We left Stock Island late Wednesday night to catch the full
moon on Riley's Hump, or the Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve-South, when we were
hoping to see the Black Groupers spawning. No luck on the spawning, but we had a
great trip. We jumped in on Thursday morning in 2-4 foot seas to find "many"
black grouper. And one monster sandbar shark. The sandbar shark circled the
divers for quite a while, then left them alone so they could count grouper.
There was no current, bottom temp 73 degrees, and vis was 80 feet in overcast
skies. The second dive was on Grouper Ledge, where the divers once again saw
"many" grouper. "Many Many" grouper. And a lionfish. We sent in the lionfish
capture team, and I wish I had a video of their efforts. We didn't have proper
lionfish capture tools, so we tried a lobster bag and a spatula. I can hear the
theme from The Benny Hill Show playing in my head as the lionfish eluded the
capture team multiple times.
Friday was 5-7 foot seas, so we declared it to be movie day. Movies watched
included "Bubba Ho-tep". If you've seen it, you understand. If you haven't, I
advise you not to.
Saturday morning, we had to dive to retrieve the video cameras left on the
bottom on Thursday. The lionfish had left for Key Largo, and there was a 12 foot
greater hammerhead left in it's place. The lionfish catch team did not try to
herd the hammerhead into a lobster bag. Conditions were like Thursday.
All in all we got what we came for. Some think that they saw another white shark
on the drop cameras. Time will tell....
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