Underwater, Live!

		Visitors to Pier 26 took a vicarious journey into the murky Hudson River on April 21, as two divers showed them the harbor’s hidden depths via live television and fish-eye-view commentary. The pictures may not seem riveting—fuzzy green algae on a rotten piling, a slab of cement—yet the real-time sights and sounds sometimes proved electric. “Every second, every moment is a new discovery,” said Ludger Balan, diving in the waters near the pier with Tim Gamble, both of the scuba group Urban Divers. “I see something new every time.” Cathy Drew, director of the River Project on Pier 26, where the video show took place, said she had often gone snorkeling in the river, but never seen what lay deeper down. “I had an image of it all, and it’s identical to what he showed,” said Drew, who was able to identify some seven species of underwater plant life. “It was so great, like seeng a dream come to life.”