The marine forecast was far too enticing calling for 1 foot seas or less, and recent local dive reports too exciting with lots of shark sightings to go to work on Monday. Instead @flyingDiver75 and I headed out with ScubaTech for a morning of diving. The forecast proved accurate; six miles offshore the Gulf of Mexico was still as smooth as a lake. We arrived at a local favorite site, Whitehill Reef, a little after 9AM and dropped anchor. A giant stride later we were descending to the natural limestone reef 85' below. At around 50 feet the reef finally began to come into view, not the best visibility but more than sufficient.
Whitehill Reef never disappoints with it's incredible biodiversity. Particularly notable on this dive were the large schools of jack-knifefish, but the usual assortment of frogfish, batfish, toadfish, scorpionfish, filefish, cowfish, angelfish, and bait fish filled the reef. It's also never too hard to find a few spotted moray, a particular one quite impressive in size.
During our surface interval one diver mentioned getting a glimpse of a shark on descent; excellent! The second dive was on the nearby (few hundred yards) and apparently quite sharky Thomas Hayward Libertyship. I've seen a shark every time I've dived this sight, typically a sandbar shark with it's exaggerated dorsal fin making for easy identification. My dive buddy and I had a simple game plan, descend the anchor line and swim the outside of the hull toward the bow looking into the open water for our toothy friend on the way to the resident golaith grouper hangout.
No sooner then we'd reached 75' and headed to the bow off to our left a big unmistakable silhouette appeared. After two quick passes 15-20 feet out we continued to the bow and found the first of two goliaths. As we left the bow area and headed stern the shark reappeared and turned right in front of my dive buddy and crossed the ship showing it's size, every bit of 8 feet; this was not the little sandbar shark I'd seen on previous occasions. We watched it make another pass a few seconds later when a second bull appeared from the opposite direction, not quite as large. After a few more passes their curiosity was satisfied.
It was an excellent morning of diving with an excellent operation and crew. I unfortunately only captured unworthy shots of the sharks but @flyingDiver75 might share a couple he got that were quite good.
Here are a few shots of the other marine life:
Whitehill Reef never disappoints with it's incredible biodiversity. Particularly notable on this dive were the large schools of jack-knifefish, but the usual assortment of frogfish, batfish, toadfish, scorpionfish, filefish, cowfish, angelfish, and bait fish filled the reef. It's also never too hard to find a few spotted moray, a particular one quite impressive in size.
During our surface interval one diver mentioned getting a glimpse of a shark on descent; excellent! The second dive was on the nearby (few hundred yards) and apparently quite sharky Thomas Hayward Libertyship. I've seen a shark every time I've dived this sight, typically a sandbar shark with it's exaggerated dorsal fin making for easy identification. My dive buddy and I had a simple game plan, descend the anchor line and swim the outside of the hull toward the bow looking into the open water for our toothy friend on the way to the resident golaith grouper hangout.
No sooner then we'd reached 75' and headed to the bow off to our left a big unmistakable silhouette appeared. After two quick passes 15-20 feet out we continued to the bow and found the first of two goliaths. As we left the bow area and headed stern the shark reappeared and turned right in front of my dive buddy and crossed the ship showing it's size, every bit of 8 feet; this was not the little sandbar shark I'd seen on previous occasions. We watched it make another pass a few seconds later when a second bull appeared from the opposite direction, not quite as large. After a few more passes their curiosity was satisfied.
It was an excellent morning of diving with an excellent operation and crew. I unfortunately only captured unworthy shots of the sharks but @flyingDiver75 might share a couple he got that were quite good.
Here are a few shots of the other marine life:
Attachments
-
35707394402_1ff6782c19_z.jpg -
35707394402_1ff6782c19_z.jpg -
35745079111_db900126e3_z.jpg -
35745079111_db900126e3_z.jpg -
35745064311_8c65a4ed64_z.jpg -
35745071121_076fcc7bf3_z.jpg -
35037141824_873d56d9dd_z.jpg -
35037149064_114e747678_z.jpg -
35037149064_114e747678_z.jpg -
35037141824_873d56d9dd_z.jpg -
35037132944_f85d9e542e_z.jpg -
35037132944_f85d9e542e_z.jpg -
35488587460_808f4c57b5_z.jpg
Last edited:
