Houston's Premier Scuba and Dive Shop Oceanic Ventures Inc.

(713) 523-3483 (dive)
5808 Newcastle Drive
Houston, TX 77401

Gulf Diving

by

How About Spearfishing?

If Charles had it his way, he would be diving and spearfishing three or four times a week.  “I have been scuba diving since 1989 and have seen some amazing sights and places.  And while I still enjoy seeing the beauty of the oceans, I also enjoy the change in dive profile and objectives that come with spearfishing.  It is much more active diving, with a touch of adrenaline that ends with a good meal.  For me, that is a win!”

Charles was introduced to spearfishing with a lionfish hunting course.  He found that it an easy way to learn how to hunt.  Lionfish is how I started spearfishing.  They represent a great way to experience the changes to your dive profile and objectives without the adrenaline rush of a fighting fish.  They are an invasive species that cause significant damage to local fish populations and represent a risk to larger gamefish as they compete for food sources.  Lionfish hunting turns your dive into a game of underwater hide and seek, and always creates a bit of a competition amongst the hunters.

With this experience, it is easier to move onto hunting larger fish. One thing to recognize is spearfishing is a different type of dive profile.  The objective is to locate game fish to shoot, and we go where the fish are.  We typically dive structure on a sand bottom (wrecks, artificial reefs like concrete pyramids or bridge rubble, etc.)  It is also a little more aggressive diving than a slow drift down a gentle reef slope.  Comfort with free descents and ascents to depths of 100’ and back rolling from a boat holding equipment is important.  This helps keep diving interesting, challenging and fun.

When asked about what he likes to hunt, Charles said “My favorite are the Jacks; Almaco and Greater Amberjack.  They represent great eating and an exciting experience underwater.  But really, I hunt for dinner.  I don’t shoot what I don’t plan to eat and I try and be a responsible diver and don’t hunt non-sustainable fish.”  The largest fish he has speared to date was a Greater Amberjack that was about 44” long and weighed 55 pounds.

If you have met Charles, you will find that he also loves introducing others to the world underwater — just ask his brother-in-law or the many Open Water Divers that he has trained.  I love watching people experience new things and igniting passion in others.  I think my desire to teach spearfishing is to provide people additional reasons to get out and dive.  My youngest daughter was my best dive buddy and we enjoyed diving WWII planes and Mantas in Hawaii, wrecks in the Gulf of Mexico and other great dive profiles, but she told me one day that diving was becoming “just another underwater tour.”  Then I introduced her to lionfishing, and the new dive objectives and profile gave her something to “DO” underwater.  I watched as her love of diving renewed and have video of her stalking a lionfish around and through the pilot house of the Pete Tide II.  That was all I needed to decide that others may want a chance to do more than just watch and photograph reef fish.

Charles is teaching a Spearfishing course in June and then taking a group of divers out to try their hand at shooting lionfish or larger fish. But you may be wondering about taking a class.

What do I do with the fish I spear?

According to Charles, “I turn lionfish into tacos!  I’m not a fan of heavy sauces and typically grill my fish with a little olive oil and maybe a dash of seafood seasoning.  But my goal is to have the flavor of the fish come through. I have found the best portion of the Jacks to be the throat, the portion behind the gills.  I discovered that most people throw this portion out in ignorance.  I leave the skin on and place the fish in pie dish with lemon juice in the bottom.  I rub it down with olive oil and let it sit for an hour.  Then, I place it skin down on a hot grill and let it cook.  The skin protects the meat from the flame and holds all the juice from the fish to prevent it from drying out.  When done, the meat just peels right off the skin.  I typically will serve this with a rice dish and vegetable. There are dozens of wonderful recipes depending upon the fish.  I personally prefer to stuff my flounder with a crawfish or crab stuffing before baking, and my slipper lobster I bake in the shell.

Why enroll in a course?

I am often asked why should I take a spearfishing course?  Can’t I just go?  Charles has a good answer, you could go buy a gun and jump in the water.  I wouldn’t recommend it though; the same way I wouldn’t recommend just buying a motorcycle and jumping on the freeway with no training. Like any sport, understanding the mechanics is important.  Proper aim, fish identification, equipment use and more go into enjoying your experience vs. becoming frustrated with all the new ‘stuff’ underwater. In addition, I am a HUGE fan of safety.  Spearfishing introduces new equipment with pointy ends that present potential hazards to divers and their buddies.  It also introduces fishing line which represents an entanglement hazard for which divers must be taught to manage safely.In the end, you will have more fun and dive much safer if you take the short time in class / pool / lake to practice how to use the equipment, how to carry and trim out with the new gear, and what types of species you can actually shoot.

