In order to properly manage and conserve any cave system one has to know and understand what makes up that system. The NSS-CDS Underwater Cave Archiving Project is a systematic monitoring and recording program designed to record biological and water quality data in both the properties owned by the NSS-CDS and will include various other flooded cave systems in North Florida and nationwide. The project will collect and archive data in the following ways – Photographic survey, Systematic Fauna Counts, and Water Quality Monitoring.
Collection of fauna populations and photographic documentation has already begun over the past two years using teams of member volunteers from the NSS-CDS.
The NSS-CDS Conservation Committee has applied for a grant from the NSS for basic sensors that will record water quality parameters intended to be carried by a diver on all future data collection dives as a part of this project.