Diving with Gators present??

[mike_s]

Here is the sign they have up for swimmers, boaters, and divers at Morrison Springs

 

[Mustangmermaid]

This time of year you'll want to exercise an extreme amount of caution if you're going to head into those waters. remember this is mating season till late June-mid July from what the FWC officer we saw told us. Remember to give them a wide birth and you will most likely be ok but do have a buddy or two would be my advice. I have spent quite a bit of time underwater filming at Alexander Springs in the Ocala National Forest and have been in the water with them several times. generally from what I have seen, they want far less to do with us than we do with them, but we are always in numbers and have exceptional visibility on our side.. I hope the dive, should you care to make it is all you hope for.

 

[diveprof]

I have dove with gators on several occasion (Cooper River, florida springs and rivers, and our local Savannah river). The small guys are not much of an issue and usually swim off, but the larger ones....well, I enjoy diving with sharks, but not really large gators. About 7 years ago I had a very interesting encounter with a 10' gator in the water. It was in the Savannah River. My buddy and I were in about 15' of water looking for bottles and arrowheads swimming upriver near the shore. We became separated and I ascended to find the dive flag (he was pulling one of those white styrofoam float balls with the dive flag with about 20' of line out). When I hit the surface I was about 2' downriver from the gator (the tail end) the gator was following the float ball about 5' behind. OK, gator experts, the proper procedure for such a situation is which of the following:

1. rap on your tank and get your buddy's attention to warn him of the gator (wasn't sure this would be the best option as a. I was the one on the surface and may draw the gator's attention and b. if my buddy surfaced, he would be directly in front of the gator.)
2. Submerge and join back up with my buddy (hmm, didn't want to lose track of the gator and I would likely end up swimming under the gator to get to my dive buddy (vis was low that day, about 4-5')
3. Move away from the whole situation a bit, observe and be ready to help if needed.

Those were the three options that I arrived at on such short notice. I chose option 3 as the course of action (actually the first action was warming one's wetsuit which I believe that I promptly did) and moved about 30-40' off. Thank goodness my buddy didn't follow the "if you lose your buddy, search for a minute and surface" rule. Fortunately in a couple of minutes a boat came close enough by at a high rate of speed generating waves. This disturbed the gator and he swam to shore. I then rejoined my buddy and we moved to the opposite shore. Two days later the wildlife folks relocated this gator to south Georgia (he had been eating the ducks at the nearby riverwalk upsetting the tourists and locals. Maybe he mistook the white float ball moving along in the water as a duck?)

 

[micklock]

I got this e-mail from a friend, the cold Great Lakes don't seem so bad

The alligator was found between Lake Istapoka and Pinedale estates... near a house ,
Game Wardens were forced to shoot the alligator- guess he wouldn't cooperate.


Jayne and Don Hobkirk could hear the bellowing in the night. Their neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the Lake that runs behind their house, but they dismissed the stories as being exaggerations.


"I didn't believe it," Don Hobkirk said.


Friday they realized the stories were, if anything, understated.


Florida Game and Parks game wardens had to shoot the beast...


Joe Goff, 6' 5" tall, a game warden with the Florida Game and Parks Commission, walks past the 23-foot, one inch alligator that he shot and killed in the back yard of Jayne & Don Hobkirk...


​

This picture was taken by a Lifeflight helicopter flying over Lake Istapoka, (For those of you who are not local, Lake Istapoka is near Sebring, Fl.)
That has to be a HUGE gator to have a whole deer in its mouth!

Are you ready to go fishing on Lake Istapoka?! If you ski -- try not to fall.​

 

[Tom Winters]

Geez... I thought Florida was a lethal injection state.

 

[krawdady]

Yeah it's funny that most Florida divers have no problem getting in the water where they know there will be sharks but most of us won't mess with the gators. The big ones are can be nasty.

 

[Daz]

I got this e-mail from a friend, the cold Great Lakes don't seem so bad

The alligator was found between Lake Istapoka and Pinedale estates... near a house ,
Game Wardens were forced to shoot the alligator- guess he wouldn't cooperate.

Jayne and Don Hobkirk could hear the bellowing in the night. Their neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the Lake that runs behind their house, but they dismissed the stories as being exaggerations.

"I didn't believe it," Don Hobkirk said.

Friday they realized the stories were, if anything, understated.

Florida Game and Parks game wardens had to shoot the beast...

Joe Goff, 6' 5" tall, a game warden with the Florida Game and Parks Commission, walks past the 23-foot, one inch alligator that he shot and killed in the back yard of Jayne & Don Hobkirk...

The above picture is actually a 13 foot gator (not 23) that was killed by game wardens in Texas in 2005

Reference: snopes.com: Giant Alligator

--------------------

The pic below was taken by a US Fish & Wildlife Service Fire management Officer in Georgia back in 2004. Estimated size was 12-14 feet.

Reference: snopes.com: Gatorade

This picture was taken by a Lifeflight helicopter flying over Lake Istapoka, (For those of you who are not local, Lake Istapoka is near Sebring, Fl.)
That has to be a HUGE gator to have a whole deer in its mouth!

Are you ready to go fishing on Lake Istapoka?! If you ski -- try not to fall.

No matter though - those're two dman big gators, not something I'd want to dive with...

 

[diveprof]

Geez... I thought Florida was a lethal injection state.

Florida is trying to be a "green" state. This method of capital punishment makes sure that the protein remains in the food chain .

 

[krawdady]

I'm watching the news right now and they just reported that at about 8:30 tonight a man had his hand and part of his arm bitten off by an alligator. I would say stay out of the pond.

 

[John_B]

I dive with a couple of Gators, they are OK.

And a 'Nole, but she's an old friend so I make an exception in that one case.