Blacktip Reef Sharks in Cozumel

[Sloeber]

Hey all,

This past week I dropped in on 8 juvenile blacktips schooling in the shallows of Palancar. Wouldn't you know it we had 3 GoPro's with us that morning - all 3 left on the boat. Surely no one will believe us. However, back in Palancar today and sure enough the little fellas were right there again! This time I had my GoPro with me to capture the action. On the first day the school swam with us for a solid 5 minutes unafraid. Today, however, my divers were not "shark friendly" and as soon as I gave the shark signal they swam the opposite direction! So I snagged about 15 seconds of video so nobody could call me a liar then tracked down my shark-scared divers hahaha. Both times the blacktips were over the shallow reef and joined us literally a minute after entering the water. Almost as if they heard us enter the water and came swimming over to see the commotion.

Our second dive today was Cedral, and we saw a solo blacktip at about 80 feet on the wall here, too.

Chatting with our slip neighbor it seems they've seen the blacktips on the Palancar system their last 3 dives there (over 10 days). So they are clearly staying in the area for a few weeks now. Hopefully it continues!

Anyway, I uploaded the video to YouTube and it looks awful! Sorry about the quality but it seems YT compressed it more than it should.

 

[tursiops]

I think you mean a blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus), not a blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus). The latter are found in the Pacific.

 

[Sloeber]

Common names be damned (apologies for the word "reef"), you are correct in that I mean Carcharhinus limbatus.

 

[DjDiverDan]

The Black Tips have been around for a while, although they seem to be restricted to the southern end of the island. I've seen groups of juveniles on Columbia Shallows in December 2014, and near the southern end of Palancar in December 2015. Both times they were fairly shy - they would approach divers only if they remained fairly still and quiet; any commotion and they moved away very quickly.

 

[bethie]

Saw 2 at Tunich this afternoon!
Or maybe just plain reef sharks. Exciting, whatever they were.

 

[Sloeber]

The Black Tips have been around for a while, although they seem to be restricted to the southern end of the island. I've seen groups of juveniles on Columbia Shallows in December 2014, and near the southern end of Palancar in December 2015. Both times they were fairly shy - they would approach divers only if they remained fairly still and quiet; any commotion and they moved away very quickly.

Yes, they come and go, disappearing for large periods of time. I also see them sporadically in the deep at the south end, but only as solitary adults. As noted, however, the juveniles are currently in town currently in the shallows. Most dive shops at the docks are talking about them. It's definitely the buzz of the island right now.

 

[zider]

We saw 5 of them towards the end of our dive at P. Horseshoe just over a week ago. My buddy hasn't updloaded his video yet but I will post a link as soon as it's available.

 

[Charred]

There are 7-8 of them hanging out in the Palancar area right by the cement block that used the have the statue. We saw them each time we passed the block.

They are juveniles so maybe three or four feet long.

This was last week....last week in August.

 

[diver0008]

Saw 2 at Tunich this afternoon!
Or maybe just plain reef sharks. Exciting, whatever they were.

Exhibit A:

and then there was this: