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This weekend on the Deep Obsession dive boat the itinerary was to see sharks. During the winter months large congregation of sharks, mostly lemon and bull sharks, make some of the wrecks of Palm Beach their winter home. These beautiful and impressive looking denizens of the ocean world always stir excitement with the divers; many of which are seeing a shark for the first time.

Our first dive today was to Governor’s Riverwalk wrecks. This series of ship wrecks seem to attract the sharks the most. Upon descending to the first wreck a large bull shark swam slowly past the divers. Its impressive girth and its small eye made its identification an easy one. With a moderate current at our backs the group of divers hung behind many of the wrecks looking out into the distance in hopes of seeing some of the lemon sharks reported to have been in the area. Unfortunately, the lemons were no where to be seen.

Great barracudas, some lobsters, and tons of tropical fish kept the video cameras rolling and the strobes on the underwater cameras firing throughout the dive. Upon leaving the last wreck a handful of divers began their ascent to their safety stop. Two minutes into the stop one diver quickly inverted and bolted a couple of feet downward. Right below him a large bull shark had ascended to check out the divers. It’s always funny to see the mindset of divers with sharks in comparison to what the rest of the world believes. When divers see shark their inclination is to swim towards them to have a better view… The rest of the world’s population fears them terribly. If only everyone in the world could be scuba certified to have that better perspective of sharks.

Continuing with the wreck theme the group seemed pretty psyched about the next dive we would be doing: the Corridor wrecks. My personal favorite because of the friendly Hawksbill turtles. Our own dreaded Capt. Sean was involuntarily chosen to swim to shore if our “We guarantee you’ll see a turtle on this dive” statement did not hold true.

As we descended to the wrecks the first noticeable difference was the milder north current; a lot more manageable than what we had at Governor’s Riverwalk. Coming upon the Mitzpah a lonely Goliath Grouper quickly swam into the crevices of the wreck. The photographers were busy photographing the sea life that adorns these wrecks. Scanning the wreck not a single turtle was seen. Considering I normally see a least one turtle on the first two wrecks things weren’t looking too good for Capt. Sean.

We continued drifting ever so slowly in a northerly manner across the rock piles; home to 573 grunts (I counted them so the divers didn’t have to). The Amaryllis was in sight shortly after and, sure enough, as I had predicted previously on my dive briefing, Hawksbill (#930) was busy feeding on some sponges. From 80 feet down I swear I could hear Capt Sean screaming in joy from the boat; no swimming for him today.

The group continued cruising along the Amaryllis, across the second set of rock piles and onto the China barge before making their ascent from another spectacular dive. While the sharks weren’t as plentiful as we had hoped having sighted that impressive bull shark a couple of times and the always fun “guaranteed” turtle dive at the Corridor wrecks made the day’s diving a great one. Not bad for another winter FloriDay.

Jan 11, 2009 :: Today all of our guests arrived by 5pm. In addition, the incredible staff here at JASA had everything prepared well in advance allowing me to give the guests a bonus dive at a world class macro site before we departed. Immediately after the boat briefing I moved the Shear Water to the little Blue Heron Bridge to do a shallow macro dive. This site is known as the Lembeh Straits of the Atlantic. I am always amazed at the abundance and diversity of the macro creatures here. This evenings most valued and sought after creature was the many different types of seahorses. See images below.

Jan 12, 2009 :: We arrived at 8:30 and quickly cleared customs and headed north to a site that has produced Great Hammerheads 100 percent of the visits there. Within minutes of the first dive three different tiger sharks joined us including the beautiful Annabella, as well a TC. Both of them have been very popular lately. I was not able to get close to the third tiger. At the end of the first dive, just before boarding, I saw a great Hammerhead roughly ten feet long. I quickly grabbed another tank and saw it again only at the beginning of the dive. I hoped someone else would see it because if only a crew member sees it it doesn’t really count. Heidi, one of our regulars saw it as well. Before sunset three tigers, one great hammerhead, and two bull sharks had joined us. At sunset we moved to Tiger Beach where we did a beautiful night dive in the crystal clear waters of the full moon’s high tide.

Jan 13, 2009 :: This morning we woke up to very strong winds despite a weather report that should have been a beautiful day. We made the best of it by diving until almost noon at a section of Tiger Beach called the Chain. During the dives, seven different tiger sharks and roughly twenty lemon sharks entertained us, including TC, Relentless, Christina, Milo, and Sally. We then moved to a site where we only have Tiger Sharks to take topside shots of Tiger Sharks using their ambush behavior to eat fish at the surface with there mouth open and their teeth exposed. The name of the site is called Breaching Tiger Splashing Dragon, but that is too long of a story for this blog. Many of the guests were able to get amazing shots of this.

