Sirena headed out to the southern reefs this morning across 1-2 foot seas. Our first dive site was Tear Drop which, upon our initial descent, came across a female loggerhead sea turtle. A few minutes later we had another. We would see numerous ones throughout our dive. The water was an inviting 80-81 degrees, a very slight trickle of north current, and about 40ft of visibility.
For our second dive we headed to Lopata’s reef — the eastern section of Breaker’s reef. This reef is quite unique from what we regularly dive. The reef in this area is completely covered in corals — predominately soft corals and large barrel sponges. While fish life isn’t as plentiful as the western side of the reef, you never know what unique encounters you will have while diving this part of Breaker’s reef.
Among the unique were numerous whip coral shrimps. Heading towards the north western point of Breakers, before the jump to Turtle Mound, numerous loggerhead sea turtles and a pair of large, male green sea turtles were encountered. Interestingly, one of the male green sea turtles was pale white in coloration. The likelihood is that this turtle might be leucistic — a lack of all skin pigmentation. Thankfully, the turtle looked extremely healthy.
Venturing a few feet north, a goliath grouper was hovering amongst a large school of grunts, a nurse shark slept under a ledge, not far from many sleeping loggerheads. Making the final jump to the end of Breakers, a large lemon shark was resting on the bottom. Turtle Mound did not disappoint with four more turtle encounters. It take it it must be turtle season in Palm Beach. 🙂
Come join us for a great diving adventure in Palm Beach, Florida.
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