diveprof
Contributor
I didn't want to hijack my own thread on lemon sharks so I thought that I would move one of the responses to my post here (hope I'm not breaking a rule here) for discussion. I am only to dive Jupiter infrequently. However, over the past few years it seems I am seeing more reef sharks each trip, particularly if speafishing is also occuring. They seem to respond to the sound of a speargun like a dinner bell. From what I've seen, there has been no effort to include the speafishing diver on the menu, but they do seem more comfortable with close interactions. Are others who dive regularly there noticing this as a relatively new behavior, or has this been going on for a long time? This is the post that sparked my interest:
#5
sportxlh
ScubaBoard Enthusiast
Has not set a "status"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join Date: Aug 2008Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FLPosts: 1,000Dives:200 - 499Photos: 158
I've been out with JDC the past two Fridays and we did not see any lemons on Mike's Reef, Spadefish Point or Tunnels. However, we saw an incredible number of very active reef sharks on all the sites: especially Tunnels and Mike's Reef. The reef sharks harassed the spear fisherman on Tunnels and got one of the shot grouper. Both of the experienced spearo's indicated they had never seen anything quite like it before: a dozen reef sharks surronding them in 30-70 feet of water, bumping them and trying to get to the fish. Both sent their catches up on tethered lift bags and the sharks followed one of the bags and left only the head of the grouper.
#5
sportxlh
ScubaBoard Enthusiast
Has not set a "status"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join Date: Aug 2008Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FLPosts: 1,000Dives:200 - 499Photos: 158
I've been out with JDC the past two Fridays and we did not see any lemons on Mike's Reef, Spadefish Point or Tunnels. However, we saw an incredible number of very active reef sharks on all the sites: especially Tunnels and Mike's Reef. The reef sharks harassed the spear fisherman on Tunnels and got one of the shot grouper. Both of the experienced spearo's indicated they had never seen anything quite like it before: a dozen reef sharks surronding them in 30-70 feet of water, bumping them and trying to get to the fish. Both sent their catches up on tethered lift bags and the sharks followed one of the bags and left only the head of the grouper.