Palm beach shark diving

[HalcyonDaze]

rdrining, I am curious to know, how was the dive conducted? What depths? Was the bait clean (not bloody) and locked in a crate so that only the scent would attract the sharks. Was there hand feeding? Were the divers kept in a tight group, i.e. touching distance, even during the ascent? Why did the sharks follow the divers up, was the bait brought up along with the divers? Why were the sharks bumping you, what excited them to such a degree as sharks usually keep a distance?

I am thinking about one of these trips, but would like to know these things before I decide.

I'm not sure how JASA runs their shark dives, but I can say that at the Esso Bonaire it's 70-75 feet on the fantail and 90 in the sand. Definitely nitrox territory if you want to get multiple dives.

As far as the sharks' behavior, the two main species sighted there - lemons and tigers - don't like chasing their food. They typically amble up to within a few feet of an exposed bait and then lunge for it. I can't say I really see the lemons ever get "excited;" they tend to cruise around the group pretty slowly. Lemons bumping divers seems to be more of the "whoops, 'scuse me, coming through" nature. The last time I was out on Emerald I made the ascent from the third dive (when Randy brings the bait up with him) right next to the Food Guy and had lemons swirling all around me. Even then I think one touched me only once; I had one swim past and the tip of the pectoral fin brushed my nose. Other times when one was swimming towards me I found putting a hand out like I was signalling "stop" got them to turn away.

Tigers are of course a bigger cause for concern because they're more inquisitive and they can do a lot more damage. The times I see them get excited, it's less the stereotypical sudden, jerky movements and more like a big dog sniffing at something it likes. I keep my eyes on them at all times (if there's 12 lemons and one tiger, I'm ignoring the lemons) and if one gets inquisitive I will redirect it elsewhere with varying degrees of politeness.

To the OP ... the main "extreme conditions" to worry about in Jupiter are depth and current. Water depths for the dives are in the 75-100+ range and on ripping days the current can be cranking at three knots. Temps will be a bit chillier than "pool conditions;" expect mid-70s in April or May and on shark dives you do a lot of sitting still. As a general policy I recommend people new to the Palm Beach area to get used to its quirks on another charter before going on a shark dive.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Sharks are not the big bad guys that they have been made out to be. With that said, accidents happen... If you google Abernethy I'm pretty sure he himself has been bitten at least twice by sharks, in which both times he admits he was in the wrong for moving the bait bucket when he shouldn't have and ended up with a case of mistaken identity... but he is still leading the way to educate people about sharks and protect sharks. If you don't agree with his ways then stay out of The ocean so you don't run in to any sharks.... If you want to learn about them and gain an appreciation for them then give him a shout. The majority of the world only knows sharks as killers because of the movie jaws... Did you know that the guy who made the movie jaws spent the rest of his life regretting releasing it because of the negative view of sharks it created? Without jaws the media wouldn't publicize shark bites as some big thing... You are more likely to DIE from a pig attacking you then you are to be Bitten (not just die) from a shark, you are more likely to win the powerball jackpot than be bitten by a shark... yet the world thinks sharks are terrible... My entire family thinks I am insane for going on the shark trip today, but without people like Abernethy sharks will soon be extinct because no one outside of a fairly small group of divers really appreciates them or would miss them when they are gone.

People die from scuba diving all the time but no one suggests that we should stop scuba diving, so one guy dies on a shark bait trip and that means it should end? Everyone signs the same waiver acknowledging what we do is inherently dangerous, but we still do it... Some with even less training than others...

My sister in law was bitten by a shark, I personally know several people who have been bitten by sharks, I myself have had to punch sharks in the face with my fist to avoid being bitten. However, I've know only one person personally who won a big lottery. On the first day I moved to Florida, I witnessed a shark bite victim coming out of the water.

You statement that Abernathy (and people like him) who exploit the sharks, modify their behavior and then tell a bunch of gullible tourists that killing fish and feeding them to sharks is "saving" them is ridiculously naive .

If you want to save sharks, do something about the environment. Unfortunately, watching people hand feed sharks is not providing protection from extinction. As an FYI, the amount of sharks in the local area has increased drastically in the last 10 years.

