FYI cold water in WPB

[scubadada]

Temperature on the Castor today was 81 degrees but the visibility was very poor and it was dark. Only a solitary Goliath Grouper today. Last Wednesday in the cold water there were many GG, numerous bait balls, and predators of same galore. As a consolation, the yellow cup coral was all out and it was absolutely beautiful. There was a modest south current. 2nd dive was Clubhouse, also with a modest south current. The temperature was 77 degrees, visibility was abut 25 feet. It was a nice dive with all the usual reef denizens.

Afraid this is the last report until I'm back on August 30. Hope for warm water and good visibility.

Good diving, Craig

 

[Jon_R]

Pretty bad today. 3-5 occasional 7 and 9. Or how the captain put it strong 3-5 with an occasional holy s***.

Got in the water with my girlfriend who drew this as her open water cert dive. Lucky her. Started down 2 feet and she called it off. I looked down and could not see my own fins so that was ok with me. Was told bottom viz was 4 feet. In my 5 minutes in the water got to see lots of jellies. Over all completely awful conditions anyway you look at it. The entire boat didn't want the 2nd tank and back to port we went.

Getting back on the boat in open water was pretty exciting. GF says she still wants her cert..

If we would have had a clue how it was going to be we would have not got on the boat and went for pancakes instead. Haha.

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[dumpsterDiver]

Is this type of thermocline common for southern florida in August?



It is not that unusual. Commonly happens north of here in Ft. Pierce for opening of lobster season. When it drops well into the 50's it will get your attention.

This is what the actual descent looked like yesterday with a Go-Pro 3.. descent not speeded up or manipulated. LOL.. Funny thing was, I could still see with ambient light below 180. it was dark, cold and clear on the bottom.

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

Went snorkeling today... 20-35 ft vis on top, bad layer around 50 and 10 ft vis and cold and nasty at 75 ft. South current, north of PB Inlet.

 

[scubadada]

Pretty bad today. 3-5 occasional 7 and 9. Or how the captain put it strong 3-5 with an occasional holy s***.

Got in the water with my girlfriend who drew this as her open water cert dive. Lucky her. Started down 2 feet and she called it off. I looked down and could not see my own fins so that was ok with me. Was told bottom viz was 4 feet. In my 5 minutes in the water got to see lots of jellies. Over all completely awful conditions anyway you look at it. The entire boat didn't want the 2nd tank and back to port we went.

Getting back on the boat in open water was pretty exciting. GF says she still wants her cert..

If we would have had a clue how it was going to be we would have not got on the boat and went for pancakes instead. Haha.

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Good GF!

 

[maniago]

Pretty bad today. 3-5 occasional 7 and 9. Or how the captain put it strong 3-5 with an occasional holy s***.

Got in the water with my girlfriend who drew this as her open water cert dive. Lucky her. Started down 2 feet and she called it off. I looked down and could not see my own fins so that was ok with me. Was told bottom viz was 4 feet. In my 5 minutes in the water got to see lots of jellies. Over all completely awful conditions anyway you look at it. The entire boat didn't want the 2nd tank and back to port we went.

Getting back on the boat in open water was pretty exciting. GF says she still wants her cert..

If we would have had a clue how it was going to be we would have not got on the boat and went for pancakes instead. Haha.

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So for the northern dummy in the group (ie me) what are the mechanism at play here? Has it been raining a lot there locally? Is the Low in the Gulf causing the problem? Or the rain shooting up over Georgia an issue? Is the low level hurricane that spawned off the African coast pushing ahead of itself?

Or is it all a crap shoot?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

So for the northern dummy in the group (ie me) what are the mechanism at play here? Has it been raining a lot there locally? Is the Low in the Gulf causing the problem? Or the rain shooting up over Georgia an issue? Is the low level hurricane that spawned off the African coast pushing ahead of itself?

Or is it all a crap shoot?

A lot of folks are blaming the poor viz on water releases from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River. Not having been out in two weeks, I can't say personally. Doing some working dives off the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge two weeks ago, our team had pretty good viz early on and then got into a brown-water situation as soon as the tide shifted.

As far as the waves, that's dependent on weather.

 

[Jon_R]

So for the northern dummy in the group (ie me) what are the mechanism at play here? Has it been raining a lot there locally? Is the Low in the Gulf causing the problem? Or the rain shooting up over Georgia an issue? Is the low level hurricane that spawned off the African coast pushing ahead of itself?

Or is it all a crap shoot?

I have no idea. I hope someone can shed light on it. I checked viz reports and Sat it was good, checked marine forecast and it said 1-2 ft at 4 seconds, checked this thread for bottom temp and was high 70s. Went to bed last night thinking about the great dive then it all went to xxxx. I am thinking about taking an oceanography class at community college. Haha.


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[maniago]

A lot of folks are blaming the poor viz on water releases from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River. Not having been out in two weeks, I can't say personally. Doing some working dives off the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge two weeks ago, our team had pretty good viz early on and then got into a brown-water situation as soon as the tide shifted.

As far as the waves, that's dependent on weather.

Dang! A quick google comes up with a bunch of algae blooms, "save our river" protests, governor walking the river, people not eating the fish, officials denying anything wrong. WTF?

That said, we have the same kinda problems up here wrt Chesapeake Bay and farmer runoff...heck DC now has a tax on plastic shopping bags to slow the trash coming down the rivers....and our viz stinks too...might just go back to the quarry.

 

[uncfnp]

Dang! A quick google comes up with a bunch of algae blooms, "save our river" protests, governor walking the river, people not eating the fish, officials denying anything wrong. WTF?

That said, we have the same kinda problems up here wrt Chesapeake Bay and farmer runoff...heck DC now has a tax on plastic shopping bags to slow the trash coming down the rivers....and our viz stinks too...might just go back to the quarry.

True. It makes for some pretty disturbing reading. I am troubled by the news as a visiting diver. I can only imagine how the residents must feel.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Dang! A quick google comes up with a bunch of algae blooms, "save our river" protests, governor walking the river, people not eating the fish, officials denying anything wrong. WTF?

That said, we have the same kinda problems up here wrt Chesapeake Bay and farmer runoff...heck DC now has a tax on plastic shopping bags to slow the trash coming down the rivers....and our viz stinks too...might just go back to the quarry.

It's basically a large-scale **** sandwich. The problem is that we've had a lot of rain this season, and Lake Okeechobee is surrounded by a dike that is in pretty bad shape - I think I read that the Army Corps of Engineers gives it a 1 in 6 chance of failure in any given year. They're shoring it up, but it'll be at least another decade before it's up to spec. If that gives way, there's a lot of people in the flood zone - a hurricane back in 1928 breached the old dike and it's estimated that 2500 people died from flooding. So when the water starts getting high (the Corps tries to keep it at 12-15 feet above sea level; I think 21 feet is when the panic starts), they have to ditch some of it.

Now, the options for getting rid of the water aren't great, and what makes it really bad is that with all the sugar farming and other agricultural activity around the lake water (and especially any bottom muck that might come with it) isn't the best stuff. They can't shunt it into the Everglades because of the pollution levels; plans have been floated to establish reservoirs where some of the excess nutrients and other crap could be filtered out before sending it south but that's tied up with the whole long-delayed Everglades restoration project and associated lawsuits. Legally, it can't go that way now. So, into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers it goes, mucking things up on both coasts.