We had a great day of diving Saturday onboard Shark Bait with Aqualife Divers. Thanks to DM Skip, Capt Tom and Carlos for making the cold air bearable and the warm water inviting. The two wrecks are highlights of diving off Fort Lauderdale, but the poor Mercedes has seen better days.
Her mid section has collapsed, the stern is tipped over, but the bow is sitting upright. (We all know the pain!) Other divers on Shark Bait reported seeing a Goliath Grouper, but it must have seen us coming and took off before we caught a glance. Even though we didn’t get any big hits on the critter butcket list, it was great to hit the water on a day when the air temperature made the water temperature seem like bath water.
We all agreed that the better experience was diving the Captain Dan. Many parts of the ship are still intact with enticing swim-throughs and more coral growth than you can imagine. Of special interest to many was the presence of the non-native orange cup coral, also called the sun coral. It is one of the corals that does not depend on sunlight for nutrition, and is a voracious night time feeder. Lionfish were also spotted on the Capt Dan with DM Skip reporting that he brought up 13 lionfish the last time he was able to fun-dive the Capt Dan.
