Florida Keys Women in Diving

FLORIDA KEYS -- Many people journey to the Florida Keys each year to dive or snorkel the region's rich underwater environment, which encompasses attractions from fabled shipwrecks to the continental United States' only living coral barrier reef. While discovering these underwater wonders, they also can discover and be inspired by Keys women who are widely renowned for their diving accomplishments.
At the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorada, visitors come within inches of the earliest diving machines, as well as exhibits illustrating the significant contributions made by men and women in the progression of modern-day scuba diving and underwater exploration. One of those influential women is the museum's co-founder, Dr. Sally Bauer, an accomplished lecturer, physician and diving historian.
Bauer and her late husband Joe began diving as a hobby that enabled them to disconnect from the world and escape the stresses of their work in the medical profession. What kept them diving, however, was their fascination with the marine biology of aquarium fish and a penchant for collecting. Their collection of artifacts was so extensive that they co-authored a chapter of "The Pictorial History of Diving" and helped found the Historical Diving Society of the United States and the United Kingdom.
They moved to the Keys full time in 1997.
The Bauers' dream, the History of Diving Museum, was born as a not-for-profit educational institution in 2000. Today it houses the world's largest collection of historic diving artifacts spanning 4,000 years, including a full-scale replica of an all-wood diving bell; the Parade of Nations, an unparalleled collection of 25 historic hard-hat dive helmets from around the world; and the Joe Bauer Research Library, which provides a resource for diving history scholars.
"The Keys are the only place that you can drive and dive on a coral reef," Sally Bauer said. "It just seemed natural that this is where we should have the museum."
The museum, she emphasized, is not just for divers — it's for anyone who wants to know more about man's quest to explore under the sea.
In 2011, Bauer was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame, a professional honor society whose members span a wide variety of fields including underwater exploration, science, medicine, training and education, marine archeology and more. Fittingly, in March 2015, Bauer presented another pioneering Keys woman diver, Amy Slate, with a WDHOF membership pin, emblazoned with a woman carrying a torch.

Amy Slate is the founder and owner of Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo.
"I feel so blessed that my life's work has been involved with providing a comfortable, safe dive resort for divers of all ages, an environment conducive to sharing and teaching them about our amazing underwater world, to love and admire the precious creatures, protect them and help our oceans thrive for future generations," she said of her induction into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
Slate's love of the underwater environment blossomed before she was 10 years old during a Keys visit and a swim with Flipper the dolphin that forever cemented her connection to the oceans and marine life. She became a certified diver in 1976 and never looked back.
Over the years, Slate studied dive resorts in French Polynesia; Bonaire; Cozumel, Mexico; and the Caribbean, and in 1994 opened Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort. The property and its name, "Amoray," were born from Amy's affinity for the ocean and a play on her Italian family roots in the province of Sant' Agata di Puglia.
Slate is actively involved with the Florida Keys' Reef Environmental Education Foundation, Coral Restoration Foundation, Monroe County schools, Everglades National Park and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. For the latter, Amoray was designated a Blue Star Operator, a program that promotes conservation of the marine environment.
The pioneering diver believes the Florida Keys are still the best place to dive.
"Not everyone can live their passion," Slate said. "But if you do what you love, the rest will follow."

That same passion drives Marathon resident Rachel Bowman to achieve milestones that other recreational divers envy. Bowman moved to the Keys from Wrightsville Beach, N.C., 14 years ago, and has been certified to dive for less than five years. Yet in that time she has become a dedicated lionfish huntress, having speared nearly 7,500 lionfish in just the past year.
With the help of a small handful of fellow divers, she is committed to depopulating the reefs of this invasive predator — one that reportedly can live for up to 15 years and grow up to 19 inches in length, eating smaller fish within two inches of its own size.
"With every lion[fish] I spear, I'm saving the juvenile fish around it, and I'm preventing that lion from breeding," Bowman said.
Bowman has recently ventured into the commercial sale of lionfish, whose filets are white and flaky like hogfish, another local fish favorite. Hurtful spines containing venom, not poison, are removed during cooking preparation and the meat is harmless. Lionfish can be prepared tastily and easily as ceviche, broiled, baked, sautéed or fried, and has made its way into supermarkets and onto the regular menus at local restaurants.
Bowman spears in waters ranging from 80 feet to 150 feet deep, working along reefs and wrecks. She even collects and submits lionfish population data to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, citing the importance of education and outreach programs.
"We have noticed a decline in lionfish this year in the areas we work," Bowman said. "Our reefs here in the Keys are basically the nursery for the entire ocean; it is extremely important to keep the lionfish out of it."
Lobster and stone crab trappers also have reported fewer lionfish in the areas where Bowman and her dive team work.
She says her favorite "tool" is the Lionfish Zookeeper, a newly patented lightweight mega-containment device that has doubled her lionfish gathering efforts per dive, safely holding up to 50 lionfish.
Bowman, a licensed boat captain, is fully committed to furthering her dive training. She already is certified in a roster of specialties including Nitrox and rescue diving, and is currently pursuing divemaster leadership and technical diving accreditations.
"I'm so lucky to live in an area with multiple, awesome dive shops that offer classes, and I like having different instructors for different things," said Bowman. "You always learn more than you signed up for."