CCR Goliath Grouper trip report with photos

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Yesterday, Walt Stearns (www.underwaterjournal.com) organized a CCR Goliath Grouper trip with Emerald Charters (www.emeraldcharters.com) in Jupiter, Florida. At this time of year there are large aggregations of Goliath Grouper in the Jupiter area, presumably for spawning. Joining Walt and myself on the charter were Bob (EANXdiver) and Amy, Ryan Canon from Reef Photo (www.reefphoto.com), “Monkey”, Adrian (sfldiver), and Harold (ScubaDadMiami). On the trip were two Kiss Classics, two Sport Kiss, a Copis Meg, a Pelagian, and two Optimas.

While there was a mild swell (that subsided through the day), the skies were clear, and the water a balmy 86 degrees. It was a three tank trip to the Hole in the Wall (approx 145 fsw), the Zion Train (approx 90 fsw), and the MG111 (approx 60 fsw). We had run times on each of the dives of 106 minutes, 67 minutes, and 72 minutes, respectively. Despite these long dives at these depths, for the whole day I only went through about nine cubic feet of oxygen and nine cubic feet of diluent. You gotta love rebreathers!

The drops were perfect and the Goliath Grouper did not disappoint. We had lots of them at all three sites and even had a couple of inquisitive reef sharks at the Hole. Here are a few images from the trip:

Goliath Grouper

“Monkey” with his Copis Meg

Hole in the Wall

Bob and Amy on their Kiss Classics

Ryan taking a photo (as usual) with his Pelagian

Harold with his Optima

“Jupiter Wreck Trek”

 

[Red_5]

awesome!

 

[almity1]

Thanks for Sharing, debersole

Some totally cool and awesome shots.

I notice Ryan (of ReefPhoto fame???) is using the buoyant arms, do they really work and do they help when the diver is on the RB taking photos????

 

[erparamedic]

Fantastic photos, as usual! Thanks so much for sharing them! You're photos are always such a treat!

We saw more Goliath Grouper than we could count when we were in WPB 3-4 weeks ago. Amazing! We dove The Corridor (Mizpah, PC1170, and Amaryllis), Atlantis, and Spudbarge. We also saw a couple of them on NW Double Ledges (Shark Dive). It was my first time seeing goliaths, and I was in awe!

 

[almitywife]

nice!

i hope come christmas time i will be able to take some nice blue water pics of almity1's rig... fingers crossed!

do you find any difficulties arranging commercial charters for rebreather dives????

 

[archman]

You guys are totally hardcore.:scubadive

 

[deeper thoughts]

wow...

 

[Hyper-limits]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing

Cheers

Al

 

[bvmjethead]

So what was the average size of the fish you saw that day? I see nothing in any of the pics that I can reference to get an idea of the size of those monstors.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Almighty1 -- I've never used the buoyant arms myself. You'd have to ask Ryan how they perform but he seems to use them very well, regardless of whether he is on open circuit or CCR.

Almightywife -- On Rebreatherworld, the S.C.R.U.B. group is setting up a list of Florida dive operators who are "rebreather-friendly". My personal experience is that most operators will allow CCR diving as long as you don't hold up the rest of the divers. If you want to do prolonged dives and/or deco, it is best to charter the whole boat and work out a dive plan with the captain. As an example, on the charter yesterday the plan was for each diver to fire a lift bag at 45 minutes as our deco was done drifting in the Gulf Stream. That way the captain could count bags and follow us.

bvmjethead -- I'm not the best at judging weights but the goliath grouper ranged from around a hundred to several hundred pounds.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.

Doug