Hole In the Wall with the Jupiter Dive Center 04/25/08

Check in - Gerry Carroll and Kyle

Captain – Mike

Crew – “Seashell”, Les, Heather

Dive 1 - Hole In the Wall – nearly nil current, 30 ft. vis, did not see much on the bottom. On the way to the safety stop and while off gassing saw 3 bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) and one other Carcharhinid shark which was difficult to positively identify from my overhead view but, likely a sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus). Also seen were bonitos and rainbow runners.

Dive 2 – Area 51 – 40 ft. vis, nothing of great interest in way of wildlife, just the regular schools of hundreds of tropical reef fish.

Dive 3 – Mike’s Reef – 40 ft. vis, one tagged hawksbill turtle, southern stingrays and, an aggregation of 6 jewfish the smallest one being about 100 lbs. ,the largest a behemoth of approximately 350 lbs.

Seen during the surface intervals by the crew and some of the divers – one manta ray, a pod of bottlenose dolphins, a shark, two loggerhead turtles, a mola mola, a gannet and a shearwater.

An average day of spring time diving in the slot between the Florida coast and the Little Bahama Bank.

Jeff Trotta

.......Just one day too early! I have yet to see a Manta, Mola Mola, or dolphins. Sounds like we had better viz Saturday but there weren't any visitors like those!

Well, El Cid, if you keep diving the Palm Beach County area you will get days that will make our April 25 dive look pretty average. The trick is to dive it frequently during the times of the year when the wildlife is there. For example, a few days preceding and following the first full moon in August is the time for the jewfish to spawn. Seeing a pack of 40 or 50 of those big lovelies on each dive can be a wonderful experience.

By the way, what did you guys see on Saturday?

Jeff, there you are! Did you have your camera?

Saturday was a turtle dive. I think there were three or four loggerheads / hawksbills on The Bluffs and Loggerhead reefs. Saw a pretty good sized Moray, and a well hidden spotted eel also. The DM said she saw a shark, but by the time I popped over the ledge, he was gone. Seemed to me like I had to fight the switching current a bit though on Saturday.

Now is the loggerhead nesting season in South Florida so be on the lookout for them.

Hawksbills seldom nest here. The ones we see on the reefs off Palm Beach County are teenagers from the areas south of us. They come here to grow up before heading back to their nesting beaches when they become adults. If you look carefully at the trailing edge of their front flippers right at the first joint from the tip you might see a stainless steel tag with a numbers and letters. Try to remember the code, the turtle researchers like that information for their studies.

We also get some green turtles in Jupiter which are a treat but, the real prize is seeing a leatherback, the giant sea turtle. I am still waiting to see one underwater. I got a look at one once while standing on the dive platform after a Hole In the Wall dive. It dove before I could jump in again, Drat!

I hope to see out on the boat one of these days.

Well, as long as you are on JDC's boats, we'll cross paths. It's bad enough that I walk into either there or Force E and they recognize me pretty quick. Stupid Scuba addiction.....