The Sharks of Palm Beach County

[OceanEyes]

Enjoyed a spectacular trio of dives with Randy Jordan aboard Emerald yesterday.
1 Nurse Shark
2 Great Hammerheads
3 Tiger Sharks
Two football team's worth of Lemons
A randy teenage street-gang full of Bulls.


First image is a lone Tiger.
Second is the only capture I managed that included the Tiger trio.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Enjoyed a spectacular trio of dives with Randy Jordan aboard Emerald yesterday.
1 Nurse Shark
2 Great Hammerheads
3 Tiger Sharks
Two football team's worth of Lemons
A randy teenage street-gang full of Bulls.

View attachment 206779View attachment 206780
First image is a lone Tiger.
Second is the only capture I managed that included the Tiger trio.

Nice. The first one is Sophia; second one's not close enough for me to ID the tigers.

 

[OceanEyes]

Thanks for the ID information HalcyonDaze. I don't head up to Jupiter very frequently and thus lack the inside dope that seems to be common knowledge among the locals.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Thanks for the ID information HalcyonDaze. I don't head up to Jupiter very frequently and thus lack the inside dope that seems to be common knowledge among the locals.

I'm not a local myself, but I try and make it up there on a semi-regular basis. I've gotten so spoiled up there I turn my nose up at the options closer to Miami most of the time.

I started trying to keep track of the tigers largely because of some of the debates that took place on this forum when Randy first started doing the shark feeds; there were a lot of folks who worried that the sharks would get accustomed to handouts and start harassing divers for food. One way to see if that is happening is to keep track of the individual sharks. It's also interesting to see what times of the year they turn up and how they change over time - for instance, last year Sophia was either pregnant or overweight and Alice doesn't have any scars from the fishing line Randy cut off her last year. I'll be interested to see if they both leave early in the summer like they did last year.

It's also interesting to note their individual "personalities" for lack of a better term. Sophia's my favorite; while I wouldn't advise turning your back on any tiger shark she's always been pretty docile. Alice is more rambunctious and Djenny seems more prone to "personal space violations."

 

[mscott556]

April 18 - Breakers Reef
Lemon - 1 (30ft below me, no pics)
Tiger - 1 (reported by another boat)

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Not dive-related, but interesting. Today at work I was searching for archaeological background references in support of some environmental assessment work up in Palm Beach County and came across this: Florida anthropologist

Really interesting to see what species were around back before European settlers got to the Jupiter area. Most of the species listed are old friends - tigers, hammerheads, bulls, sandbars, duskies, blacktips, etc. - but there are a couple zingers in there like sandtiger and great white teeth.

 

[mscott556]

April 24 - Bonaire Wreck
Lemon - 2

April 25 - Gulfstream Drift & Bonaire Wreck
Silky - 3 (Gulfstream)
Tiger - 1
Lemon - 5
Nurse - 1

One Lemon Shark was male and the rest were female. The Tiger was also female.





---------- Post added April 28th, 2015 at 09:15 AM ----------

[video=youtube_share;DWNF2b2_Gis]http://youtu.be/DWNF2b2_Gis[/video]

 

[mscott556]

14ft Great White Shark reported in Jupiter by a diver on 4/28! The dive site was Captain Kurls and the shark allegedly showed up after the diver speared a Hogfish.

 

[mscott556]

May 15 - Deep Ledge & Bonaire Wreck, Jupiter, FL (federal waters)
Tiger - 1
Lemon - 5
Silky - 2 (Deep Ledge)
Nurse - 1
Reef (Black Tip?) - 1

The Reef Shark didn't come close enough for a positive ID but maybe it's on my GoPro and I can take another look. Vis was only about 30ft.





May 16 - Lemon Drop, Jupiter, FL (federal waters)
Lemon - 3
Sandbar - 1

 

[Chasin' Tales]

Very nice pics Mike! Would you mind sharing the details of your photo rig?