Palm Beach Dive Thread

[johndiver999]

715 buoy check, blue and slight north current look like 70 ft vis from boat

 

[tekkydiver]

Thanks for filling me in. I had missed that memo & since I dive from my own boat, I don't have the backstop of a captain to fill me on on things like that.

Several year ago, I made a somewhat related gaff while fishing. I hooked into a really big sailfish & when I got him boatside, I realized that he was WELL over the 65" lower jaw size limit, so I grabbed a gaff & invited him aboard. The boat had the proper HMS permit, so I didn't see any reason not to. Somewhere, I have a picture of that monster hanging off both sides of the tailgate of an F250. A year or two later, I was fishing from one of the charter boats out of Sailfish Marina & asked for the gaff when I got a sailfish boat side. I got dirty looks, followed by an explanation. Billfish are unofficially catch & release in this area & it's been that way for years. The local fishing club has even retired the species from their biggest fish caught records. Apparently the local "spindle beak boys" have farmed a local population of of sailfish that no longer migrates out of the area & stays here year round. They are quite protective of their pets that live in the big fish bowl out in front of the inlet. So now it's just KDW, tuna & bottom fish on my grocery list.

I too dive off my own boat and consider myself a steward of the environment. That said I have no problem harvesting a legal grouper either by spear or hook & line if the area is open. I generally release all sailfish however there have been times when a fish is boat side and in poor condition it will become smoked fish dip. Nothing wrong with that either. There are so many regulations, no need to add fake ones.

 

[DiveFlag = Target]

Went out on Pura Vida on Sunday morning. We did Governors twice. 40-50 foot vis. Light current. Saw a Nurse, Lemon and Bull. Pavao, another boat radioed that there was no vis on the corridor so we stayed and double dipped. Not that i mind. Lots of good life there.

 

[MrChen]

I saw the Emerald inlet waves video and it was a 60 degree lean over and scary.

I saw that as well, yet another reason I'll never dive on that boat

 

[MrChen]

For those who haven't seen the Emerald video from this weekend. Hopefully the link will work.

 

[Pavao]

Went out on Pura Vida on Sunday morning. We did Governors twice. 40-50 foot vis. Light current. Saw a Nurse, Lemon and Bull. Pavao, another boat radioed that there was no vis on the corridor so we stayed and double dipped. Not that i mind. Lots of good life there.

Yeah, we had about the same at the Breakers on the afternoon dives. A lemon and a bull was seen there as well, I also saw a bull on my morning dive.

 

[h2o_hamilton]

For those who haven't seen the Emerald video from this weekend. Hopefully the link will work.

WTF?!

 

[johndiver999]

Blue water, 50 ft vis warm moderate current

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

So there's an 'un-written courtesy' that most of us WPB spearo's follow (Not all do)
We don't spear on Flower Gardens nor Breakers reefs, but do catch lobster/lionfish there. Just those 2 spots and all the captains know about it. It's kinda like you don't blast music at 2am cause your neighbor's 'silent revenge' may not be pretty. It's a big ocean with plenty of other places to hunt.
Great picts and glad you got out on the reefs for a change of scenery from the bridge.

What's the reasoning behind it? Curious

 

[PBcatfish]

What's the reasoning behind it? Curious

Maintaining tourism. The out-of-towners need something cool to look at.