Jan 14, 2009 :: This morning in route to our first dive site we were delayed with a wild dolphin encounter. Roughly seven atlantic spotted dolphin entertained us as we attempted to try to interact with them. They swam amongst us in a very excited state. This time of year very few people actually seek them out to play with them. During the summer months there are two full time dolphin boats so they are usually less reluctant to play with us. We enjoyed the dolphins for roughly one hour. While we were playing with them we observed a bull shark as well as a tiger shark underneath them. I have seen this many times and I believe the tiger is waiting for a slow or sleeping dolphin.

After the dolphin encounter we anchored back at tiger beach and dove for roughly 3 hours with the lemons. One wild tiger swam through but it was very nervous and would not allow anyone to get close enough to take any pictures. Late in the afternoon we moved to the Sugar Wreck to do one more day dive as well as a night dive.

Jan 15, 2009 :: This morning we woke to flat calm seas, despite a weather forecast of 15 to 20 miles an hour winds from the west. During the day it picked up to 12 miles an hour from the east. I had a feeling we would have lots of tigers and I was correct. At Classic Tiger Beach we had roughly 12 different tigers, although I never saw more than six at a time. For the second time since I named tiger beach we had a male tiger shark. He was very pale, which I believe means he has been in shallow water for quite some time. It is so nice to see that many tigers in one place. We dove until lunch time before we moved to Shark Tooth Ridge for the afternoon dives. After sunset we moved back to the beach where some divers did a night dive.

Jan 16, 2009 :: This morning’s sunrise had very strong winds from the north. We dove in the morning in rough seas at Tiger Beach and then spent the rest of the day at Breaching Tiger Splashing Dragon playing with the tigers. We were quite surprised to see a blacktip shark show up as well. Hopefully the weather will change overnight.

Jan 17, 2009 :: This morning, in calmer seas, we went to an un named dive site and had a tremendous day. Five different tigers, roughly 25 lemons, a dozen reef sharks and one black tip shark entertained us. Without question the tiger shark named TC stole the spotlight. Her calm, gentile majestic personality made the guests fall in love with her. One of the guests, Heidi Colluzzi, referring to TC said “She is my favorite! She was so much fun! She kept me company on my safety stop and posed for countless images! I LOVE HER! One of the images I took today will be my next tattoo!” For me, SHE ROCKS MY WORLD! I wonder what happened to her second dorsal which is rolled over to her right side.

Another Tiger that was in the lime light most of the day was Secorra. This five foot tiger has me concerned as she has these white spots on her side that seem to be growing in size very quickly. I will be asking my shark scientist friends what this is. I hope she will be OK. After an unbelievable day we moved back to tiger beach for the night dive as well as sleep.

Jan 18,2009 :: After a somewhat rocky night, a beautiful sunrise and calm seas allowed us to maximize our day. Our last day was spent at the beautiful turtle grass section of Tiger Beach. Roughly a dozen tiger sharks showed up to entertain us with 30 lemons escorting them. This week we added two new tiger sharks to our identification book. One was named after Heidi Coluzzi, an extreme shark conservationist whose company we have had the pleasure of enjoying on several trips! The second smaller tiger we named after Marina, our second captain’s one year old daughter. A perfect close for a beautiful trip! Make sure you see the pictures below!

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Our first dive of the day was to the Trench where with a very slight north current the group was able to really take in the intricate beauty of the reef. Having the opportunity to move at a very slow pace means the smaller creatures are easier to spot. Eels of all kinds were observed, a few lobsters, and all sorts of tropical fish. A gorgeous giant tip anemone with a rare cleaner shrimp sat on top of the reef. A tiny nudibranch crawled across the sand and a stingray initiated a cuddle session with one of our divers (much to the diver’s enjoyment).

Our second dive was at Breakers reef. This spectacular reef never fails to impress. Eels, lobsters, and a green turtle were a few of the highlights of the dive. The tiny yellow seahorse who made its appearance a couple of days ago has apparently moved on to a different location. Perhaps it found its way back to Phil Foster park along with a dozen or so of its buddies who have been roaming the area as of lately.

With a fun group of divers and a splendid Florida day the day’s diving could not have been any better.