Florida Shark Diving

[drrich2]

I think I also noticed that he was missing part of a finger?

It's on their website; a porcupine puffer bit it off. Later, he suffered a 'degloving' injury of parts of a couple of fingers when a spear fishing line wrapped around a couple of his fingers, and a bull shark grabbed his catch, IIRC (real definition of IIRC - too lazy to go look it up right now).

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I'm on occasional Jupiter diver when visiting friends nearby,

I've been on one of those hand-feed dives with Randy a good while ago, didn't seek it out, but that's what they were doing that day. I found it interesting as a one-time thing but no need to keep at it. I think I also noticed that he was missing part of a finger?

Much more interesting and meaningful for me was a live-drop in February for the Lemons, where we kept our distance and tried not to "influence" them. They told us to level off and stay "quiet" at 70' while bottom was 90, and let the Lemons pass beneath us at about 80'.

And so they did, heading south while we idled facing north, it was perfect, 4 or 5 of them, then to my surprise they circled back around and again passed beneath us, except one I recall was above us this time. We were told (or maybe i heard later?) that these are pregnant females who need just the right water temp (about 74) during that phase of gestation. Then later on they head over to the Bahamas to give birth.

Way cool. They had a purpose, we got to see it without "interacting" with them so as to affect their behavior much. I'd rather be an observer at a respectful distance, This was ideal, at least for me.

I'm not sure if anyone's quite figured out the whole winter bit with the lemons. They mate and give birth in late spring/early summer (12-month gestation period and they don't run out to get pregnant again); that's the time of year when you'll find newborns in the mangroves and see adult females looking like they, ah, had some "50 Shades" action recently. We definitely have males that come in from out of town during the winter; we had three years running where we saw one fellow nicknamed "Garbage Guts" on account that we saw him pass an open fish stringer straight through his side over that time period (as in he ate it, it punched out his abdomen in two places, and eventually he worked it out of his guts). We only saw him in the winter. Fifteen or twenty years ago they used to see massive 80-100 strong aggregations that would just park themselves on the bottom; depending on who you talk to either the recreational divers scattered them once the word got out, they got hit hard by fishing, or with warmer water temps they moved farther north.

The hard part with the "no interaction" dives is that the other boats hit the same dive sites as the feed boats and often on the same day, so it's probably the same sharks. I do think it's a good sign that apparently they can tell the difference between the snack vendors and the regular divers; they'll come have a look, but won't climb into your lap.

 

[Biotech Diver]

I saw my first Lemon Shark yesterday on the second dive off of Boynton. We were the first divers in the water and dropped almost on top of it. The reef was at about 70 feet and visibility was about 50 feet with a water temperature of 79.

As soon as we got to the reef I saw the Lemon Shark about 20 feet away. It circled us about 4 times at about 30 feet away from us. Total encounter time was about 10 minutes before it went out of sight. I’d estimate it was about 8 feet long but I’m terrible at guessing size and distance so it could have been 6 feet or it could have been 10 feet! LOL!

 

[Jafo19D]

In a trip to Key Largo with 20 dives in 2013, I saw a few Caribbean reef sharks (I think nurse sharks, too); the reef sharks were skittish and the Rainbow Reef Dive Center guides had little mirrors, which they held out and wiggled (I think to create the shiny moving look of a thrashing fish). They weren't numerous and tended to keep a distance or move on.

The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos (the Caicos area; I don't know about Grand Turk) have a rep. for Caribbean reef sharks. I've been to Turks & Caicos via live-aboard, and yes, we saw some. That works. I've read Stuart's Cove does baited dives with reef sharks, but you can see them without baiting in the Bahamas and T&C.

In the Caymans (2016) and St. Croix (2017), Caribbean reef sharks came around us at a slower pace, closer, made some passes, and I took this to likely be a hold-over from past shark feeding. A guide in St. Croix told me the reef sharks used to be deeper, down around 90 feet, but people fed them lion fish and they started patrolling shallower reefs. People quit giving them lion fish (from what I understand), but when I was there in 2017, it was a good place to see reef sharks pretty close up without feeding. I saw them in 2015 while live-aboard diving out of Belize; a couple made life interesting for a guide carrying a speared lion fish, and on one dive one maybe 5 feet long entertained us on a baited dive (dead lion fish in a perforated 5-gallon bucket).

