In memory of Marike Jasper

Marike Jasper was cave diver living near Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. She had been diving since she was a little girl, and had become totally addicted to cave diving. She was 3 star CMAS certified, PADI Open Water Instructor, and Full Cave certified by NACD and NSS-CDS, as well as being certified for Extended Range and Advanced Nitrox diving. She became cave certified in March, 1999 and quickly began acquiring experience. It was June, 1999 that she had the golden opportunity to explore and lay 2400 feet/ 730 meters of line on her first exploration dive. She named the cave system “Crustacea”.

Her remarkable talent for drawing included underwater cavern maps of Cenote Chickin Ha and Cenote Taj Mahal. In addition, she made an underwater map of upstream Cenote Mayan Blue to assist scientists with studying the cave environment. She was always helping cave divers with science and archeology. During the past few years she participated in several exploration projects searching for new cenotes and cave systems always wanting to learn more. The beginning of the year she had logged her 500th cave dive.

Jasper tried to be a member of expedition teams as often as possible. Expeditions there are organized several times a year, and one of her trips was the Yucatan 2000 expedition organized by Andreas Matthes. Their team explored the area to study the connection between directions of the cave systems and the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs, Xixulub.

Jasper wrote stories about all of her adventures on expedition and about special dives in the caves. It was her desire to publish all of these adventures in a book.

Sadly, on April 3rd 2004 Jasper took her own life to the shock of the many people who loved her. Her website will remain available for an indefinite time, both to remember her and to be something like her unpublished book.

SOURCE
http://infodeephorizon.blogspot.com/2004/11/tribute-to-marike-jasper.html?m=1