Jupiter Diving

[sportxlh]

Couldn't ask for better bottom side conditions than the past couple of weekends! Last weekend, vis was 100+ on the Juno Ball site and today vis was nearly the same on the Zion train (Zion, Miss Jenny and Bonaire wrecks) and Scarface. Current was mild northwards both weekends: divers didn't have to fin much but didn't have to fight the current either: just perfect for a relaxing drift dive.

On the Zion train, I don't normally see sharks, other than nurse sharks, but we had a reef shark pay a visit on the Bonaire and just north of the Bonaire in the sand a large Bull swam under us as we began our ascent: this is the area that Emerald conducts feeding dives {EDIT 12/13/14: this was 200 feet or more north of the stern of the Bonaire so was probably a bit north of where the Emerald conducts its dives}. Two other divers had a tiger swim around them for a few minutes at about 40 feet on their ascent: I, unfortunately, missed that. These sharks sightings may or may not have anything to do with RJ's feeding charters. I was with Jupiter Dive Center which doesn't conduct feeding dives.

About half a dozen resident goliath grouper swam around the Bonaire and Zion wrecks and a huge school of crevalle jacks swam over our heads as well. Also saw several turtles.

Can't beat living (and diving) in the Jupiter area!!

Here's a few GoPro screen shots:

 

[drrich2]

Very nice. Hope to dive Jupiter some day. Wonder how the diving is likely to be this coming September?

Richard.

 

[sportxlh]

Very nice. Hope to dive Jupiter some day. Wonder how the diving is likely to be this coming September?

Richard.

September is ideal: the goliath grouper will aggregate for spawning and the topside marine conditions are normally calm (unless there is a hurricane passing by out at sea stirring things up). Vis is usually descent (70+) but not quite as good as the winter months. Water temps will generally be in the high 70's or low 80's.

Two years ago, there were nearly 40+ goliaths swimming together on the Zion train wrecks.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for sharing

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Had the Emerald just done a feed on the Bonaire? How would you characterize the bull shark's movements - relaxed or agitated? Did the divers who got circled by the tiger note how big it was or if it had any distinguishing marks? Just curious.

 

[sportxlh]

Had the Emerald just done a feed on the Bonaire? How would you characterize the bull shark's movements - relaxed or agitated? Did the divers who got circled by the tiger note how big it was or if it had any distinguishing marks? Just curious.

To the best of my knowledge, JDC was the first boat to the Zion train yesterday morning. Come to think of it, we were probably a couple hundred feet or more north of the stern of the Bonaire when we saw the bull, which is likely a little north of where Emerald conducts the their shark dives (I edited my original post to indicate this as well). We had already begun our ascent and were at 70-75 feet when we spotted the bull swimming out of the northeast in the sand. One of the divers swam down to get a better look and got within 10 feet of it. The bull completely ignored him and the three of us that were about 20 feet above it as it swam directly under us. Could well have been a chance encounter though I've not seen any in that area in the past.

One of the guys that saw the tiger estimated it was six feet long. This was his first tiger shark encounter so he was pretty excited but fairly unnerved too, especially given the tiger spent about 3 minutes with them. This was also his first time encoutering a shark that far off the sand at a shallow depth. He didn't report any unusual marks but again was a bit nervous so wasn't looking for anything in particular aside from the stripes. He indicated the shark took a couple of close passes (but still out of touching range) and swam somewhat slowly as in circled: not in a jerky manner nor with quick bursts of speed or anything. In the end, I don't think he felt threatened but I didn't ask that specific question: that was the gist of what he indicated though.

The reef shark on the Bonaire was a quick encounter, it swam up the the rail, paralleled the wreck for a few feet and then quickly darted west over the sand. It didn't seem to want to have anything to do with the divers.

 

[traveler218]

Couldn't ask for better bottom side conditions than the past couple of weekends! Last weekend, vis was 100+ on the Juno Ball site and today vis was nearly the same on the Zion train (Zion, Miss Jenny and Bonaire wrecks) and Scarface. Current was mild northwards both weekends: divers didn't have to fin much but didn't have to fight the current either: just perfect for a relaxing drift dive.

On the Zion train, I don't normally see sharks, other than nurse sharks, but we had a reef shark pay a visit on the Bonaire and just north of the Bonaire in the sand a large Bull swam under us as we began our ascent: this is the area that Emerald conducts feeding dives {EDIT 12/13/14: this was 200 feet or more north of the stern of the Bonaire so was probably a bit north of where the Emerald conducts its dives}. Two other divers had a tiger swim around them for a few minutes at about 40 feet on their ascent: I, unfortunately, missed that. These sharks sightings may or may not have anything to do with RJ's feeding charters. I was with Jupiter Dive Center which doesn't conduct feeding dives.

About half a dozen resident goliath grouper swam around the Bonaire and Zion wrecks and a huge school of crevalle jacks swam over our heads as well. Also saw several turtles.

Can't beat living (and diving) in the Jupiter area!!

Here's a few GoPro screen shots:

Have to agree it was a great dive. I missed the sharks this time but everything else was great. I try to post some of my pictures later.

Hope to get back to Jupiter soon.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[HalcyonDaze]

To the best of my knowledge, JDC was the first boat to the Zion train yesterday morning. Come to think of it, we were probably a couple hundred feet or more north of the stern of the Bonaire when we saw the bull, which is likely a little north of where Emerald conducts the their shark dives (I edited my original post to indicate this as well). We had already begun our ascent and were at 70-75 feet when we spotted the bull swimming out of the northeast in the sand. One of the divers swam down to get a better look and got within 10 feet of it. The bull completely ignored him and the three of us that were about 20 feet above it as it swam directly under us. Could well have been a chance encounter though I've not seen any in that area in the past.

One of the guys that saw the tiger estimated it was six feet long. This was his first tiger shark encounter so he was pretty excited but fairly unnerved too, especially given the tiger spent about 3 minutes with them. This was also his first time encoutering a shark that far off the sand at a shallow depth. He didn't report any unusual marks but again was a bit nervous so wasn't looking for anything in particular aside from the stripes. He indicated the shark took a couple of close passes (but still out of touching range) and swam somewhat slowly as in circled: not in a jerky manner nor with quick bursts of speed or anything. In the end, I don't think he felt threatened but I didn't ask that specific question: that was the gist of what he indicated though.

The reef shark on the Bonaire was a quick encounter, it swam up the the rail, paralleled the wreck for a few feet and then quickly darted west over the sand. It didn't seem to want to have anything to do with the divers.

I've noticed on a couple of feeds I've been on that the bulls will hang north of the Bonaire, out of sight of the wreck. I think what they might be doing is checking things out without revealing themselves; in my experience they often don't even come in when there's food. The one bull I've actually seen there was the same scenario - we spent about 30 minutes back there while Randy chopped up a barracuda for bait, didn't see any sharks, and then saw the bull in the sand while we were drifting north on our ascent. Granted, that bull had fed on the previous dive; Randy gave it a few handouts and then when he ran out of bottom time she came in and demolished the milk crate holding the rest of the fish. I wonder if they're figuring that if they wait around we'll have to go up and leave them unsupervised.

If the tiger was six feet, it sounds like the juvenile that did the same thing last weekend - it didn't join the two bigger tigers on the feed, but came up and circled the divers on their safety stop after the third dive.

 

[Murfdizzle21]

we had bulls, the big tiger, and hammers taking turns taking bait on saturday and bulls and three different hammers on sunday. Lots of video to come, it was too epic. Good to see great dives were had all around.