Goliath Grouper And Shark Diving in September 2024
As I write this, I am still reeling from my experience this weekend. I organized a trip for the Orlando Reef Divers to go down to Jupiter, FL for two days of diving, focusing on seeing Goliath Groupers and sharks (whatever species we could). Our club did a similar trip in April of this year replacing Goliaths with turtles but this trip had a larger impact on the participants’ memory.
Our first day of diving was with the Jupiter Dive Center aboard the Republic IV. The first dive of the day was on Captain Kirle’s reef. The waves were fairly flat so the trip out to the dive site was very pleasant. The first thing we realized upon entering the water was that the visibility was extremely poor (maybe 20 feet) and there was tons of particulate in the water making it darker and cloudier than usual. Also, there was very little if any current. The wildlife was typical for the area—large angelfish, a cowfish here, or a filefish there. We saw one nurse shark but it disappeared quickly. Towards the end of the dive we did encounter a massive southern stingray that was easily 5-6 feet wide.
The second dive site for the day was the MG 111 wreck where there are typically Goliath Groupers. When we first got down to the wreck there were no Goliaths around so I proceeded to the north to an area called Warrior Reef which consists of cement pillars that the Goliaths like to cluster behind to break up the current. That is when I saw a smallish Goliath swimming right at me. What I didn’t see immediately was the shark chasing it. The shark attempted to bite the tail of the Goliath but the Goliath was just out of reach and the Goliath made a hard right turn which left the shark coming right at me. At this point I realized it was a Tiger Shark (the first one I had ever seen) and I remembered what I had been told in the past and I gentle put my hand on the shark’s head and redirected it away from me. I know this sounds far fetched but here are the photos I took as I was doing it. (In the first photo I didn’t see the shark but my camera did after I cleaned up the image)
As my heart was beating out of my chest I regrouped with my buddies Darren and Dan and we together went back to the wreck while keeping our heads on swivel. At this point we saw there was a much larger Goliath that was on its side about 30 feet off from the wreck. Many of the other divers were hanging around the Goliath and had also seen the Tiger Shark and were also on high alert. I got some pictures but due to the bad visibility they didn’t come out. There is a video at the end that shows the Tiger Shark attacking the dying Goliath Grouper.
More Tiger Sharks joined in. My buddies and I saw three. We decided we had enough excitement and left the area with sharks and then safely surfaced. Once the rest of the divers boarded all anyone could talk about was that experience. There were some divers that missed out as they had gone to a different area of the wreck. I know the adrenaline was definitely still coursing through my system as our boat headed back to the dock.
The next day a subset of our group went with Emerald Charters for our actual shark dive experience. Word had spread through the Jupiter diving community of our encounter and they were even amazed. Our first dive site was Deep Ledge (aka Lemon Drop) where we had seven or more Lemon Sharks hanging out with us for a good 30 minutes or more. Much calmer than the previous day’s experience.
Our second dive site was the Esso Bonaire wreck which is part of Jupiter’s Wreck Trek and is also known to be the stomping grounds for a resident Tiger Shark named Jenny (which might be one of the sharks we encountered the day before). We got down to the wreck and there were a handful of Goliath Groupers but no sharks. We decided to just enjoy the presence of these other very large fish in there habitat.
The final dive site was the Zion Wreck. This location had one Goliath Grouper and the typical tropical fish assortment. There was a scorpion fish but my photo didn’t come out. We ended the dive fairly early and returned to the dock and traveled home.
