Shark Tooth 101

Shark Tooth 101
My boat dive was cancelled. The forecast was for 78 F, 2-3 foot seas and SE wind. The Captain didn't think the viz would be good (read under 80 feet) and there was chop. Having been called a slacker by Sunny I needed a dive, so I went to Venice Beach. The seas were flat and it was only 63 F at 8:30AM but the sun was shining and there was the promise of a great day.
I was taking this opportunity to also try out a BPW so the day would be a learning experience in more ways than one.
The visibility was 1-5 feet, which is average for this area for some reason. I think it has to do with the currents but dont really know. The water temps were 61 F top to bottom with both current and surge.
Let us say that my initiation to BPW was slightly less graceful than a 3 Stooges episode, and I think that the fact that I was using one "slightly" larger than I needed had something to do with it. Or it could just be me. I will continue to work on this. But I did find several different teeth and am learning to identify them Sand Tiger Shark, long thin tooth and the root is V shaped
Lemon Shark, tooth is at an angle from root and not straight down
Bull Shark, tooth is straight up and down Dusky Shark triangular tooth at an angle from root
Some others I haven't identified yet Additionally I also found the dental plate from a Ray, they have no teeth but have this ridged dental plate which they grind their food with
and also the barbs from Rays which they loose regularly I also found 2 rocks that looked like teeth and a fossilized bone that looked like a rock. 65 minutes of diving... it is all good. Think I will give it a try again tomorrow.

Pompano Beach _ Abbey II Reef

Pompano Beach Dive #2
We moved on to the next site, a reef they refer to as Abbey Too, a north/south ridge 40-60 feet in depth.
The sun was shining brightly, the temperatures were about 80 F and several people had moved under the canopy to sit and suit up. One of the members was working diligently at pulling on her 3rd wetsuit. Apparently Floridians believe in layering to keep warm. Three 3ml wetsuits is their idea of layering.
We joined up with several of Walters friends and jumped in for a relaxing drift dive off of the reef. As we moved along I realized that I may recognize more types of fish than I thought. I saw several squirrel fish, blue tang, juvenile tang, blenny, parrotfish and several types of wrasse. There were a few that caught my attention that I would look up later which included a white spotted file fish and a trunk fish. While I was chasing the file fish some others in the group saw a sea turtle and some squid. I really like the reef dives, you never know what you will find as you poke about.
I surfaced with another diver from the group and we drifted perfectly during our 3 minute stop and came up practically next to the boat and climbed aboard. We relaxed while the boat moved about picking groups of divers out of the water. As we came upon the last group of divers, which included my dive buddy and ride home, the mate threw out the hang line and then we saw it......... more Portuguese Man O War...... right in the middle of the group of divers.....more specifically.... right next to Walter. OUCH! He caught it right around his neck, which immediately blew up. OUCH!
So............ After pumping him full of benadryl, he slept and I drove all the way home, unpacked the car, repacked my car and drove on back to my place. I hate driving.

Pompano Beach - Ancient Mariner

Pompano Beach Dive #1
I was invited to dive with the Caloosa Dive Club (Fort Meyers area) and after last week I was looking forward to it, things were looking up. Of course it was in Pompano Beach almost a 300 mile trip. I hate to drive, really. But I was going to share the driving with a dive buddy, Walter. I got to drive 130 miles to his house and he would drive the rest of the way. This would mean that I have to leave at O’Dark 30 (6:30AM to be exact) for a 1PM dive but that does seem to be the usual around here. But I didn’t have to drive it myself!!! Maybe...(More on this in dive #2, you know how my dives go guys)
Weather on the west coast was horrific and I received doom and gloom from the local dive shop as I filled my tanks, but I was determined.
I arrived early at Walters house and we packed up his jeep and off we went. Since we had gotten an early start and I had yet to see an alligator in alligator alley we stopped to try our luck. At first it seemed futile, but then I saw one! And saw another and saw another and then one really big one saw me and came over to take a look. They have an amazing speed, grace and dexterity in the water. They are definitely DIR. Luckily they cannot climb rocks. Having fulfilled another item on my Florida wish list we continued on our way.
We arrived in Pompano Beach early and stopped for breakfast. This caused us (some of you may remember my TGI Fridays troubles...this place must be part of the same company) to be late for the boat. We arrived with seconds to spare and loaded on board. There were 20-25 of us, the sun was shining and it was 79 F. Not a bad day for diving. This boat was different than others I have dived before. There was no dive platform just gates to each side which you walked up to and just made a giant stride into the water.
The first dive was on the Ancient Mariner wreck. This was the former USCG Cutter "Nemesis" that was decommissioned and turned into a floating restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. Due to her aging hull and the fact the restaurant was condemned for the largest outbreak of food poisoning in the history of Ft. Lauderdale, she was sunk as an artificial reef in 1991. It was not recommended we eat anything while on the wreck. We tied in at the bow and descended to the top deck. There was a bit of a current and the water temps were 74 F and visibility about 60 feet.
I made an initial swim all around the exterior of the wreck and my first observation was that there was little marine life about the exterior of the boat. I moved on to explore further, there were many large cut outs and swim throughs making this both fun and interesting . And once inside I found where all the fish were hiding! I made my way up to the top section which must have been the wheelhouse. This had multiple large windows encircling the entire portion of the structure. I peeked in through the openings and the fish were so thick inside it looked like a huge aquarium. I am still not good at identifying different fish so I just enjoyed the passing parade of marine life until it was time to ascend.
31 minutes at 69 feet, a most pleasant dive.
Upon surfacing the boat presented another new experience. The entry ladder was a straight up stainless steel thing similar to a pool ladder. I handed up my fins and climbed on up.
While the mate untied from the wreck we scanned the water and noticed what appeared to be some plastic bags floating about, as they got closer we realized our mistake. They were actually Portuguese Man O Wars. Lucky we were moving on to the next site...right?