Fathom Five and Flower Pots: geography, history, geology, literature and math lessons

Let me introduce you to the Fathom Five National Marine Conservation Park by way of geography, history, geology, literature and math lessons.

Let’s start with the geography lesson: Established in 1971 to protect its unique aquatic ecosystem, Fathom Five reaches out for 114 square km from the Bruce peninsula into Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. And there is no better way to visit a marine park than aboard a Zodiac (Michel’s favorite mode of transportation).

Fathom Five is historically important as 22 shipwrecks lie within the park’s boundaries. The water’s clarity caused by a natural absence of silt and algae is striking. There are great scuba diving opportunities but we decided to remain dry and observe two of the park’s wrecks from the side of our tour boat. You can see below photos of the Sweepstakes schooner lying on the bottom of the lake at a depth of approximately 40 feet.

The zodiac then zipped us over to Flower Pot Island famous for its distinctive rock formations known as “flowerpots”. I think the photo speaks for itself as to why they call them flowerpots.

In case you were wondering, the flower pots are carved by waves that slowly erode away the pillar’s softer limestone on the bottom, while the harder dolomite (another type of limestone) at the top survives. And that’s it for your geology lesson.

As for your literature lesson: did you recognize the park’s name from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest:

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fate

But doth suffer a sea change

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell

Hark! Now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.

For your math fun fact: a fathom is a unit of measure that equals 1.8 meters (six feet), so five fathom would be about nine meters or about 30 feet.

And that’s it for my educational post of the week!