Diving the Keys

[HalcyonDaze]

My friend who was diving in the Keys that day and I had a good laugh about this story; the interview read like it was conducted from Sloppy Joe's a few drinks in (which may explain the "narcosis at 60 ft" bit):

Great white shark joins divers off Key West

I've only seen a couple small great whites in person (that will hopefully change this October), but I'm extremely skeptical that's a pregnant 15-footer in the video. It doesn't come anywhere close to the 14'-15' tigers I've seen in the Bahamas; a shark that size looks like the Star Destroyer in the opening scene of Star Wars when it swims over you. With how skinny that white shark looks and how outsized the fins and head are compared to the rest of the body it looks like a young juvenile. Still an awesome sighting and one I would love to experience.

It seems like for eons that white sharks just used the Gulf Stream for traveling to and fro but about the last decade or so some have taken up residence in the keys. Or at least now that everyone has a GoPro it is more documented ans passed along. That could be a sign that the keys are thriving well. After all, would you hang around if a meal was hard to come by? I wonder if there are any "missing" resident sea turtles, grouper, other smaller sharks, at specific locations?

Based on the satellite tag tracks they seem to blow right past the Keys rather than take up residence anywhere. I suspect the sightings are more because there are a fair number of them out there; I think the folks doing the counts up at Cape Cod in late summer are seeing 150+ individual white sharks now and the population estimates for the western North Atlantic seem to be in the low thousands.

 

[tekkydiver]

It is assumed that this White Shark has taken up residence in the keys. It has been encountered on the Duane and even with snorklers in the shallows. So far no indication it wants to attack, it just seems to be curious (until THAT DAY comes). I assume because it has not gotten aggressive yet it has been able to keep itself well fed and rather a bit lazy.

Just wait until some cowboy operation starts feeding it. Looks like Federal waters to me.