Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[Scuba_Jenny]

This is another first for us, Kelly only got one shot before it vanished into the sand.
Was SO happy we got a proof of life pic. Check that crazy dorsal fin!
I will be Keeping a "sharp" myopic eye out for another in the future...
I think they are fairly rare given we have never seen one in all our day and night dives there.

Awesome! I saw one a couple years ago under one of those pyramid weights that held down one of the swim buoys.

FWC shows up pretty fast on the weekend if you report spearfishing at BHB.

Weekdays not so much....

I called FWC one time on some spearos. They got in the water, were in 20 min., out, loaded up gear and left. No FWC

What would I like to see happen at the bridge? Some sort of underwater marking near the boat channel to let divers and snorkelers know when they are getting close.
Years ago somebody put down a white rope as a DM project going along the west span. Something similar would be fine.. just something..
I'd like to see smaller class sizes. Now with a shop on the grounds they will be doing classes too, and it would behoove them to raise the bar really high on what good training looks like.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Awesome! I saw one a couple years ago under one of those pyramid weights that held down one of the swim buoys.



I called FWC one time on some spearos. They got in the water, were in 20 min., out, loaded up gear and left. No FWC

What would I like to see happen at the bridge? Some sort of underwater marking near the boat channel to let divers and snorkelers know when they are getting close.
Years ago somebody put down a white rope as a DM project going along the west span. Something similar would be fine.. just something..
I'd like to see smaller class sizes. Now with a shop on the grounds they will be doing classes too, and it would behoove them to raise the bar really high on what good training looks like.

What facilities does the shop on the grounds have?

This spearfisherman was not very receptive to requests for him to fish elsewhere in a legal manner.

[video=youtube_share;9TBUw6s4i7A]http://youtu.be/9TBUw6s4i7A[/video]

 

[Arubandi07]

What facilities does the shop on the grounds have?

This spearfisherman was not very receptive to requests for him to fish elsewhere in a legal manner.

[video=youtube_share;9TBUw6s4i7A]http://youtu.be/9TBUw6s4i7A[/video]

Ahhh, cut the man some slack!! ... Probably just one of 'em Libertarians, that's all. Be happy, he didn't go for the "stand your ground" routine

 

[Lostdiver71]

I saw three of those Honeycomb Moray's on my last dive at the bridge!


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[Biminitwist]

Yep, that is the spadefish slayer. Tough fish to hunt too, I think they call it the white sea bass of the Caribbean.

Jenny- I thought they had markers for the boat channel, they are white foamy tracks near the surface with a shiny thing at the end....

Wish I could've seen the honey comb moray, he sure didn't stick around, Next time!

John

---------- Post added July 16th, 2014 at 09:11 PM ----------

I saw three of those Honeycomb Moray's on my last dive at the bridge!


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Photos???
If it is a time of year thing, I need to get back in.
That dorsal fin was distinctive>>>>
John

 

[T.C.]

The permit issue has existed for a long time....no shop should have been conducting dive classes at the BHB, without a permit. Before, there was no sense of how to begin to enforce it.,..TC raised some good points they will need to consider, before it will make any sense to try and begin enforcing this.
The collection of fish issue is critical, and I think most here will be happy to have these guys wandering around, looking for illegal collectors--with cell phone in hand

I agree with you on this; I think that curtailing collecting and spearing may be their best contribution. Get enforcement of that done first; and phase in policing bad diving classes.

I think Arubandi07 may be spot on; these shops seen a chance to make money and jumped at it. Now they've just got to figure out how to do that. I saw this exact situation play out before; in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was ALWAYS a huge, unworkable, self-destructive mess. Adjectives fail me in describing how bad this sort of contracting is.

The second issue; is it true that these aren't local shops? How do you think the real local shops will react to a outside shop controlling/ having authority over "their dive site"? I think I can hear some lawyers popping champagne bottles now... I just don't see that part of this going well.

 

[danvolker]

I agree with you on this; I think that curtailing collecting and spearing may be their best contribution. Get enforcement of that done first; and phase in policing bad diving classes.

I think Arubandi07 may be spot on; these shops seen a chance to make money and jumped at it. Now they've just got to figure out how to do that. I saw this exact situation play out before; in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was ALWAYS a huge, unworkable, self-destructive mess. Adjectives fail me in describing how bad this sort of contracting is.

The second issue; is it true that these aren't local shops? How do you think the real local shops will react to a outside shop controlling/ having authority over "their dive site"? I think I can hear some lawyers popping champagne bottles now... I just don't see that part of this going well.

Little Deeper is local..they are one of our boats from the Lake Park Marina....Stuart Dive, has actually been a member of the Palm Beach Dive association for close to a year now, so the other operators know them well.
This does not mean all the other operators will like this
I'd be all for trying my best to give the new guys ideas on how to be as good as they can be in this new capacity....The Park had to do something to come to terms with the BHB rapidly becoming such a famous dive site.....so at least the process has begun.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Stuart Scuba has also been hosting night dives for a little while as well. They aren't a very old shop either. Now that they have a shop at BHB, they might look into re-branding into a name that is not location based, but to me, one of the great parts of scuba diving is getting to support multiple local businesses, and every business is a local business if I'm there with a tank to fill

One of the worst parts of scuba diving is hearing of any shop bad mouthing any other shop. I really think very highly of all the local shops, even the ones I don't make it to very often. I spread my fill money around as equally as I can, but I don't like to spend money at shops if I get an earful about the other shops while I'm there. For me, one more shop means one more place to spend money.

I'm hesitant to discuss policing of the site. It's difficult to control crappy diving like simple stirring of the bottom, which swimmers and marine life also do quite a lot of, so I think it's better to not worry about that and instead focus on the measurable behaviours like spearing, collecting, or instructing without a permit.

I would like to see more channel pilings and more float balls for the swimming area.

 

[0002s]

Diving Palm Beach - Little Deeper Charters

As of July 15th, Little Deeper will be running out of Phil Foster Park.

I imagine divers will now be able to get higher priced fills, gear, rentals, and replacement parts all for the convenience of not having to give up their parking space.

i don't know how any 3rd party can police the water when they are not the police and will only be able to call the FWC the same as any citizen who sees a law being broken. Maybe the FWC will respond faster to the LD and SD when they call.

All and all they are going to be 10-15 less parking spaces open to the general public.

 

[danvolker]

Diving Palm Beach - Little Deeper Charters

As of July 15th, Little Deeper will be running out of Phil Foster Park.

I imagine divers will now be able to get higher priced fills, gear, rentals, and replacement parts all for the convenience of not having to give up their parking space.

i don't know how any 3rd party can police the water when they are not the police and will only be able to call the FWC the same as any citizen who sees a law being broken. Maybe the FWC will respond faster to the LD and SD when they call.

All and all they are going to be 10-15 less parking spaces open to the general public.

I read that as them "adding" some parking spaces..in that the building they now have on the north side across the water ( on singer Island) has some additional parking.

Speaking of parking and spaces....with all the boat spaces at Phil foster Park...I think some of us regulars could look into finding cheap and tiny trailers that "could" hold a small raft...and then we get the boat pass for parking
If anyone has any sourcing for a small and cheap trailer, please let me know. I would be fine towing this on a dive ( about 4 feet by 2.5 feet) at BHB, if it meant Parking would be a non-issue....and then I would just leave the tank on the Tooka, as that is the concept with Surface supplied air. Or use one of these
--these are available at Florida Freedivers, and could also hold a tank, meaning that you would just add the Brownies Kayak hose to it...