bay. Or you know, there's also a lot of, newspaper archives, you know, written at the time of the boat sinking so we can compare like that sort of data. You know, somebody had put together some research. the other components are, you know, people who have personal stories or oral histories that they share with us.

00;23;53;27 - 00;24;16;20
Unknown
you know, for example, I think it was somebody we'd been talking to one of their relatives had met on the Holt Ferry, you know, their, their great grandfather and great grandfather or mother had, like, met on that ferry. So, you know, you have these these stories that really, like, tie the community get together, you know, associated with some of these sites.

00;24;16;20 - 00;24;37;14
Unknown
But, you know, they don't have a lot of, you know, they didn't have GPS back in the day. So it's like, okay, so here in summers Bay, we heard about a boat that sank and we think it's over here. So, you know, we're kind of able to pin down or at least narrow our search area, you know, a site as an area of the size of the north end of Flathead Lake is a lot to cover.

00;24;37;16 - 00;25;02;28
Unknown
But if we can narrow that down using, you know, newspaper articles or at least as much information we can, we can kind of bring that down to a smaller, more manageable search area. but yeah, it's it's an amazing it's an amazing team that we are working with. we've got, Julie Bottom, she's the director of the back, and she's really heading up a lot of the, the, kind of the more administrative side to this project.

00;25;03;00 - 00;25;36;10
Unknown
she's coordinating with, donors, you know, other individuals who are contributing and supplying some resource and materials to make this project work. we've got two amazing historians that are on the team. We've got Ed Gill Water and Kyle Stetler. they're just they're the bookworms, you know, they're doing a fantastic job digging through these histories and digging through these books and digging through these, historic news news articles, to really come up with some compelling, compelling sites to dive on and, also help narrow that search area down quite a bit.

00;25;36;12 - 00;25;58;20
Unknown
And, you know, that's the other thing about this project is it's a really we're really opening it up to community involvement. you know, a lot of private donors have, supplied their personal watercraft or like, boat, private boat launches or access to the lakes or rivers near these surveys. you know, we're getting stories from the general public.

00;25;58;20 - 00;26;18;22
Unknown
So, you know, anyone out there listening who has a personal story or something that's associated with, the steamboat history or the maritime history in the Flathead Lake or the river system? Like, we'd absolutely love to hear that, because that's all part of making this project move forward. And, you know, telling the story of our of our lakes and rivers.

00;26;18;24 - 00;26;39;00
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. So how do those people get Ahold of us? So the best way to reach out is through the back. CC the Bigfork, Bigfork Arts and Cultural Center. So you can check us out at BAC bigfork.org. And there is, contact us. you can also get a hold of Jeremy Weber here. I'm sure you'd be happy to take some of these stories as well.

00;26;39;02 - 00;26;55;07
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. oh. And dude, yeah. Jeremy, like, thank you so much for the things that you're doing. I mean, having this platform available to, you know, share our stories and, and help the public get more aware of the things that we're doing. Like, really, man, this is a pretty amazing resource, and I appreciate what you're doing.

00;26;55;07 - 00;27;15;06
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. If anyone out there does have, something they can offer to help make this to help move this project forward, you know, we're still looking for, different sizes of of vessels that we can utilize. I know that when we're doing the Demers ville scan in the Flathead River, we're going to be needing, several divers.

00;27;15;06 - 00;27;39;10
Unknown
So having a boat that's large enough to accommodate, 4 or 5, possibly even six divers and some support crew. when is that dive coming up? We have the Demers ville scan scheduled for, July 19th through the 27th. So that's the that's the tomorrow's Ville scan. You know, we only have a we have funding for just a couple more sites, right?

00;27;39;12 - 00;28;05;04
Unknown
So if, we want to do more projects, we have to get more funding in order to do that, right? I mean, with these challenges and these equipment failures and updates and maintenance and all that stuff, I mean, that that really is taking a pretty big chunk out of our budget. most of this stuff is, you know, processing the data, having the equipment, updating the equipment and decontaminating the equipment.

00;28;05;04 - 00;28;24;14
Unknown
And, you know, after every single dive or every single couple of dives at the blue ROV, I get to pull over things and do maintenance and repairs. Yeah. I mean, that's expensive equipment. It really is. But, you know, this is a community based project, and, you know, if the community is interested and we really want to continue this project.

00;28;24;17 - 00;28;46;09
Unknown
yeah, we do have some needs. And, yeah, we do have some resources for you guys to reach out and, contribute. If you guys want to help, help make this project move forward. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Well, that's going to do it for this episode of Maritime Mysteries of the Flathead. Thanks for hanging out with us today, and join us next time as we go back to the Great Depression era and dive into the mysteries of the Komi.

00;28;46;09 - 00;28;58;25
Unknown
And it's 86 years at the bottom of summers Bay. Thank you so much, Kyra. Nice. No problem. Looking forward to.

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