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Last month, Dr. Michelle Heupel, Program Manager for
Mote Marine Center for Shark Research, Elasmobranch Behavioral Ecology
Program, gave us some of her valuable time. Her team is working in Pine
Island Sound and the Caloosahatchee River on a program that tags and
tracks bull sharks. The presentation was very informative and highly
interesting to those of us who dive in local waters as well as those who
spend time under their boats removing those annoying critters that attach
themselves to anything not moving. We stored the information somewhere in
the dark recesses of our minds and went about our normal lives.
 A few short weeks later, we summoned up the
latest NOAA marine weather information and decided that the temptation of
only 1-2 foot seas and 10 knot or less winds was too much to pass up.
Sunrise found our group cruising slowly toward the Sanibel Causeway on the
Barramundi and on to points west for a perfect day on the water. We all
respect the efforts by NOAA to get the facts and provide us with their
best guess on the weather, but the little anemometers in our brains were
spinning wildly, our first indication that there just might be a little
more chop than we anticipated. The second clue that our perfect day was
heading south was the fact that some of those water sprays were actually
reaching the fly bridge more often than we liked. We decided that since we
were an hour or so ahead of the nice weather that by the time we arrived
at our dive site, the seas would lay down enough to be comfortable.
The reality is that getting OFF the boat isn’t all that difficult even
when the weather is uncooperative, but eventually you have to get back ON
the boat. The dilemma often boils down to “do I want to stay on a rolling
boat and chance getting seasick or do I want to jump into the water and
get clunked on the head by 24,000 pounds of boat?” Anything over a foot
looks big to me so I depend on everyone else to decide that the wave
action is only 3-4’ with an occasional 5’ thrown in for good measure.
The decision is to dive and in a seemingly generous gesture, we let the
spearfishermen go first. We know that if they come back and say it is too
rough or the visibility is too bad, we won’t be diving today. That doesn’t
mean that if they say it’s perfect and the visibility is 80 feet that
we’ll be believers – that’s one of the fine differences between
photographers and spearfishermen. Good visibility to spearfishermen means
you can see at least to the end of the shaft on your speargun and sediment
in the water is merely annoying. Good visibility to photographers means
that we can see more than a shadow of a ledge or wreck and that our
automatic lens isn’t constantly focusing on bits of stuff floating in the
water. Water temperature is also a topic that causes plenty of discussion.
Spearfishermen are hunters and are constantly on the move. They are
swimming hard, burning energy and working up a sweat. Photographers
usually find something that looks interesting and will wait for a long
time in one place to get the right angle, light or action. That explains
Rich & Doug in lightweight shorty wetsuits and dive skins and Gary, Penny
and I in as many layers of rubber and lycra that we can squeeze our bodies
into. Sounds kind of kinky, but divers wrapped in layers of black neoprene
wearing enough weight to sink all of that mass, are not going to win any
beauty pageants.
The moment arrives, the spearfishermen arrive back at the boat and report
that it’s a little rough but diveable. Off the boat with our team of three
photographers and straight to the bottom we go. It’s OK – not great but at
least we’re in the water and it’s a nice ledge with a fair amount of
grouper and snapper and even a medium size Jewfish (Goliath Grouper)
lurking in the dark recesses. A big school of blue Angelfish cruises out
of a hole in the ledge and over the bottom just as we arrive. Grouper and
snapper hang around watching us, apparently aware that we are “lookie loos”
and they are safe from our dinner plates. We snap away as fast as we can
and then hang around for our safety stops on the marker line.
Once we reach the surface, we see the welcome sight of the Barramundi
ready to pick us up. Well, we see the Barramundi, then we see waves, then
we see the Barramundi, then the waves …. One by one, we hand up our
cameras and then retreat to the bright, yellow safety line to get our fins
off. I’m the first one to the ladder and I admit that I’m a little gun shy
after falling off the boat back in February and ending up with a 4-hour
visit to the ER and a staple in my head – but that’s another story.
Amazingly, I manage to get my feet on the bottom rung of the ladder on the
first try and Doug grabs the top of my tank so I don’t end up back in the
water. I crawl back in through the transom door just to get out of the way
for the next diver. Penny arrives soon after and the next sight I see is
Doug dragging her through the transom door and depositing her, like a
stranded dolphin, on the deck of the boat. Gary’s return appears to be
uneventful and all of us are back on the boat in one piece. Whew … I
declare that it’s too much work for me and it’s doubtful that I’m going
back in … I’m now retired to the rank of bubble watcher.
 The spearfishermen … well, you remember what I said about
the spearfishermen and really, we’re so grateful to them for filling our
dinner plates with delicious seafood...they decide that there are still
some fish to be found. The seas are beginning to subside just a little so
they jump back in. Last one back to the boat is Doug and we watch his
bubbles as he makes his safety stop on the yellow jug line. Suddenly, we
notice a few unidentifiable things floating to the surface and realize
quickly that they seem to be Doug’s catch of a few snapper. Almost as
quickly, Doug reaches the top and swims at a fairly quick pace toward the
boat. He only has to say it once … SHARK … and we hustle to get to him
quickly. Penny spots a fin on the surface, circling close by and
thankfully Doug reaches the safety of the swim platform and hauls himself
up the ladder. We keep scanning the surface for another sighting of our
finny friend but that’s all for now.
Doug says it’s a little hard to concentrate on identifying the type of
shark it is when you are holding a stringer of fish and hanging like bait
on a marker line but he thinks it was a Bull Shark, measuring around 5-6
feet. Too bad we didn’t have Michelle Heupel with us! The shark made one
or two aggressive passes toward him and Doug released his catch that then
hung suspended in the water close to him. Every kick of his fins seemed to
sweep them closer but eventually the waves grabbed them and moved them a
little further away.
About that time, we decided that we had already had our quota of fun for
the day and headed home. Another day of diving in the Gulf with an
adventurous twist.
And a final note … the Caloosa Dive Club, after 30 plus years on the other
side of the river, is moving to Cape Coral. It’s not that we don’t
appreciate our many years with the city of Fort Myers. They have been good
to us for a long time but the Garden Center is closing and it turns out
that over 70 percent of our members reside in Cape Coral. It was a
challenge finding a place that could accommodate our needs – almost weekly
meetings, kitchen & outdoor BBQ space, electricity and the big
consideration of cost.
The City of Cape Coral stepped forward with a solution that we hope will
turn into a long-term relationship. The Tony Rotino Center at the Cape
Coral Yacht Club will be our new home beginning on July 1, 2004. We
couldn’t ask for a better place and we’re looking forward to the move.
The Caloosa Dive Club has divers with all levels of experience and holds
many activities during the year that include organized group dive trips,
social events, guest speakers and boat outings. June 21 & 28 meetings will
be held at 8:00 pm at the Fort Myers Garden Council building in front of
Lee Memorial Hospital at 2646 Cleveland Avenue, Fort Myers. Beginning on
July 1,2004, meetings will be held on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 5th Thursday at
the Tony Rotino Center, Cape Coral Yacht Club. Guests are welcome at all
meetings. Information on the club can be found on the website at
www.diveclub.org. |
