I’m finding that a lot of fishermen are interested
in the book,” the author said.
Michigan inland waters rival the Great Barrier Reef
and other parts of oceans for diversity of life, said Washburne,
whose snorkeling exploits range from the New Hebrides and Grand
Cayman to Isla Mujeres and Key Largo. In place of coral, our lakes
contain what she describes as a garden of vegetation.”
“It’s always a different experience because
you never know what you’ll see,” Washburne said. “I
think the big turtles were what surprised me. In one lake near Grand
Blanc, we ran into three that looked like 25 or 30 pounders.
She dedicated Snorkeling Guide to her husband, Martin
Ruiz. He introduced her to the sport, joined her in exploring Michigan
lakes last summer, and designed the book. Included are eight full-color
underwater photos of common fish, plus sections on getting into
snorkeling, do’s and don’ts, photography, equipment, and
fish and aquatic plant identification.
LANSING STATE JOURNAL
Kathleen Lavey
June 13, 2000
Passing by at 70 mph on I-69, Lake Interstate looks
like a serene, solitary puddle.
But under the surface of the small inland lake, turtles perform
underwater ballet. Schools of young bluegills swim back and forth,
the mottles and stripes on their sides unique to this environment.
Floating above them is Nancy Washburne, dressed in
a wetsuit, breathing through a snorkel and capturing the world below
with her video camera.
“I knew you could snorkel in Hawaii or Mexico
or the Caribbean, but I had no idea you could do it here,”
she said.
Now, Washburne wants everybody to know what she has
learned: There’s lots of life to look at underwater, and just
about any local lake with public access has something to offer.
She will show some of her video and discuss her self-published
book, “Snorkeling Guide to Michigan Inland Lakes,” at
7PM today at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Okemos.
Washburne, who ran a local travel agency and still
books some group trips from home, also teaches marketing at Michigan
State University. During the warm months, though, snorkeling is
her top priority. She started snorkeling the state’s inland
lakes in 1992 while camping with her son, Martin Washburne. Martin,
now 20, didn’t like it, but his mother was hooked. Washburne’s
husband, Martin Ruiz, sometimes snorkels with her and helped her
format her book.
Because snorkeling involves floating on the surface
of the water facedown, Washburne and many other snorkelers choose
to wear a nylon suit to protect arms, legs and back from sunburn.
Washburne does not advocate wearing fins because their action can
stir up sediments on a lake bottom, making it difficult to see.
Washhburne’s video gives people a good idea of
what they might see underwater, said Ron Zeeb of Underwater World,
who is a snorkeler and diver himself.
After watching her videos I was wondering, “What
are we dong out in the middle of the lake when all the interesting
stuff is in the shallows?” he joked.
Washburne’s East Lansing home shows her affection
for the underwater world. A coffee table made of wood from a Great
Lakes shipwreck holds a dozen fish figurines, both realistic and
whimsical. She wears a ceramic fish necklace with her tropical print
dress. Her table is set for dinner with --what else?--plates shaped
like fish.
Her video includes images of snapping turtles performing
a mating dance, male fish guarding their eggs, the long bodied,
narrow-nosed northern pike, known as the water wolf, and a male
bowfin escorting a school of its tiny black offspring across a lake
in a ritual known as “walking the cloud.”
Washburne prefers to snorkel around the edges of lakes,
near weeds and submerged wood or roots where fish like to congregate.
“Fish like structure,” she said. “If
you see branches or water lilies, they love to gather in them.”
Sometimes a little patience is required as snorkelers
stake out a structure and wait for fish to appear--but not too much.
“Twenty minutes is the longest I’ve ever waited for something
to develop,” she said. That something could include anything
from a fish fight to spawn to curious turtles swimming up to the
camera to see what’s going on. Like birds, male fish often
are brighter colored than females. Some fish, such as the pike can
live for up to 50 years.
“Fish are like cats, dogs and birds,” she
said. “They have individual personalities, even within the
same species.”
Although Washburne has paddled her way around many
inland lakes, there’s more to see. She has been doing some
snorkeling in the moving water of the Au Sable River and recently
checked out a river where sea lamprey spawn. The key: always going
back for more. “It could be very quiet one day, and the joint
will be jumping the next day,” she said.
GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
by Andrea Tamboer
July 27, 2000
From watching a pair of snapping turtles mate to following
five largemouth bass on an underwater tour, Nancy Washburne has
seen just about everything in Michigan’s inland lakes.
The Michigan State University marketing professor
and avid snorkeler has spent more than eight years “as a wet,
soggy mess,” recording the underwater habits of the state’s
fish species. Those images have been captured on video, which she
shows to various community groups, and in her book “Snorkeling
Guide to Michigan Inland Lakes,” which is available in local
bookstores.
Washburne’s adventure began in 1992 when she
took her then 12-year-old son camping and brought along a snorkel
and mask for something to do. Before leaving, she contacted the
state DNR and MSU fisheries department for a list of lakes that
would be clear enough for them to view underwater life while snorkeling.
“They knew the water chemistry and what kind
of fish lived in which lakes,” she said. “But they had
no idea about visibility, which lakes were clear and which weren’t.”
Washburne was dumbfounded that a state with nearly 11,000 lakes,
1000 of them with public access had no such listing or records.
And while she didn’t set out to create such an account, that’s
exactly what resulted after years behind a mask. (no fins, she says
they stir up too much sediment and spoil all your fun.)
Her nearly 300-page book covers 480 of Michigan’s
inland lakes, categorized by county. And over the years, she’s
encountered her share of detractors. “You know, people just
can’t believe there are things to see in the inland lakes,”
she said. “They’ve snorkeled in the Caribbean and other
parts of the world and they just can’t imagine it.”
But the East Lansing resident says the state’s
underwater world rivals any of the world’s great attractions.
And she ought to know; she’s snorkeled all over the globe,
including the Red Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, Mexico and the Caribbean.
And she’s found freshwater snorkeling has several advantages.
