Northern Florida has a lot of those springs.
There are several near me including Morrison Springs and Vortex Springs. My middle name is Morrison and I assume that spring is named for someone in my family.
The last time I heard, Morrison Springs had claimed over 30 divers lives. I am not sure about Vortex but it too has claimed some. Some of these spring systems are huge and the outflow is also large.
You could not pay me enough to go into those caves even if I were an experienced diver. I do know one who says they are safe if you know what you are doing.
Cave diving is probably the most dangerous sport in the world.
Diving with Great Whites without a cage is less dangerous.
I used to scuba dive (PADI certified). Have seen some incredible things under the water.
That said, you could not pay me enough to cave dive. Diving itself is dangerous enough even if you are trained. I have seen certified divers make mistakes that almost got them killed. Also once had an equipment (regulator) failure at 110 feet. Scary, but had a backup (octopus) and simply went to the surface while taking proper safety stops. You cannot do that if your are in a cave.
Cave diving is exponentially more dangerous. As the sign in the article says, there’s nothing worth seeing in a cave that’s worth dying for.
Thanks for posting! I’m a caver but I would never cave dive. Way too dangerous.
On multiple years in Jr. high and high school in miami there would be news of cave diver deaths, followed by at least one teacher in classes at school going over how stupid it is to dive in caves without training and equipment.