Dive Repot: Lemons in Jupiter today!

[sportxlh]

Dove with Jupiter Dive Center and saw a number of Lemons on the Center St dive site today. Topside conditions were fantastic: less than 1 foot waves and bottom was equally enjoyable. 80+ vis on the site with the Lemons and very modest current. Here's a few photos of fairly low quality (screen shots from a Go Pro video). BTW: no one was feeding the sharks.

 

[acteg]

Dove Jupiter today as well, with Capt. SL8R charters. No lemons for us, but lots of reef shark, nurse shark, and turtle activity.

 

[traveler218]

Dove with Jupiter Dive Center and saw a number of Lemons on the Center St dive site today. Topside conditions were fantastic: less than 1 foot waves and bottom was equally enjoyable. 80+ vis on the site with the Lemons and very modest current. Here's a few photos of fairly low quality (screen shots from a Go Pro video). BTW: no one was feeding the sharks.

Thanks for sharing! I have a dive planned with Jupiter Dive Center tomorrow. My Free Birthday dive I hope the conditions are equally as nice.

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[HalcyonDaze]

Nice. I was out at that site with Narcosis on Saturday. It was hard to get a count because they kept ghosting in and out of view, but we had at least four lemons shadowing us for most of the dive. Towards the end they all seemed to disappear, figured they had gotten bored with us ... then as I'm fiddling with my SMB and reel they all turned up. It was like "What, you're leaving?" We weren't baiting (although I was itching to shishkabob some lionfish, none revealed themselves), but I did see a milk crate hooked to a small Danforth anchor with a short length of chain that had large fish bones in it. The two guys we dropped off separately to hunt had more lemons and a big bull; they wisely decided not to shoot any fish and stuck to lobstering.

Second dive was Shark Canyon; I saw no lemons, two little reefie puppies, two nurse sharks, two green turtles, a loggerhead, and of course the jewfish that apparently hangs out on that stretch. I think it should be nicknamed Dug; from how it was sidling up to us I was imagining "Hi there! You're my new best friend! SQUIRRELFISH!"

 

[sportxlh]

.......... Towards the end they all seemed to disappear, figured they had gotten bored with us ... then as I'm fiddling with my SMB and reel they all turned up. It was like "What, you're leaving?"

Halcyon: funny you say that.... same thing happened to us. Right as we started to head up, two lemons swam right under us like lost puppies. Here's another gopro sceen shot photo of the two sharks below us.......

 

[wmason11]

I am diving with Jupiter dive center in a few weeks. How does the diving work? I haven't done much drift diving. Is it all drift diving? Do you purely drift and let the boat meet you and pick you up? any info would be great thanks.

 

[traveler218]

I am diving with Jupiter dive center in a few weeks. How does the diving work? I haven't done much drift diving. Is it all drift diving? Do you purely drift and let the boat meet you and pick you up? any info would be great thanks.

I dive with Jupiter Dive Center fairly often. Yes, it is all drift diving. In general the dive site's have a pretty steady current. It does vary some based on weather and time of year but it is always there.

Basically the captain puts you in the water at some point on the reef along with a dive guide. The divers and dive guide "drift" with the current as well as swim around on the reef. When you run low on air (1000 to 800 psi) you work your way up to around 15 feet and do a 3 min safety stop. I like to continue to follow the dive guide as I work my way up. While on my safety stop I deploy my Surface Safety Device to identify my location to the captain. Once the safety stop is complete you surface, locate the boat and wait for the captain to come get you.

Hope this helps.

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[acteg]

I heard one of the shark feeding dive Ops had to drop their feeding crate on the way up last saturday due to the sharks being so aggressive. That might explain the crate you saw.

Nice. I was out at that site with Narcosis on Saturday. It was hard to get a count because they kept ghosting in and out of view, but we had at least four lemons shadowing us for most of the dive. Towards the end they all seemed to disappear, figured they had gotten bored with us ... then as I'm fiddling with my SMB and reel they all turned up. It was like "What, you're leaving?" We weren't baiting (although I was itching to shishkabob some lionfish, none revealed themselves), but I did see a milk crate hooked to a small Danforth anchor with a short length of chain that had large fish bones in it. The two guys we dropped off separately to hunt had more lemons and a big bull; they wisely decided not to shoot any fish and stuck to lobstering.

Second dive was Shark Canyon; I saw no lemons, two little reefie puppies, two nurse sharks, two green turtles, a loggerhead, and of course the jewfish that apparently hangs out on that stretch. I think it should be nicknamed Dug; from how it was sidling up to us I was imagining "Hi there! You're my new best friend! SQUIRRELFISH!"

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I heard one of the shark feeding dive Ops had to drop their feeding crate on the way up last saturday due to the sharks being so aggressive. That might explain the crate you saw.

Not that I expect names to be named in public (aside from the Emerald), but I've always wondered about the "he's not the only one" comments. The other dive operators in that area that I can think of off the top of my head (Narcosis, Sandy, Abernethy, JDC, and SL8R) don't use bait and some of those have been rather vocal about being opposed to it. I've seen a few videos off the Emerald incorporating chum crates, so I would guess it's theirs.

 

[djtimmy77]

Calypso does it. Plenty of youtube footage to back that up.

Honestly it makes me not want to dive Jupiter, as you can tell in the videos that even on the non-feeding boats the sharks are approaching divers in an "expecting food" manner.

Also, it is disheartening to see people kneeling/standing/laying all over the reef in these videos.