Jup Rpt Oct 22 - 29 days of waves, finally got out diving

[Johnoly]

Jupiter & WPB have been getting pounded with high surf and strong swells for the last 29 days. Finally calmed down and dove this afternoon on Jupiter Dive Center's Republic 4 with Capt Phil & Capt Ham (@h2o_hamilton ) and DM's Matt & Jenny. We dove popular backside spots of Kirles & Area51 because no one has dove them yet nor taken the bugs. So we took them and will save our secret spots for later. The top 20 feet is almost completely blacked out, but right below that it totally opens up to 40 ft of viz. If we can get Sunshine through the top 20 ft ,,,that 40 ft of visible will double cuz it's brighter on the bottom. 81 temps, and a tiny half knt bottom current with surface current at 1.5knt. On Kirles I counted about 30 lionfish but I wasn't shooting today. This weekend we've got 35mph winds, 9 foot waves and no boats going out.

 

[johndiver999]

Nice, I’ve been dry for so many days I lost count of the weeks.

 

[Johnoly]

Nice, I’ve been dry for so many days I lost count of the weeks.

We stayed in between 70 & 80 deep. There's about a 2-in layer of dust on a lot of the reefs but none of the barrel sponges or fans were covered up like in past big swell storms that have completely covered over reefs. All the small ledges still have open holes and are not packed with sand or weeds. There is literally hundreds of tiny 2-inch lobsters all over the reefs and bunched up. In back of them you can usually find a much bigger legal bug. Many of the bugs are in honey holes with two and three together not like earlier this year that were all singles in one per hole.

 

[johndiver999]

Wow last time out my buddy saw tiny lobsters on the reef too. I don’t remember seeing that before.

 

[Johnoly]

We always talk about conditions(temps/currents/storms) and how it moves the fish and bugs around. Yesterday the majority of the lobsters were a tan green color and hundreds of small 2 incher's indicating they came from shallow or the inland coastal waterway(ICW). But there's hasn't been any flooding rains and the Lk Okee gates haven't open yet this 2025 yr to push them out.

One of the divers on the boat is a longtime researcher and suggested the monster King Tides a couple of weeks ago. That huge increase in water volume coming and going would definitely change the salinity rates grabbing more freshwater and emptying it back out thru the waterways. Bugs hate brackish freshwater and will form a “walk” out of the inlet. That freshwater also moves fish out the inlet. We'll see if BHB reports suggest a decrease in populations also. Interesting concept and I put a note on my calendar for December's king tide and we'll see what happens.