Trip Report Back in Florida, 2022 #1

[scubadada]

I haven't been down in SE Florida since December. Part of it was Omicron, part of it, family obligations. A long surface interval for me.

I flew down from Philadelphia to West Palm yesterday. The plane was completely full. Everyone at the airports and on the plane are still wearing masks. Everyone at National Car Rental wore masks. It was a different story at the grocery store, well less than half are wearing masks, perhaps a quarter.

I went out with JDC this morning on a Sawfish Expedition. I have signed up for this dive several times in the past, but it has always gotten blown out. I dived with my SB friend @Dan, who I will be going out with on Dolphin Dream to Tiger Beach and Bimini on Friday. I also got to dive with a long term friend, @OceanEyes, who I last dived with on the Castor in Sept of last year. Seas were a bit bigger than was predicted. Rather than 2-3, I would say 2-4 with some bigger. We got mildly bashed around at times. Water temperature was 77-78, visibility was around +/- 60 feet.

The first, Sawfish dive, was at Julie's Reef. We started in structure for the first 10-15 minutes, a single Lemon Shark, and then did the rest of the dive in featureless sand, well, some sand dollars. I'm told this is where they see the Sawfish. We were not lucky and got skunked. You go down, you look around, and you never know what you will see, or not. After more than a dozen years, I've still never seen a Sawfish, someday.

The second dive was at Lighthouse. At least one Lemon Shark, several Reef Sharks, a gorgeous Loggerhead, a huge school of Spadefish, and the usual reef fish.

I had fun diving, back again tomorrow.

 

[drrich2]

Congrat.s on being back in the water. A sawfish would be something special, but then again, a lot of divers would've been thrilled to see that lemon shark.

 

[Shabaday]

I went out of Riviera Beach with Stuart Scuba to Juno ledges middle of January this year....on the descent we had the privilege of having a large Sailfish go flying by....you blinked and it was gone! It was very cool

 

[scubadada]

I can't complain, I've seen some really great stuff in Boynton Beach, West Palm, and Jupiter. I've seen a couple of Tiger Sharks, 3 Great Hammerhead, a couple of Scalloped Hammerhead, a couple of Sailfish, a few Mantas, a few Eagle Rays. We see Bull Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Reef Sharks, and Sandbar Sharks quite often. There was a cute little Bonnethead in Boynton for a couple of years. So, I'm still looking for my Sawfish and my Great White.

 

[Redfoot]

Hope you have a great week of diving. Enjoy the Dolphin Dream- very interested to hear about that trip.

Stay safe!

 

[tekkydiver]

I haven't been down in SE Florida since December. Part of it was Omicron, part of it, family obligations. A long surface interval for me.

I flew down from Philadelphia to West Palm yesterday. The plane was completely full. Everyone at the airports and on the plane are still wearing masks. Everyone at National Car Rental wore masks. It was a different story at the grocery store, well less than half are wearing masks, perhaps a quarter.

I went out with JDC this morning on a Sawfish Expedition. I have signed up for this dive several times in the past, but it has always gotten blown out. I dived with my SB friend @Dan, who I will be going out with on Dolphin Dream to Tiger Beach and Bimini on Friday. I also got to dive with a long term friend, @OceanEyes, who I last dived with on the Castor in Sept of last year. Seas were a bit bigger than was predicted. Rather than 2-3, I would say 2-4 with some bigger. We got mildly bashed around at times. Water temperature was 77-78, visibility was around +/- 60 feet.

The first, Sawfish dive, was at Julie's Reef. We started in structure for the first 10-15 minutes, a single Lemon Shark, and then did the rest of the dive in featureless sand, well, some sand dollars. I'm told this is where they see the Sawfish. We were not lucky and got skunked. You go down, you look around, and you never know what you will see, or not. After more than a dozen years, I've still never seen a Sawfish, someday.

The second dive was at Lighthouse. At least one Lemon Shark, several Reef Sharks, a gorgeous Loggerhead, a huge school of Spadefish, and the usual reef fish.

I had fun diving, back again tomorrow.

They see them on the sand? Huh? There is a lot of sand out there, I'm not sure how they narrow it down.... Maybe they were making excuses for a bad drop? We see them quite frequently in the crystal clear shallows of Florida Bay when we are fishing the back country. Very impressive site to see them thrash around a school of mullet.

 

[Dan]

Here’s the video clip of that 2-tank boat dives:

 

[scubadada]

Nice video @Dan See you later this morning for another 2 dives in Jupiter

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I haven't been down in SE Florida since December. Part of it was Omicron, part of it, family obligations. A long surface interval for me.

I flew down from Philadelphia to West Palm yesterday. The plane was completely full. Everyone at the airports and on the plane are still wearing masks. Everyone at National Car Rental wore masks. It was a different story at the grocery store, well less than half are wearing masks, perhaps a quarter.

I went out with JDC this morning on a Sawfish Expedition. I have signed up for this dive several times in the past, but it has always gotten blown out. I dived with my SB friend @Dan, who I will be going out with on Dolphin Dream to Tiger Beach and Bimini on Friday. I also got to dive with a long term friend, @OceanEyes, who I last dived with on the Castor in Sept of last year. Seas were a bit bigger than was predicted. Rather than 2-3, I would say 2-4 with some bigger. We got mildly bashed around at times. Water temperature was 77-78, visibility was around +/- 60 feet.

The first, Sawfish dive, was at Julie's Reef. We started in structure for the first 10-15 minutes, a single Lemon Shark, and then did the rest of the dive in featureless sand, well, some sand dollars. I'm told this is where they see the Sawfish. We were not lucky and got skunked. You go down, you look around, and you never know what you will see, or not. After more than a dozen years, I've still never seen a Sawfish, someday.

The second dive was at Lighthouse. At least one Lemon Shark, several Reef Sharks, a gorgeous Loggerhead, a huge school of Spadefish, and the usual reef fish.

I had fun diving, back again tomorrow.

Not sure if it was the same site as "Julie's Reef," but my one sawfish sighting up there was at a spot with very fine sediment - on at least two other dives I've seen fresh impressions in the bottom that were clear enough to see the teeth on the saw. If it gets stirred up by weather the viz drops near to nothing and on other days the current can howl through.



I've been told National Marine Fisheries Service and FWC are not huge fans of directed dives to the sawfish sites; we still don't know why they're piling up there and getting close enough to flush them off the bottom is probably not a good thing. I'd have to look through my notes, but I want to say that about 15 ft tends to be the approach distance they startle at. With that said, it seems like the various dive charters have had pretty hit-or-miss luck and it doesn't seem like this aggregation is confined to just one particular spot. If they have other undisturbed sites and divers give them some space, that alleviates my concerns somewhat.

 

[scubadada]

We only made it halfway out today when we turned back from big swells and a short period. Initial destination was the Wreck Trek, that got modified to a reef dive at Bluffs, but that didn't work either. It was bigger than yesterday going out of the inlet, we got slammed a couple of times. Seas were mostly about 6 feet with very short period

A good try by Captain Tim, back again tomorrow to try for Lemon Drop