FEBRUARY 5 and 6, 2011

DIVE REPORT: WEST PALM BEACH and JUPITER (double click white box in upper right corner for an easier read and better pics; all rights reserved):

Dove in West Palm Beach on Saturday morning.  Not bad diving: a little bumpy; vis of 40 to 60 feet; a little chilly with bottom temps. at 67 to 70; very mild current; but, the top 15 feet of water was filled with Warty Jellyfish and the surface of the water had more Man-O-War than I had ever seen before.  The jellies and the man-o-war were all over us; I have never seen anything like this before anywhere.  The strong winds during the week must have blown in the jellies and man-o-war.

We headed to the shallow reefs and dropped on Breaker’s Reef and Tear Drop.  Again, nice diving.  A lot of turtles, goliaths, and nurse sharks.  Most of the turtles were loggerheads, but also saw some greens and even a hawksbill was hanging out on the reef.

Of course, all of the usual suspects were there: green morays, large schools of fish, including atlantic spadefish.

And, I even had a 5 to 6 foot Bull Shark swim in front of me on Breaker’s Reef.  Unfortunately, they are so shy, they will not come close enough for a picture.

Sunday morning I finally dove Jupiter for the first time; only a few miles to the north, but I had never dove there.  It was outstanding!!!  Flat seas; 40 to 50 feet of vis with no sunshine; no current — we prefer current to push us along the reef so that we can cover more ground.  The marine life was incredible.  The creatures in Jupiter are definitely a little large than in West Palm Beach.

Dropped on a dive site called Tunnels and could not believe what was going on.  Nurse sharks, carribbean reef sharks, goliaths, turtles, and a spotted eagle ray — all at the same time and in the same place.  Truly amazing!!!

And, these were the larges goliaths, nurse sharks, and loggerheads that I had ever seen before.  Apparently, I need to dive more often in Jupiter

Just a great weekend to be underneath the water!!!

Doug Kahle

SAVE THE OCEANS — SAVE THE SHARKS!