Q&A with Laboratory Planner Dahlia Creem
How long have you been diving and what certifications have you earned?
I have been certified for 2 ½ years. My husband has been certified for about 10 years. I actually had to get over my fear of trying scuba diving due to all the things I had heard that could go wrong. I did a ‘dive with Santa’ in the pool at Aquatic Specialties and got very comfortable with the idea of getting scuba certified after meeting and diving with the dive instructors. Dave Coyle and Graham Birch in particular have been great instructors and are very good at letting me take my time and ease me into new things at my own pace.
So far, my highest certification level is Advanced Open Water. I also am certified for Nitrox, Night & Limited Visibility, Navigation, Equipment Techniques, and Deep Diving. My husband and I have it on our list to also get Reef Renewal Diving, Dry Suit Diving, Ice Diving, and Wreck Diving certifications. So far, night diving is my favorite!
Let’s talk about night diving, because that sounds terrifying.
Night diving is absolutely intriguing to me! I never realized that so many creatures go to sleep at night and seeing fish sleep is so peaceful to me. I also love seeing nocturnal sea creatures and nighttime behavior changes such as eels hunting, octopi moving around / changing colors, squid using their jet population to move around (it looks so alien!), barracuda hunting, arrow crabs crawling around (they look like daddy long leg spiders), tarpon feeding off smaller fish, basket stars unrolling and eating plankton, and (when lucky) coral spawning.
I also love that during night diving you can see more of the vibrant colors of the reefs and oceans you are visiting. During the day, as you go deeper the sunlight gets absorbed making certain colors harder to see depending on your depth. At night however, your dive light brings those colors out more easily. It’s also possible to do a “glow dive” at night by using fluorescent dive lights. I haven’t done this type of dive yet but it is on the list to try! Corals are my favorite sea creature and seeing their true colors at night and change of behaviors throughout the day brings me a lot of joy.
What is it that drew you to diving?
The ocean has always been a huge part of my life growing up. My grandfather would bring me to the beach and tide pools on the New Hampshire coast and Glouster, MA on many weekends during the summer. I really enjoyed exploring the tide pools and snorkeling in the ocean. As a kid I was obsessed with sea turtles and dolphins. I also was a huge fan of Jacques Cousteau, an oceanographer, diver, and co-inventor of the Aqua-lung (first worldwide / commercial successful open-circuit SCUBA) and I read his book series “The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau” often as a kid. When I met my husband, we shared our love for the ocean by watching many of “Jonathan Bird’s Blue World” episodes. My husband, who was already a diver, eventually convinced me to try scuba diving and I have been completely captivated with diving since.
Where have you dived?
I have dived locally in New England including New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I have also dived in Roatan, Honduras; Cozumel, Mexico; Bonaire; and Cancun, Mexico. Each I have traveled to has had a special place in my heart. Roatan is where I finished my open water diving certification and got to see coral restoration trees for the first time. In Bonaire, I got to do many night dives, see coral spawning for the first time, and help with cleaning coral trees. In Cozumel my husband and I went on a trip organized by DiveTalk and got to listen to and dive with many amazing cave divers and cave explorers including Cristina Zenato, Richard Harris, Jonathan Bird, Edd Sorensen, Douglas Ebersole, Mike Young and the founders of DiveTalk Woody Alpern and Gus Gonzalez.
How have you been able to use your knowledge of aquatics in your project work at HERA?
I am a very hands on and visual learner. Seeing how scientists work in their spaces and being able to “literally” walk in their shoes for a day helps me better understand the needs of the spaces and the users I am designing for. Seeing and working with the water and husbandry systems in person has also helped me understand the intricacies better and I learn what questions I need to be asking of the scientists and manufacturers to get the systems designed right. I am very grateful for every facility and manufacturer who has let me visit and volunteer and I look forward to learning even more in the future!