Lemon Sharks

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Strima77

Contributor
Messages
90
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Location
Meredith, NH
# of dives
200 - 499
I've heard January is the time to see lemon sharks off Jupiter, FL. Anyone know if the sharks are around now, and if so, is there a dive op in that area that goes out to see them? Thanks for any info.
 
Are you familiar with Emerald Dive Charters? They're famous for shark feeding dives, where it stands to reason sharks can be drawn in closer to you and show up more reliably. Shark feeding is a hotly debate issue. Are you open to shark feed dives, or opposed to them? This could impact which op. you go with.

Richard.
 
Not sure really, I love to see sharks diving but have been on only one dive where the crew put a bait bucket under the boat. I would prefer seeing sharks without baiting/feeding, but I have no strong opinion at this point.
 
Not sure really, I love to see sharks diving but have been on only one dive where the crew put a bait bucket under the boat. I would prefer seeing sharks without baiting/feeding, but I have no strong opinion at this point.

Emerald definitely has them, as well as the other local dive op that uses bait, Calypso:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlcG6mgUAI

If you're not comfortable with baiting or are not familiar with Jupiter diving (those two ops are definitely advanced/nitrox only), other dive ops can put you on lemons. Narcosis, Ocean Quest Scuba, and Jupiter Dive Center to name a few are running into them:

West Palm Beach Dive Reports from Narcosis Dive Charters

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-diving/485818-sharks-palm-beach-county-7.html
 
Narcosis and Ocean Quest have been pretty good at finding lemons without bait. I did two Narcosis dives last year that were pretty lemony and Ocean Quest had a number of good encounters. Not disputing that Emerald and Calypso are the best tickets to the show; just putting up some alternate options.

Michael, when were you striking out on the lemons? I was trying to find them from the Narcosis in the winter of 2013 and kept striking out. I got the impression that in general 2013 was a bad year for them, and in 2014 they had a big party going.
 
Last year, Jupiter Dive Center did a pretty good job finding the Lemon sharks: there was one site in particular that seemed to always have them. I can't recall the site's name, but I think it might have been Center Street or something similar. On one dive in particular, the Lemons came in really close to the divers (calm and non-threatening, but a few arm spans away): I think Calypso wasn't too far away and might have just finished up one of their feeding dives. I actually saw one Lemon on the Tunnels site too, which was really unusual since that is where the reef sharks hang.

The prior year, I didn't see any at all.

Here's a screen capture I posted in the other sharks of PBC thread

lemon_shark_passes_close_on_center_st_jdc_feb_17_20141.jpg
 
Narcosis and Ocean Quest have been pretty good at finding lemons without bait. I did two Narcosis dives last year that were pretty lemony and Ocean Quest had a number of good encounters. Not disputing that Emerald and Calypso are the best tickets to the show; just putting up some alternate options.

Michael, when were you striking out on the lemons? I was trying to find them from the Narcosis in the winter of 2013 and kept striking out. I got the impression that in general 2013 was a bad year for them, and in 2014 they had a big party going.

Wasn't some of the buzz in 2013 that a commercial boat went out and legally harvested all the lemons at the aggregation site(s) in 2013 ? I could swear sitting in on several PB Dive Assocition meetings, where this was discussed....as it was legal, and bad on many counts....

If this was the case, and these fisherman decide to do this again, then what ?
 
Dan, as of 2014 the opening date for commercial shark fishing was kicked back from January 1 to July 1. I'm not sure how much of a factor it was in the 2014 aggregation, but it'll keep the commercial fishermen off of them during the aggregation.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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