The Turtles Have Arrived!

Drift Dive with Ocean Quest Scuba, West Palm Beach
Sunday, May 25

Sea turtle nesting season begins in March each year and peaks in June and July. Palm Beach County is one of two main loggerhead sea turtle nesting sites in the world - the other is in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula. We were blessed to see a total of eight loggerheads between two dives along the section of reef known as the Breakers, adjacent to the luxury hotel of the same name on the shore. 

Dive 1: Teardrop  - both dives were relatively shallow at 60' with mild current and so happy to be out of the wetsuit with 83 degree water. Ocean Quest's Sunny Sunday is a 10-diver island hopper, clearly seasoned but well maintained. Within two minutes of descending we saw our first of eight loggerheads, along with a free swimming moray. These reefs are full of life and interesting coral formations. At the end of this dive we were treated to a very large lobster hanging out inside a vase sponge.

Dive 2: Fourth Window - this was an incredible dive with spectacular lofty ledges teeming with life. On the top of the ledges were many more sleeping loggerheads, resting up for their night of nesting. Clouds of fish abounded including Bermuda chubbs and Atlantic spadefish, more large green moray eels, a large stand of naturally-occurring staghorn coral and an adorable hermit crab peeking out from a horse conch.

We so enjoyed our time with Capt. Tony and Ocean Quest that we booked another dive with them on September 6 to see the goliaths. A fine time was had by all. 

--Active Divers President and Safety Officer Rachel Davis 

Underwater photos courtesy of Active Diver Laura Geselbracht.