Oriskany and Ivan's Reef Dive Report 7/30 & 7/31

[deedaddy66]

Six of the gang from White Stone Diving formally Dive Have dove the Oriskany and Ivan's reef this past weekend. It was one on the more memorable dives that I have ever experienced. Two foot seas on the ride out with a slight wind then almost dead calm over the O. Dive 130 FSW with a temp of 74 deg. and Lots to see. The only surprise was a very stiff current across the flight deck that made it a difficult swim back to the con tower on ascent. Then during the surface interval a pod of 30 or so spotted bottlenose decided to show up an we hopped in to get a closer look and Gary himself got off the boat and shot this video.

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Second Dive 90 FSW and same temps lots of amber jack and a few nice gag grouper.

Then on Sunday Ivan's Reef. 70 FSW Dive 29 min dead flat seas and no wind.
First a very large sea turtle, then a lion fish, then multiple octopus and a toad fish. Ronnie even managed to free a large Red Fish that was hung on a fishing lure below the old bridge span.
During the safety stop a very large school of angels made the minutes go by in a flash.
If you get a chance to dive the "0" then I cannot tell you how great it is to do it with Gary's Gulf Divers. He and the DM John run a first class operation and I may be biased because I always dive with Gary and John but, they do it right.

 

[MRXRAY]

Nice dive report. Thanks for the pictures too. BTW, The school of fish you saw where not Angel's they were Spade Fish.

 

[deedaddy66]

Thanks for the clarification on the Spades. I was shocked at seeing two lion fish on just small section Ivan's reef and it seemed that nothing could get them to leave their territory.

 

[JEC11718]

A poke pole or lionfish spear would have!!!!

 

[MRXRAY]

The lionfish are still a bit small for spears, I've killed one as have a couple of my buddies but you can spend an entire dive chasing one around with a tident tipped pole spear trying to kill it. In the end I was able to bludgeon the poor bastard to death as it rested from exhaustion.

 

[Dr Dive]

The lionfish are still a bit small for spears, I've killed one as have a couple of my buddies but you can spend an entire dive chasing one around with a tident tipped pole spear trying to kill it. In the end I was able to bludgeon the poor bastard to death as it rested from exhaustion.

Put a rubber band around the 3 prongs a few inches back from the tip to pull them a little closer together and fire away. You aren't trying to pierce the small ones, just break their bodies. Sounds cruel, but we need to be single minded about this invasive species. They're small now and we need to take advantage of the opportunity.

 

[algulfdiver]

Capt. Jim, (Dr. Dive) I haven't forgot about getting you the #'s for Ivans Reef. I'll get them to you asap.

 

[algulfdiver]

Here's the Dolphin video. I've never been in the water with this many at once it was a day for the log book.

[video=youtube;CFWDIOL2U6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFWDIOL2U6A[/video]