Palm Beach Dive Thread

[davel518]

I use Aqualife a few times a year. Very chill boat. Closest dive boat to the inlet. I think that Skip, the owner, has a sixth sense for understanding who is a capable diver and who isn’t. If you’re experienced, he lets you do your own thing. On the flip side, he handles less experienced divers very well and is good with the tourists. Does a mix of OW, AOW and technical dives.

Second this. Skip is great. Being right by the inlet is even better. I'm often back at the dock by noon.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Went out with Pura Vida this past Sat afternoon after diving BHB in the morning. It rained pretty hard while loading as the cold front was coming through. Winds were quite strong but out of the SW so the conditions were manageable.

We had 2-3s with 74F water and a mild N current. We had 40-50’ of blue water on North Doubles & 20-30’ of more greenish water on Corridor Wreck Treck due to the outgoing tide.

Got in 2 x 59 min dives. I was the last up on both dives. Both dives were excellent.

 

[MrChen]

I went out Saturday morning on a private boat, north of the inlet. It was sporty to say the least. Underwater water, 75 degrees, 50+ft vis. Limited on lobsters after 2 dives. We got caught in the storm and it was white out conditions. We cancelled any additional diving and headed to the dock.

I was sitting in the back of the boat and it was raining so hard, I was wearing my dive mask.

 

[PBcatfish]

I went out Saturday morning on a private boat, north of the inlet. It was sporty to say the least. Underwater water, 75 degrees, 50+ft vis. Limited on lobsters after 2 dives. We got caught in the storm and it was white out conditions. We cancelled any additional diving and headed to the dock.

I was sitting in the back of the boat and it was raining so hard, I was wearing my dive mask.

How deep were the bugs?

 

[Catito]

Cute

I got out with Pura Vida on Thursday Dec 28th. It was a rainy, breezy day but the diving was quite good. Topside conditions were rain off and on, low 60s air temps and winds out of the NW at 10-15 mph. Seas were very manageable. Perhaps 2s with a few 3s thrown in.

It is definitely boat coat season! Those without one sure wished they had one.

Water temps were a constant 76. We had a mild south current. Viz varied from 25' at the worst to closer to 40' at best. I was solo on both dives and enjoyed two very relaxing dives. Given the cloud cover, water temps and air temps, I was glad I chose to use my Bare 7mm. Yes, I'm a wimp, but I was one of the few on the boat not shivering after our dives! Between the 7mm and my boat coat, I was very comfortable the entire charter.

Got in two 61 min dives in the 45-55 FSW range. We did Bath & Tennis and Dive-o-Rama.

The grey trigger fish are THICK. I was harassed by the largest pack I've ever encountered before. They were after every shiny bit of stainless steel on my kit!

video

 

[revise]

Just saw on Instagram that a great white was seen on Breakers today, but no pics posted. Anyone know more?

 

[PBcatfish]

Just saw on Instagram that a great white was seen on Breakers today, but no pics posted. Anyone know more?

They come through the area. Some are pretty big.

20-foot great white shark seen about a mile off Palm Beach

During a dive charter trip on Walker's Dive Charters out of Riviera Beach on Tuesday, a group of scuba divers...

www.palmbeachpost.com

Shark watch: Three OCEARCH-tagged white sharks off Florida coast Thanksgiving weekend

Freya, Hali and Tancook are swimming in the warm waters along the edge of the continental shelf.

www.tcpalm.com

https://www.wpbf.com/article/great-white-shark-florida-fort-pierce-boynton-beach-ocean/40254798

Trackers spot a 1,200-pound great white shark off the coast of Florida

The great white was located about 43 miles off the coast of St. George's island on Monday.

www.cbsnews.com

OCEARCH Shark Tracker

OCEARCH is a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.

www.ocearch.org

OCEARCH Shark Tracker

OCEARCH is a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.

www.ocearch.org

OCEARCH Shark Tracker

OCEARCH is a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.

www.ocearch.org

OCEARCH Shark Tracker

OCEARCH is a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.

www.ocearch.org

OCEARCH Shark Tracker

OCEARCH is a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.

www.ocearch.org

Who is the Deep Blue shark?

At 20 feet long, the Deep Blue is the largest great white shark ever found. Here's everything marine biologists know about the world's biggest ocean predator.

www.surfertoday.com

A guy I know that lives on a trimaran was chased back up into his boat by a really large one when he was taking a swim a few months ago.

We get some large tigers on occasion too, but not as big as that particular great white. Fortunately, shark attacks are still quite rare, unless you are chumming them or if you jump into an ongoing feeding frenzy. Then the odds change substantially.

It's not uncommon for a great white to have a range that extends more than a thousand miles. I think that tigers tend to be more regional.

 

[mattfish]

Do any of the local shops/boats in the area offer trips that don’t include killing things? Do they have something like a no-take day?

 

[revise]

A guy I know that lives on a trimaran was chased back up into his boat by a really large one when he was taking a swim a few months ago.

I feel like that would make me uncomfortable.

Thanks for the links. I'd checked the OCEARCH app to see if there just so happened to be a great white very recently in the area, but I don't find that app terribly intuitive.

 

[PBcatfish]

I feel like that would make me uncomfortable.

Thanks for the links. I'd checked the OCEARCH app to see if there just so happened to be a great white very recently in the area, but I don't find that app terribly intuitive.

Uncomfortable would be a good description of the look on his face when he described the event to me a few days after it happened & a few minutes after I got done diving a few hundred feed from where he was anchored.

The ocearch site is a little cumbersome to navigate around & it only shows a very small percentage of the sharks that are out there. I don't think that even 1% of the sharks are tagged. It can give you an idea of what times of the year certain species tend to be in certain areas, but if you want to locate a shark to dive with, your odds are probably on par with finding a winning powerball ticket.

Sharks are plentiful in this area. Spinners are probably most common. Bonnets are pretty common. Regular hammers are not uncommon. Tigers show up now & then. Bulls are very common. I've seen fine tooths a few times. I know where some nurse sharks hang out on a fairly regular basis. I can't properly ID at lest half of the sharks that I see, so there are at least several other types in the area as well. Smaller ones are near BHB on a regular basis. Just outside the inlet 5-footers are common. Up off of Juno ledge they tend to be a bit bigger. I've seen an aggregate of maybe a little better than half a dozen 9-12 footers up there on a really sharky day, not long after someone, who shall remain nameless, was chumming them for about a week to catch the cobia that were following them. Really big tigers, hammers, & whites have come inside the inlet now & then. Bulls can tolerate fresh water & have been known to swim up the canals & locks as far as Lake Okeechobee on occasion.

There are people in the area who will do a guided shark dive where they chum them in close for you to see, but that's a little more adventurous than my tastes desire these days. Those professional guides get bit now & then too - https://www.petethomasoutdoors.com/2011/01/jim-abernathy-reportedly-bitten-by-shark-in-bahamas.html

If you walk the beaches early in the morning, you will sometimes find shoreline shark fishermen. Those guys can often tell you where you can find them on a regular basis. A guy named Victor seemed to have a pretty good handle on it. ...but those spots often have issues with entering in rough surf, parking issues, or even no-diving regulations (like Phipps ocean park, which doesn't even allow masks or fins). The dive boats are easier. ...and the dive boat captains usually know where to drop you, regardless of what it is that you want to find.