Florida

[scubajunky17]

Hi guys,
How sharky is Florida in August ?

 

[joe10540]

If your not looking for them then you probably won't see too many. Doesn't mean they aren't there though.

 

[drrich2]

That depends on what part of Florida you're consider. East coast or west coast? If east, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, the Florida Keys?

Are you concerned about avoiding sharks, hoping to see sharks swim by at a bit of distance, or are you willing to do 'shark feed' dives to all but guarantee close encounters?

Richard.

 

[scubajunky17]

I'm a shark freak, love them, would prefer to see them naturally, what are the numbers like and is there other stuff to see?

 

[Key Largo Dive Center]

On our last dive to Molasses Reef we saw an adult and a juvenile reef shark, three nurse sharks, and half a dozen spotted eagle rays. Come on down the water's nice.

 

[Johnoly]

How sharky is Florida in August ?

In August its "Goliath-ie",,,and a bit "lobstery",,,,

 

[drrich2]

If you're not familiar with Florida, perhaps a 'compare and contrast' between 2 relative extremes along the southeast cost would be useful. You can compare my trip report from Key Largo 2013 to Jupiter 2014. I'll throw in this link to a 2017 shark feeding trip (but be aware the owner got bit on the hand and they've had a couple of recent episodes of the boat losing track of divers, though all were found & retrieved).

Key Largo, 20 dives, saw a few reef and nurse sharks. Reef sharks were skittish.

Jupiter 2014, 10 dives, saw a several reef and a few nurse sharks, plus (being the right time of year) a bunch of goliath grouper. Saw 1 roughly 5-6 foot shark, likely a black-trip but maybe a sand bar (at a distance & it didn't stick around).

Jupiter 2017, 7 shark feed divers, saw 3 tiger sharks, 2 silky sharks, some nurse sharks, more lemon and bull sharks than I could keep up with, some goliath grouper.

If you want to reliably see fairly big sharks without feeding, I suggest one of 2 options if you're aiming for the U.S.A. - either hit Jupiter, Florida during the lemon shark migration, or try the off-shore wrecks out of North Carolina (trip report) where you can get close action with sand tiger sharks. August is likely to be a good time for North Carolina...

Richard.

 

[SOFDiver]

Agree with joe10540! Almost all of my non-work diving is spearfishing, and my fish are always on my stringer attached to my belt. In the past 12 years I have seen only 3 sharks (all bulls, not counting many nurse sharks tucked under ledges) and none of them save one 10 foot bull have gotten closer than 10 meters. There are a few wrecks that I won't spearfish on because of line fisherman who will chum which draws sharks who get a bit sporty. I don't believe in feeding any type of wildlife and personality would not dive with anyone doing so. The "bad ass" here in the gulf is the Goliath Grouper, plenty of opportunity to dive with these big guys if that's an interest. Not to say that there are a shortage of sharks, caught many while line fishing for Kingfish.

 

[sportxlh]

In Jupiter, there are a couple of sites that have resident reef sharks and Goliath grouper. The main one is Tunnels: Jupiter Dive Center and Capt Sl8er go to the site often. The site is near the inlet, so is somewhat dependent on the tide: e.g. out going tide results in bad visibility. It's also not a great dive if the current is ripping because you can run out of reef ledge and end up in the sand quickly if it's a 3 knot current. Call either shop and see if they can include it on the itinerary