The Woodville Karst Plain Project or WKPP, is a project and organization that maps the underwater cave systems underlying the

Woodville Karst Plain The Woodville Karst Plain is a karst area that runs from Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico separated by the Cody Scarp. This karst plain includes numerous first magnitude springs, including Wakulla- Leon Sinks Cave System, the lo ...

. This plain is a area that runs from

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, U.S. to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

and includes numerous

first magnitude spring A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fres ...

s, including

Wakulla Springs Wakulla Springs is located south of Tallahassee, Florida and east of Crawfordville in Wakulla County, Florida at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267. It is protected in the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. Description ...

, and the Leon Sinks Cave System, the longest underwater cave in the United States. The project grew out of a

cave diving Cave-diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers or, as in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, other ...

research and exploration group established in 1985 and incorporated in 1990 (by Bill Gavin and

Bill Main William "Bill" Hogarth Main is a cave diving pioneer who is best known as a developer in the 1980s, and the namesake of, the "Hogarthian gear configuration" that is a component of the " Doing It Right" (DIR) holistic approach to scuba diving. Ac ...

, later joined by Parker Turner, Lamar English and Bill McFaden, at the time the chairman of the NACD Exploration and Survey Committee). WKPP is the only organization currently allowed to dive some of these caves – which are all on State, Federal, or private land – due to the extreme nature of the systems and the discipline required to safely explore them, although these caves were explored extensively prior to the establishment of the WKPP. This is a controversial issue, as many people think these caves should be open to the public or, at the least, to other qualified cave diving groups and individuals. Recently, during 2007, one state-owned entrance of the Leon Sinks cave system has been reopened to other qualified cave divers. WKPP divers hold every deep (below ) distance record in underwater cave diving. WKPP director Casey McKinlay and

Jarrod Jablonski Jarrod Michael Jablonski (born April 24, 1969) is a pioneering technical diver and record setting cave diver as well as an accomplished business owner and operator. These business operations includHalcyon Manufacturing aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characte ...

system and how best to handle issues relating to such things as surface water runoff and other

nonpoint source pollution Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination (or pollution) of water or air that does not originate from a single discrete source. This type of pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered ...

issues. WKPP mapping has resulted in the State of Florida and the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

establishing a "greenway" surrounding the Leon Sinks cave system and a "protection zone" for Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, as well as numerous improvements in

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; sl ...

district operations, DOT road-building, and development planning. WKPP data has been the basis for multi-million dollar land purchase decisions to protect critical "below the surface" resources requiring protection.

DIR diving

The WKPP is notable for its part in the development of cave diving techniques and team diving protocols, the DIR method of

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

(which is the basis for the teaching methodology of

Global Underwater Explorers Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) is a scuba diving organization that provides education within recreational, technical, and cave diving. It is a nonprofit membership organization based in High Springs, Florida, United States. GUE was formed by ...

) and the use of the Halcyon PVR-BASC and RB80

rebreathers A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. Oxygen is ...

. DIR, an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for ''Doing It Right'', is a

holistic Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED On ...

approach to

. According to the DIR approach fundamental skills, teamwork, environmental awareness, and the use of highly optimized and streamlined equipment configuration are the primary fundamentals of diving. DIR proponents argue that through these essential elements, safety is improved by standardizing equipment configuration and procedures for preventing and dealing with emergencies, and out-of-air emergencies in particular.

Current research

On May 20, 2007, divers set off from

Turner Sink Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

to try to find a connection but were unable to when the cave became impassable after . On July 28, 2007, divers explored of new passage before discovering an exploration line from Wakulla Springs. On December 15, 2007, WKPP divers Casey McKinlay and Jarrod Jablonski completed a traverse from Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs, covering a distance of nearly . This traverse took approximately 7 hours, followed by 14 hours of decompression. Current projects include exploring, surveying, and mapping of the Wakulla-Leon Sinks Cave system, as well as coordinating between private, state, and federal agencies to help protect the flooded caves of the Woodville Karst Plain. Current WKPP exploration efforts in the Chip's Hole and Falmouth Cave Systems are also generating significant discoveries. In 2011, the Florida

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

adopted "A resolution recognizing the Woodville Karst Plain Project for its outstanding contributions to the State of Florida through scientific research and its dedication and tireless efforts to promote the protection of the state's precious natural water resources" (HR9053).

References

External links

* * * {{underwater diving, recdiv Diving organizations Diver organizations