As I exited the West Palm Beach Airport in Florida, the late May humidity crinkled up my straightened hair like a sheet of aluminum foil. Despite this unwelcome sensation which I would normally despise greatly, I embraced it willingly as I continue to return here to the point that I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve passed through the gates of this airport. Jupiter, Florida has become a second home to me as the resident sharks reel me in time and time again, year after year.
During the course of the last 3 to
4 months, I’ve been following my favorite shark dive operators intently on
social media as they’ve been posting photos of nonstop shark action which
included magnificent Great Hammerhead sharks that have been spending lots of
time in the area. While I have already
spent ample time with this species on 2 different trips to Bimini while sitting
stationary on the ocean floor on my knees, I have never encountered one in
Jupiter while maintaining buoyancy in the water column. So I was hopeful that I would get such an
experience this time around!
The
following day, my first dive was shark-packed.
We had 4 sandbar sharks emerge from the depths within minutes of
submerging ourselves in the calm, flat sea.
I love the behavior of this particular species and find them generally
very relaxing to be around. I find them
timid, yet bold enough to venture through a group of divers with the promise of
a fishy treat from our feeder, David.
Their first dorsal fins are one of my favorites. They almost resemble those of the Great
Hammerheads as they are unusually large, prominent, and tall when compared to the
first dorsals of other species. These
sandbar sharks kept to themselves and didn’t interact with us much. Their shyness showed even more when the silky
sharks appeared.
Two
silkies initially joined the bait box party followed by a third who came in a
few minutes before the dive ended. The
sandbar sharks almost seemed intimidated by the silkies because once the
silkies swarmed the box, the sandbars seemed to keep their distance and stayed
on the perimeter or below us. They were
hesitant to approach the bait box and they did not for the remainder of the
dive, even though it seemed like they wanted to! Eventually they disappeared into the endless
blue, leading me to believe that the silkies are a more dominant species. This was surprising to me because all the
silkies and sandbars surrounding us during this dive all seemed to be of
similar size. Nonetheless, it was an
epic dive with seven sharks in total.
The
second and third dives of the day weren’t nearly as action packed. Sharkwise, only a nurse shark or two showed
up on each of these dives. While I
appreciate the presence of any species of shark in the water, nurse sharks are
just not as exciting in comparison to others!
They are often the equivalent of an old, lazy dog who just wants to lay
around as they have had their share of seeing enough pesky divers. But, of course, that is not the case of every
nurse shark encounter! Today, however,
it was. One nurse shark in particular
appeared to be pregnant, so maybe she was not in the mood to entertain us.
Some non-sharky events of these two
dives included a massive Southern stingray and a less-than-welcoming
Grouper. The stingray spent a mere
minute with us before he glided away gracefully in an effort to avoid any unforeseeable,
yet avoidable, confrontation. I highly
enjoy how rays move themselves through the water. This one appeared to fly away as if he were a
flying saucer lifting off into outer space.
The Grouper, on the other hand, wasn’t about avoiding confrontation at
all but instead was all about starting it.
As we sat on top of the Sun Mariner Wreck patiently waiting for sharks,
this colossal Grouper actually bit David at the bait box. In addition to attacking David, he seemed to
be harassing us (the divers) as well, making several close passes at those of
us sitting on the wreck. For whatever
reason, this Grouper just was not having a good day and was clearly not in the
mood for company! In all honesty, I felt
more threatened by this one grouper than I ever have with any shark … even a
tiger!
Day number two of shark diving in
Jupiter was a special day because dive number three would be my milestone 100th
dive! The dives were pretty similar to
that of the day prior but just not as exciting.
We had silkies, sandbars, and nurse sharks again, potentially the same
individuals we saw yesterday. I had to
end my first dive early as I was having issues with my mask flooding about 25
minutes in. Sadly enough, I was informed
topside that a smooth hammerhead showed up after I had exited the water! Unfortunately, on our third dive of the day
(my 100th), no sharks showed up at all. At the very end of that dive, however, as we
were slowly making our ascent with hopes that any shark would still choose to join
us along the way, my attention was drawn to something beneath me. As I hovered at about 40 feet or so, I
glanced down and saw the clear outline of a cephalofoil head!
The fact that this hammerhead shark
was probably 40 to 50 feet below me and my knowledge of different shaped
cephalofoils is minimal meant that I had a slim chance of identifying the
species on my own. After the dive ended,
I consulted with my fellow divers only to learn that nobody else saw it. Therefore, I received no help in identifying
the species of hammerhead that this individual was. (Upon review of my GoPro footage later, I
didn’t even capture the shark in a video.)
I’m inclined to believe that it was either a smooth or scalloped
hammerhead but I will never know for sure.
Despite that, I am still marking this as the thirteenth shark species
that I have shared the water with. I
refer to this individual as “unidentified hammerhead” and he made my 100th
dive memorably epic.
