If I swim in the ocean, I have a shark thought. Not a bad one, but just a little one.
~ Tea Leoni
I am just about done here in Florida, so I decided to take a ride over to the East Coast and try my hand at shark diving. The lemon sharks congregate around this time each year off the coast of Jupiter, Florida, lying along the ocean floor in what is believed to be a mating process.
I am just about done here in Florida, so I decided to take a ride over to the East Coast and try my hand at shark diving. The lemon sharks congregate around this time each year off the coast of Jupiter, Florida, lying along the ocean floor in what is believed to be a mating process.
I went to Tampa and saw the musical Jersey Boys and then returned and left Anna Maria Island at 4AM, heading for the Jupiter Dive Center and a 9AM boat. I highly recommend the musical but can tell you first hand the drive is NOT fun. The trip was long … and upon arriving at the dock I was having some problems with my regulator, so I left it with the shop tech and set up another regulator for the dive. I was leery of putting my Sherwood on the setup so went with my long hose….big mistake…..
I loaded on the boat and set up my tank, with the anaconda of regulators and my little pony….yes Mark, I tightened the bands.
Due to the winds we headed out a little farther off shore looking for some decent visibility and arrived on a reef in about 90 fsw. This was to be a drift dive and everyone launched off the back of the boat one after the other…. almost everyone …..yes …. can you believe it ….. I wasn’t the first one in this time. As I wrestled to make the long hose and the pony play nice, the Captain reminded me that the theory of a drift dive was that you moved along in the water and the other divers were doing just that. I grabbed a handful of hose and bounced my head off the pony’s first stage and jumped in the water. I would manage.
Catching up to the group rather quickly we dropped down to see who was home. There was the usual assortment of colorful fish swimming about while huge sponges and corals swayed in the current. In the sand just off the reef, a huge loggerhead turtle lumbered along, making his way to where ever it is turtles go, while large French Angelfish swam in and out of the coral. And there were sightings of spotted moray eel and white frilly fan worms and a large goliath grouper. One of the other divers had explained to me the difference in the assorted grouper, with the goliath being distinguished by the square shape of their fins and tail. I think their gi-normo size is a dead give away but the square cut of them is quite prominent now that I know what to look for. But, alas, we spent 49 minutes admiring the marine life, but there was not a single shark.
Two of our group were spear fishing and had done well. In the cooler sat a huge red snapper and a Cobia over 3 feet long. What a catch!
We headed on over to Loggerhead Reef, a similar reef although smaller in size and about 75 fsw, to see if we could fair better.
Having spent the first dive absolutely wrestling with the hose constantly catching on the pony, I switched out r my trusty Sherwood and jumped in on schedule with high hopes for dive two.
The colorful fish were large and abundant on this reef. Yellow and black butterfly fish in every pattern imaginable, huge vibrantly colored french angelfish, and hoards of squirrelfish. And again….no shark….Oh well….there is still tomorrow.
We drifted along, taking in the sights. These included an enormous moray eel which I followed for a bit…..until he stopped to take a look at me. So I moved on along, giving him his privacy.
The dive master began pointing at something off in the sand and I moved closer to see what it was. There in the sand was the outline of a manta ray. The biggest I have ever seen. There are first time homebuyers purchasing less square footage than this thing. The Dive master would later mention that he saw the tail first and thought it was a fishing pole dropped in the water before making out the rest of this behemoth. It slowly twitched as we hovered nearby watching, sharpening the outline of its body in the sand before rising up and undulating away.
Around the 47 minute mark the water cooled a bit and began to darken and so we headed on up.
The boat was large and clean and the Captain and crew helpful and knowledgeable. Definitely one I would recommend. I am coming back tomorrow to try again. Maybe we will find the elusive lemon shark then….for now…. I think I will try and find me one of those umbrella drinks…with a lemon in it.