Palm Beach Reef Recovery Post-Hurricaine?

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raviepoo

Contributor
Messages
831
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Location
in exile in the Pennsyltucky Archipellago
# of dives
500 - 999
I did a few days of diving last on the Deep Obsession last week and I'm kind of in shock. Palm Beach is my favorite place to dive. Last week all I saw was green pea soup in the shallow water, uprooted sea fans, bleached coral here and there, bits of broken sponges, and sediment all over everything. There were lots of fish, but the handful of reefs I visited look pretty badly damaged.

Local divers, what do you think about the current condition of the reefs in Palm Beach County? Am I exaggerating the damage? Have you seen the reefs like this before? Do you think they will ever return to their past glory? Have you seen good conditions and good vis since the hurricaines came through?
 
The story is the the same up and down the coast, reefs took a beating. Mother Nature has prevailed and only time will tell what is going to happen.
Our world changes very slowly and no one can predict what is going to happen tomorrow. People only try to explain what they think happened yesterday.
Just keep diving and enjoy each moment while in Neptunes backyard.


Dive Safely

Joe
 
The lakes and canals from the interior of the state are all being drained into the ocean, bringing sediment and organic matter from the land out to sea. That is really bad news for a coral reef. I know that the water has to go somewhere. I'm just worried that my favorite dive sites will never be the same and might not even survive.

It's really depressing.

jriderski:
The story is the the same up and down the coast, reefs took a beating. Mother Nature has prevailed and only time will tell what is going to happen.
Our world changes very slowly and no one can predict what is going to happen tomorrow. People only try to explain what they think happened yesterday.
Just keep diving and enjoy each moment while in Neptunes backyard.


Dive Safely

Joe
 
The reefs are indeed beat up. They are however comming back. Just think of it as Mother Nature's way of recycling. The visibility has returned and the fish are getting back to normal. You will still see alot of broken coral and sand is slowly getting washed off the reef. I dive predominately in the Boynton/Delray/Boca area of Palm beach and its been pretty good over the past three weeks.
 
We created the drainage issues by putting locks on rivers, straightening rivers (some are now going back to their natural state without assistance and the Army Corps of Engineers has stated they will not interfere), putting a lip around the southern portion of Lake Okeechobee and drainage canals in the southern half of the state have all played a role in the altercation of a balanced environment.

If you get right down to it though, FL has expanded and contracted with water tables over the years. At some point those reefs were high and dry and others they were much deeper than they are now. The reefs will continue to live, though they may be ugly at the moment.

If you want to see something interesting, you should see the area where the water from the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico waters are mixing near Sanibel. The tanisin brown with the greenish blue at a rate so fast that it could fill an olympic swimming pool in under a second.... it looks so surreal. :)
 
raviepoo:
I did a few days of diving last on the Deep Obsession last week and I'm kind of in shock. Palm Beach is my favorite place to dive. Last week all I saw was green pea soup in the shallow water, uprooted sea fans, bleached coral here and there, bits of broken sponges, and sediment all over everything. There were lots of fish, but the handful of reefs I visited look pretty badly damaged.

Local divers, what do you think about the current condition of the reefs in Palm Beach County? Am I exaggerating the damage? Have you seen the reefs like this before? Do you think they will ever return to their past glory? Have you seen good conditions and good vis since the hurricaines came through?

It is a shame that the reefs up there took such a beating.

The reefs in the Florida Keys were NOT impacted by any of the 4 storms.
 
Capt Jim Wyatt:
It is a shame that the reefs up there took such a beating.

The reefs in the Florida Keys were NOT impacted by any of the 4 storms.

Thank God the Keys are still in Paradise! It is also sadly true about West Palm (not real fun to dive anymore)! Thankfully the Keys are still the crown Jewels and have not been touched!

We recently went to Key Largo and Biscayne BAy after not being able to dive for a month and were pleasantly surprised that they were untouched by all the hurricanes! After diving West Palm after Jeanne it was not a pretty site. I think I posted about it shortly after our dive. The water had a terrible oil like look to it. The current was ripping so fast that we could hardly stay together. The coral was covered in two feet of sand.

However here is the awesome good news:
http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=A273A62B9A7&cb=PA

Still some underwater beauty left in the Keys! God has gracefully spared the Keys!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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