Saw nurse sharks and some small black tips (I believe they were) in Cozumel in 2018, but the black tips aren't a reliable thing.

My point is, if you want to see Caribbean reef sharks without baiting, there are a number of places you can go with good odds if you do a bunch of dives.

One place at this point in my life wouldn't go...oceanic white-tip diving near Cat Island in the Bahamas. I don't know whether they bait or not. I've read about diving with a few of those sharks...too rich for my blood.

Richard.

P.S.: I am not inclined to try the 'waving the mirror' and similar tricks. An article in Alert Diver online, A Shark Tale, by Mary Maguire, describes a reef shark incident:

"Art had just speared two lionfish and was heading back to the boat when he attracted the attention of a couple of 3- to 5-foot-long Caribbean reef sharks. They were drawn by the fish blood and dying movements of the fish on the end of the spear. One shark swam up under Art as he made his way toward the boat. As the shark opened its mouth and headed toward the fish, he encountered Art's left hand instead. Art says it was sudden, unexpected and painful. He tucked his fist under his right armpit and continued to the boat, where he handed up his fish. Sue and Paula then helped him aboard, applied a pressure dressing and helped him remove his suit. There was a lot of blood. Art doesn't remember any of this."

As long as there is no food in the water, or I'm not holding it, I don't worry about reef sharks. Here's a video showing a diver rubbing a bottle on a very deep dive in Papua New Guinea, another trick to draw sharks. Well, it worked...

I did my AOW in Providencia, Colombia and on each of the 3 deep dives we saw sharks w/out having to bait. A few weeks before this I had actually arranged to do my AOW with a different dive shop but learned that they did bait so I canceled with them; later I learned that a lady was bitten on the hand when she went diving with this place.

Last year I was diving in San Andrés which is near Providencia and the DM who was originally form Providencia said he no longer dives there because the sharks have become aggressive due to baiting.

 

[jejton]

If you looking for sharks, plenty down in the Keys, go to the reefs and you will see a variety sharks and rays in water from 10ft to 40 ft deep.

You have mixed feeling? Is this an issue with sharks or the depth you have to go to see them?

Not sure if you're asking me or the OP, but I have mixed feelings about the ethics of baited shark dives (which indeed is what I did) and safety. The latter, which I do not claim to be an expert, have hard proof or any true scientific level data to support one side or other, is based on my thoughts that this activity may be teaching sharks to associate divers with food. While I've read many posts discussing this from both sides, I am not an expert nor have I done any in-depth research however I do know that feeding wild animals is frowned upon by those with the expertise and experience. Note all the signs in the state and national parks warning not to feed wildlife. It teaches them association and dependence - becoming dependent on people is not good for their long term survival (read the history of Yellowstone's grizzlies), health and changes behavior. It also teaches them to associate people with food, which often leads to negative and sometimes dangerous interactions. Sometimes humans end up hurt or killed, but the animal almost always has to be relocated or euthanized. So therein lies my mixed feelings. I enjoyed it, found it informative and fascinating to watch them close for so long but don't think I'd do it again. Just like why I prefer to watch wild alligators in the Everglades NP and not on 'Indian' wrestling demonstrations and feeding stations at alligator farms.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Here in the upper keys nurse sharks are so numerous they interfere with photo ops
Reef sharks are always at Molasses
Bulls usually on the Duane
The resident 15 ft hammer is sighted frequently at Alligator
One op fish feeds I know of no other that publicly admits to it

 

[CosbySweater]

Lemons have started to show up in Jupiter. Saw a few yesterday afternoon.

 

[mike41799]

Snorkeling with the lemon sharks last week

 

[mike41799]

Here is my last Shark Dive off Jupiter

 

[Snoweman]

Does anyone do these dive with just a rash guard and shorts?