Complete Video - Wreck of the Castor, Goliath Grouper Central

[ricki]

Here's a video of a scooter free diving on the wreck of the Castor. I had heard that Goliath Grouper aka Jewfish for many centuries previously, were present in numbers on this wreck. Made about a dozen drops on the wreck shooting video with two cameras. Distilled all that into this video clip. Headed out with the Undersea Explorer from the marina behind Two Georges in Boynton Beach for a three tank dive. My main goal was hitting the Castor, a 258 ft. long ship sunk as an artificial reef in 110 ft. south of Boynton Beach Inlet. Visibility was fairly low about 50 ft. making seeing the top of the vessel tricky and setting up free dives more so. Still, there were almost no waves and a light south current making things easier.




Video shot with GoPro WIDE camera


I understand they make take off from SCUBA divers somewhat. I didn't see any my first several dives around the SCUBA guys. Once the other divers moved forward towards the bow, saw a number collecting around the aft port quarter. I saw about dozen or so a couple of dives after this collected around the stern. I would guess these guys were about 4 to 5 feet long, the wide angle lens makes them seem smaller.


Fuzzy still image captured from video. This is the second grouper mouth wide open charging at me looking more than a little pissed. Was it something I said or do you have a problem with yellow dive scooters?


I didn't know how close I could approach with lower revs and not send them flying off. Looks like around 6 to 10 ft. is the approach limit before they pop their swim bladder and send the guys charging off. So, to get better shots it would be better to stop or veer off about that far away from these big guys. I recall stories growing up about really big jewfish inhaling divers on occasion. Not an ideal outcome for a free diver below 100 ft..