Jupiter Trip Report 3/29, 3/31, 4/1, 4/2 2013

[SSharkk]

Truly exceptional diving with Jupiter Dive Center on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, April 1st and April 2 nd.
Palm Beach County diving is renowned for its large animals: sharks, goliath groupers and sea turtles being some of the most notable animals. Five species of sea turtles can be found of the coast of PBC. Loggerheads, some greens and the rare and massive leatherback all nest on our beaches. Juvenile hawksbills are often seen foraging on sponges on our reefs. The rarest of the rare, the Kemp’s Ridley is by far the most difficult to encounter. This is the rarest sea turtle in world and is now just barely coming back from the rough edge of extinction. A Kemp’s ridley looks superficially like small loggerhead. Upon close examination this animal has several characteristics unique to its species.
After more than 40 years of diving Palm Beach County Florida and looking over any turtle that had even the possibility to be ridley I finally saw my first one on April 2 nd in the company of two very experienced Palm Beach divers, Gerry Carroll, the owner of Jupiter Dive Center, and dive instructor Ham Mason. We were on just a regular week day dive, with a group of guests and a check out student, when we happened upon the creature. Luckily for us the turtle remained calm for some time allowing us to get a very good look at it, and allowing careful examination at a comfortable distance to be sure what we saw was definitely a ridley.
Now that all of the Florida sea turtles have been checked off I will be looking for a few more species still on my list for Palm Beach County: a sawfish, a mako and a thresher shark.
Dive conditions:
10 tanks on 4 dive days
Water temp - 70 to 72 degrees
Visibility – 40 to 90 ft. horizontal
Current – mild north
Seas – 2-4
Animals of Note:
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle = 1
Kemp's ridley sea turtle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kemp's Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) - Office of Protected Resources - NOAA Fisheries
Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Pictures, Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Facts - National Geographic

Loggerhead sea turtles = 9
Hawksbill sea turtles = 4, 3 of them carried tags from Larry Wood’s research
Green sea turtle = 1
Nurse sharks = 10, one very pregnant
Caribbean reef sharks = 43
Spotted eagle rays = 2 both very large, one had several remora and a cobia following it
Southern sting rays = 2
Goliath groupers (jewfish) = 52
Bluefish = 1, wounded
Snook = 1
Amberjack = a few schools of small fish
Bonitos = a small school
African pompanos = 2 schools
Horse eye jacks = 1 school
Thanks to:
Laura E. Rock – dive buddy
Captains – Mike and Tim
Dive Guides – Sandy, Sandy and Phil
Deckhands – Amanda, Bo, Steve
Check In – Adam and Marcelo
Gerry Carroll
Ham Mason

 

[djtimmy77]

Thanks for the detailed report!

 

[Scott L]

Nice report. Typical Jupiter diving and Jupiter Dive Center customer service...

 

[acteg]

I'm jealous. I could not dive last weekend. Too much drinking in preparation for a wedding this weekend, which means another weekend without diving.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Wow, wow, wow.

 

[mntlblok]

Rob Myers picked us up after the bridge dives yesterday and carted us up to Jupiter to hear his talk on dangerous marine animals. That guy knows a *lot* of stuff. And, he's fun to hang out with.

The group to whom he was speaking is called the Jupiter Drift Divers (or something like that). Had never heard of them via ScubaBoard and, oddly enough, the few folks (all very nice people) to whom I spoke didn't really seem to utilize ScubaBoard, in spite of also being regular BHB divers. I'll never figure out the Florida dive community. It also seemed that there was very little overlap with SFUPS, in spite of plenty of the folks being accomplished photographers. Hmmm. . .

---------- Post added April 5th, 2013 at 09:24 AM ----------

Oh, and with a report like this, I may have to break down and try diving deeper than 13 feet, again. . .

 

[Capt. Gerald]

And there is proof. What a great day of diving.