Palm Beach Dive Thread

[scubadada]

I just posted this link in another thread. It is worth posting in this thread as well.

Palm Beach County Dive Sites Published by Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management

Hit the search function it gives coordinates and details for all the artificial and natural reefs listed.

They even sneak in a few sites located in Broward County as well.

Very nice, thanks. I know Boynton very well, glad to see the layout of Palm Beach and Jupiter.

 

[johndiver999]

cool water today, 50-60 ft vis, Slight current in morning increasing to moderate in the pm.

Very few lobsters seen today and only got a couple of lionfish. Nice conditions!

 

[NothingClever]

Booked with PVD on Sat, 22 March.

 

[Pavao]

This was yesterday, we did a 3 tanker as inlet was closed from 10-2. Conditions were great, calm seas and swell lines started to show up about midday, mild N current for first 2 dives and moderate on last one, closer to inlet as we worked our way south. 3 hunters, 18 bugs, some good size ones and lots of eggers.

We came up on this on first dive, there were about 7-9 of them. What’s going on, trying to get lobsters?

 

[MrChen]

This was yesterday, we did a 3 tanker as inlet was closed from 10-2. Conditions were great, calm seas and swell lines started to show up about midday, mild N current for first 2 dives and moderate on last one, closer to inlet as we worked our way south. 3 hunters, 18 bugs, some good size ones and lots of eggers.

We came up on this on first dive, there were about 7-9 of them. What’s going on, trying to get lobsters?

Interesting behavior!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

wow! That's interesting. That first upside down one almost looked stuck..

 

[NothingClever]

This was in a PSA video at shark school warning the teenage sharks about the dangers of fentanyl.

 

[Johnoly]

... What’s going on, trying to get lobsters?

Just my 2 cents cause I wasn't there.
In the first video and you see the group of nurses in the back behind & under the divers..Look at their quick tail 'snaps'. That's a fish struggle dinner bell ringing signal. If it was a lobster(s) they 'maybe' would stick their head in a hole but no way will they risk an injury. BUT 2 heads in a hole, that's an injured fish ringing the dinner bell in that hole. You hear us talk about sharks go from calm to aggressive like Flipping a light switch cause it happens so fast after we shoot a fish. Could be a prior fight or it ran into an eel and got bit. But that's a classic dinner bell and no one is going to win that fight.

@Pavao were any of the nurses trying to push you guys away from the hole? Like coming head first right at you to get you to move back? Normally they try to protect the fight area and so nothing else can approach for scraps. You guys are lucky it was nurses and not reefies because they will bump you.

 

[Pavao]

Just my 2 cents cause I wasn't there.
In the first video and you see the group of nurses in the back behind & under the divers..Look at their quick tail 'snaps'. That's a fish struggle dinner bell ringing signal. If it was a lobster(s) they 'maybe' would stick their head in a hole but no way will they risk an injury. BUT 2 heads in a hole, that's an injured fish ringing the dinner bell in that hole. You hear us talk about sharks go from calm to aggressive like Flipping a light switch cause it happens so fast after we shoot a fish. Could be a prior fight or it ran into an eel and got bit. But that's a classic dinner bell and no one is going to win that fight.

Could be, idk. A holed up fish I’d expect to see some silt puffs coming out of it (?) Maybe not, a speared holed up fish there’s certainly a big commotion, but there’s the spear factor the fish is fighting off.
There’s that one lobster at the corner, but it’s pretty “exposed” to be a prey being hunted here I think, which would also make those nurses pretty lame hunters lol.

Earlier, maybe 5 min before that, I saw on the distance, at the edge of visibility, some commotion on the bottom, thought I saw a shark and some AJs, as the scene begun to reveal itself when I got closer enough, I could no longer see any shark I thought I saw, but there were 2 large AJs kind of doing a circle around but that was it. These nurses here were at different location, about 5 min away from the AJs.

@Pavao were any of the nurses trying to push you guys away from the hole? Like coming head first right at you to get you to move back? Normally they try to protect the fight area and so nothing else can approach for scraps.

No, not at all, the videos are quite accurate as to how it appeared to us down there

You guys are lucky it was nurses and not reefies because they will bump you.

Yeah, I wouldn’t have gotten that close to it if it were anything other than nurses.

 

[NothingClever]

Out early this morning with Captain Chris, Amber, Niccole and Delaney from PVD.

Mid-reef was a great dive. I love seeing sharks but got rather absorbed this morning looking under nooks and crannies for the little stuff. I did see a really mature GG with vibrant brown and black coloring.

Governor’s Wreck Trek was next. Niccole (DM) and I were up front and were the only ones who saw a healthy lemon shark before getting to the first wreck. He was replaced by a large school (~75) of super healthy barracuda. Next wreck was a GG. Last wreck was a huge school of beautiful Caeser grunts and another species of schooling fish. I was the last off this wreck as I found a hiding spot on the leeward side that afforded me a great vantage point to watch the lemon shark that returned to run laps around the first wreck.

Strong current ate into everyone’s air so most folks surfaced around 40 minutes.

Amber and Niccole ran their standard pre-dive safety check. I dive twinset almost exclusively these days so of course I’m hands on with my kit. No matter, I appreciate the reminder and it’s not an intrusion or insult.

ETA: 54* F / 12* C when I woke up this morning. Brrr! A few months back I got to dive with @Divin'Papaw . While my teeth were chattering, he looked plushly warm in his boat coat while rattling off all the species we saw. Today was my turn…sorta. My fish ID skills still suck but at least I’m a warm, sucky diver in my new boat coat.