Jupiter Dive Report

[sportxlh]

Did two night dives last night with friends just south of the Juno Pier on some small ledges and lobster holes they have marked on their GPS. Visibility for the top 30 feet of water was terrible, one could barely see one's dive buddy's light at 10 feet, but once down to 40 feet or so and certainly on the bottom at 68-85 feet, the visibility was as far as our torches could reach. One was a high powered light and it probably had a beam length of 30 feet or so. There was a fair amount of 'stuff' suspended in the water, but most of it looked like sand or normal organic matter, not debris from fresh water run off. The water on the bottom was a little chilly at 74 degrees and the current was very very mild to the north.

We only caught 6 bugs, only saw one additional legal bug that got away and saw another 3 or 4 shorts. Also saw two sharp tailed eels (first time for me seeing them in open ocean aside from BHB and LBTS shallow reefs), a roaming loggerhead, sleeping hawksbill, roaming goldentail eel, school of reef squid, several huge crabs that held their claws up menacingly, cow fish galore, lots of puffers and balloon fish, one legal sized black grouper and many sleeping tropicals such as parrots and tangs.

Oh yeah, way too many lionfish: I hardly see them on the reefs that commercial boats dive, probalby because divers clear them out. But on out-of-the-way places like the little ledges we dove, they are everywhere: and huge.

One last sighting, while I drove the boat and two of the divers were down, a fin popped up and circled the float ball for a few seconds: that was kind of spooky at night and is one of the reasons I decided not to kill any of the lionfish: did not want company!

My bet is that vis should be decent in the 30 to 40 foot range during the day today and tomorrow.

 

[jar546]

Thank you. I appreciate the info. On my way down today

 

[RDRINK25]

Thx for the report diving with JDC on Sun.

 

[Amazz]

You are one VERY brave person doing a dive in shark territory at night with crappy vis. I bow down to you. Vis was terrible today. Currents were confused. I did four dives today on Blue Tang. 1. wrecks, barely south current. 2. Area 51, healthy south current. 3. High Ledge, barely north. 4. Scarface, noticeable north. At all times the surface current was heading south. So when I was heading north, I was dragging the float ball. But doable. Visibility was 20 feet if you squinted. Water temps were coolish at the bottom at 78 degrees. Surface to 50 feet was absolute green. It opened up a little on the bottom. I'm not expecting a lot better Sunday. I think it will take another week to get this freshwater runoff flushed out.

 

[Odo]

We dove yesterday south of Jupiter in 105' and found very light north current. Vis wasn't bad at the bottom maybe 30' but it was pretty dark due to all the dirty water above. We got 17 bugs on 3 solo dives. We heard reports of a few trap lines in the area again. Get the bugs before the trappers clear them all out! Didn't see any shootable fish. Going agan Monday.

 

[DiverAmy]

2 dives yesterday - JDC, 2 today - Blue Tang, all in Jupiter ... avg depth 70 feet, avg temp 77 degrees, avg viz 25 feet, varied from 5 - 35 with the worst viz from about 10 to 35 feet. Today was better than yesterday. Current was always light and mostly south with an eastern pull on second dive this morning. Saw the usual cast of characters, and a couple of tiny baby loggerhead turtles in the grass on the surface. It is always better to be wet than not.

 

[idive2]

Thursday Septemper 27, 2012 viz down just a bit on the mg111. Maybe 30 foot or so but still very diveable, light current. The goliath were still very much present on the wreck and even more so on the columns to the north. The ledge dive at area 51 was much better viz in the 60 foot range and a nicer blue water. 65-75 foot depth at top of ledge and I guess about 90 ft to the sand. Water temps on the barge were 82 degrees and 83 degrees on the ledge.