One of the problems with hand feeding sharks is that it teaches them that divers = food. That is one reason why it is illegal in Florida. Habituating sharks to take fish from divers endangers the sharks themselves.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

This is interesting, when I dove with Abernethy in the Bahamas, the bait was "clean" (not bloody) fish carcasses They were locked in crates, which were on the bottom well away from the divers. No feeding was done. The divers were told to group up, touching distance. No one was allowed to swim around freely except the dive master. The scent attracted curious sharks, but their behavior was leisurely cruising around the site. There was no rapid swimming, no "lunging" or aggressive behavior, and of course no biting of food. There was no need for frantic searching by the divers, punching, "stop" motions (a hand out, when shards are feeding, really?). The bait stayed on the bottom while the divers ascended. The bait was pulled up and switched out when divers were on the boat. I won't say it felt "safe," but I did not have a sense of imminent danger or risk of an injury.

I would never do a dive under the conditions halcyon described above. If Abernethy is running dives the same way as rdrining's post indicates, instead of what I experienced, I would not do those, either. To the OP, I would never recommend that you, or anyone, do such a dive or put your family in such a situation. In addition, looking at some of the videos posted the risk is even more palpable than the descriptions indicate.

As for feeding, I agree with DD's comments, but I will admit that my dives with Abernethy gave me a whole new perspective on sharks, and so I contribute to Shark Savers and some other ocean conservation organizations, and I really do believe that Jim cares about shark conservation and he is doing a lot about it way beyond just running these trips.

Now that I dive where sharks are sighted regularly as part of the reef ecosystem, or on their migrations, it is much more exciting to see one in those conditions that on the baited dives, even if they only do a swim-by and do not hang around due the artificial attraction of the food.

 

[mscott556]

The sharks are here year-round. Last April I saw tiger, lemon, bull, silky, reef & nurse sharks. This was my last dive w/Emerald:

If you want to save sharks, do something about the environment. Unfortunately, watching people hand feed sharks is not providing protection from extinction.

The public education due to shark feeding dives is indeed doing something.

1. A group of commercial fishing operations agreed not to fish near the lemon shark aggregation areas this year.
2. NOAA will hold a public meeting this month to discuss the creation of national marine sanctuaries in southeast Florida to protect the sharks from fishing.

 

[scubadada]

...The public education due to shark feeding dives is indeed doing something.

1. A group of commercial fishing operations agreed not to fish near the lemon shark aggregation areas this year.
2. NOAA will hold a public meeting this month to discuss the creation of national marine sanctuaries in southeast Florida to protect the sharks from fishing.

Really, from shark feeding dives?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

The feeding dives have kicked up a fair chunk of support for shark protection measures. A lot of folks were vocally unhappy with NMFS when they decided to open the season in January this year after two years of waiting until July; what Michael is referring to is the annual meeting for NMFS to set the next season's regulations. Some are pushing to have the season set back to July again (as I understand, the Carolina-area fishers are not happy with the earlier opener since it gives the Florida guys a head start); others are pushing for an exclusion on tigers, hammers, and lemons or to close the lemon aggregation areas until summer.

Might this have happened without the feeding dives? Maybe. Are people overplaying the danger to the shark population due to emotions? From an objective standpoint, yes. It's harder for people to accept a fishery when the potential catches have names, histories, and for lack of a better term personalities.

I have something of a nuanced opinion of the hazard level on these dives. I don't subscribe to making sharks out to be cute and cuddly. These are big wild predators and depending on the species and size they might be capable of doing serious damage. Nobody showed them the page in the rule book that says "no biting the beach apes." On the other hand, they know damn well what they're there for - the box of dead fish. The humans are just the noisy, clumsy things they have to swim around to get at the box of dead fish. Guy mistook what I said about being "bumped" by the lemons; you're getting bumped because it's a 10-ft animal maneuvering in a crowded space, not because it's poking the humans to see if food comes out.

Honestly, I feel better about feeding them than I do about presenting them with a food lure they can't get to - most of the time when I've seen a tiger get wired up, it's when the box is closed up and they're trying to get at it. We've had tigers and bulls rip open or just bite right through unattended crates. Saying it makes a difference if the bait is bled out and locked up is poppycock; they smell it and they know it's food. Otherwise they wouldn't bother showing up.