Divers drop sub into Blue Spring

They may not live beneath the waves, and there certainly isn’t enough room to have all their friends on board. But two Sarasota brothers with big plans and a talent for design are immersing themselves in Jackson Blue Spring this week as they try to launch a dream. 
Russell and Doug Canfield have designed and built three bright yellow one-man submarines. Throughout the week, they took two of the subs underwater to explore and photograph a jewel among Jackson County’s natural resources.
“We’ve been diving for 30 years or so,” said Russell Canfield. “And the Florida springs are some of the most interesting places. Blue Spring is extraordinary for photography.”
He and his brother expect to have the footage ready for a new company Web site soon, and from there will use it to seek out a number of opportunities.
One of those, he said, is creating a reality show based on marine exploration. He’ll likely use the material from Blue Spring to shop the idea around.
Another is to get investors to come on board to finance a fleet of the pint-sized watercraft, which allow divers to explore underwater without bulky air tanks strapped to their backs.
The brothers have been designing and building various submarines for more than a quarter-century. These models, they hope, will be the ones that catch the fancy of divers worldwide.
They’re called Fugusubs, and are taken from the Japanese name for the poisonous puffer fish that look and behave quite a bit like the subs.
The motors, for instance, are in the same general area on the craft as the pectoral fins on the fish. The puffer fish can inflate itself with air, just as the vessel can use water to raise and submerge itself.
The vessels weigh about 1,100 pounds each and are not quite eight feet long. They can travel about 3 mph and are maneuvered with controls not unlike those on lawn mowers, which allow zero-radius turns. Because they are all-electric, they cause no pollution to the water.
Russell Canfield further described how they operate.
“You drive it on the surface like a boat, and when you get where you want to go, you flood the interior to the hatch level so that from the stomach on up, you’re dry.”
The bubble hatch opens up, allowing divers to leave the vessel, explore, and then re-establish the air pocket when they get back in.
While outside the vessel, the divers get air from a breathing apparatus attached to an extension hose, sending oxygen from an onboard supply.
When it’s time to surface, the vessel expels water to bring it up.
The Canfields estimate they’ve spent $200,000 on the build and design, and hope their investment will pay off in a big way.
At any rate, they say, they’ve enjoyed exploring Blue Spring and working with Cave Adventures, a local dive shop on Merritt’s Mill Pond.