Anyone been Diving in S. Florida after Wilma?

Anyone been diving in S. Florida lately? I typically dive the second and third reef in Southern Palm Beach and Broward County and was wondering how the vis has been and if anyone is getting any lobsters.

I've been down here but the visibility hasn't seemed to look to good from the shore, but it does seem to be clearing up. I did see an older guy going solo with lobstering gear today. If you're down here and have some time to spare, we could hit up the 2nd reef sometime this week. This weekend there should be a bunch of people going out. On sunday there's probably going to be 2 dives in the morning. And saturday perhaps a dive during the day and one at night

I haven't but a friend of mine just told me that he was out last weekend with a vis of 5"

i was out from sharkys on sunday just passed and it was fine.i went a lil late in the day so i blamed my 5-7 ft. visibility on that, it was fine.

We haven't had a good day yet, but by now it's due to a number of factors other than Wilma... watch the wind, and when it's coming out of the west again it should be good to go.

We went out today, strong east wind, lots of waves, big south current, 5 to 6 feet of vis south of comercial pier. We won't be going back out until it settles down...

Thanks for the replies. I haven't been diving in a few weeks and was interested in seeing if anyone had braved the elements and headed out. You guys that shore dive have my respect. Not easy with 2' to 4' seas. I'm hoping the seas calm down this weekend.

Viz is runing about 5-10 foot from Lauderdale (10ft) all the way up to Jupiter (less than 5 ft).. Things are just ugly right now.. Hopefully the will approve soon

Heard that raw sewage has caused the visiblity to be around 5 - 10 feet.

My buddy went out this past weekend and confirmed the low viz. Did not see any sewage though.

Yes, the outlets were contaminated by runoff, which included sewer overflow. That should be over and done with. I heard alerts for Deerfield but not for Pompao Beach, not that I'd enjoy swimming on the fringe lol. The alert warned of gastro-something-or-other symptoms at the time.

We always get a bit of runoff whenever rain is approaching as they "make room" in the Everglades for stormwater. It's a funny brownish, cold water that drifts with the current in clouds that can be quite large... it'll ruin your dive for sure if you get caught in one. We was a lot of them at the beginning of rainy season (I made a few posts).

The current low visibility isn't really a Wilma thing as far as I can tell - it seems to be just our bad luck that the gulf stream has been unusually rough (change of seasonal current patterns?) and an east wind.

As far as WHEN goes, we're all eager. I still have to dig my diveyak out of about 4' of sand (actually dug a small hole and found it, though - yaayyyy!). My best guess is that the wind won't be right until after the weekend. Next weekend may be the one to plan for, and we might even have GREAT Thanksgiving conditions!

JRScuba:

Heard that raw sewage has caused the visiblity to be around 5 - 10 feet.

My buddy went out this past weekend and confirmed the low viz. Did not see any sewage though.

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