Why Florida?

I started my spearfishing career in Florida, and I guess I am a creature of habit.  But there are a couple really practical reasons why I still go back to Florida for my fish.

  • Distance and Travel:  When people hear “Florida” they typically think of Miami or Tampa or some other Peninsula city.  I go to Pensacola, specifically Perdido Key.  It is an 8 hour drive from Houston and just a few miles past the Alabama boarder.   This is roughly the time I would spend going to the airport, getting on a plane, getting a taxi/rental, etc. to other destinations.  Staying in Texas, I would mostly likely drive to Corpus Christi or even to South Padre Island which is 6 hours.
  • Safety and visibility:  Visibility in West Florida ranges from 25’ – 80’ year round.  As anywhere, weather and currents make a difference.  To get to blue water in in Texas, you’ve got to drive several hundred miles south or take a long boat ride out to the rigs. I’m not a fan of taking newer divers or divers people just learning to spearfish out to the rigs in Texas.  These often drop to depths of 200’-300’ and present an unnecessary risk for the inexperienced.  While there are techniques for spearfishing these structures safely, the simple fact that a sounding fish can drag a diver to those depths rules them out for me as a place to teach. The Pensacola depths where we teach range from 60-110’, well within the recreational limits.  The sand bottom provides a safety deck for new divers, and there is still an abundance of gamefish that present challenges for both the newer diver looking for smaller gamefish for the freezer and the thrill seeker looking for a 40” Greater Amberjack or Red Snapper for a wall trophy.
  • Community:  Pensacola offers a wide range of post-dive activities or entertainment for non-diving family members.  The sugar sand beaches, and Pensacola boardwalk provide numerous options for dining and entertainment, and the famous Florabama bar is just a few miles from the marina.

How do I learn more?

The best way to find out about spearfishing it to enroll in a class and experience shooting a speargun in the pool and later on a spearfishing trip, You can find out more about the class at

Learn More About Spearfishing…
Dive Mom, I am ready! Sign Me up!

by

Investigation of East Flower Garden Bank coral die-off continues amid new coral bleaching event

Scientists documenting the bleaching event underway in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: G.P. Schmahl/NOAA.
Scientists documenting the bleaching event underway in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: G.P. Schmahl/NOAA.

From the NOAA Marine Sanctuaries website…
Scientists continue to explore a broad spectrum of possible causes for July’s mass mortality event at East Flower Garden Bank within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, including environmental conditions and human activities. Meanwhile, their efforts are now complicated by a new but unrelated coral bleaching event, which can happen this time of year when corals are stressed by warmer water temperatures.
A preliminary review of vessel traffic data revealed a lack of vessels in the vicinity just before the mortality event. This effectively rules out the possibility of an acute discharge of pollutants as the cause of the die-off. Earlier analyses indicated that no hydrocarbons were present in the area of the mortality, which further reduces the likelihood that the event was due to some sort of petroleum-based contamination.
Ongoing response efforts are now focused on additional analysis of oceanographic dynamics (see animation below) and water quality. NOAA research divers conducting additional response surveys earlier this month observed dead sponges in other locations around East Flower Garden Bank and on a nearby production platform just outside the boundary of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The die-off and whatever caused it, therefore, may have been more widespread than initially thought. [READ MORE]

by

The Flower Gardens

FGNMS Photo
Photo Credit : FGNMS

The Flower Gardens – The Bigger Picture

[From Kelly Drinnin, NOAA Nationl Marine Sanctuary] If you’ve never been to the Flower Garden Banks sanctuary, you’ve probably never thought about what makes it the way it is. Two of the key elements are salt domes and currents.
Salt domes are small underwater mountains formed by large pockets of salt pushing the sea floor upward. These are the “banks” in the sanctuary name.  Without these, the sea floor would be too deep to support reef-building corals out near the edge of the continental shelf.
The Gulf loop current is what brings wildlife up from the Caribbean, past Cuba and the Yucatan, into the Gulf of Mexico. Eddies that break away from that current, swirl westward across the gulf and carry with them many of the Caribbean fish and invertebrates found around our reefs. Other currents swirl clockwise from the Yucatan past Texas and Louisiana and are the likely source of our corals.
Of course, water temperature, freshwater input, artificial reef structures, etc. all play roles in how our reefs came to be and how they continue to develop.
The sanctuary is an amazing place that is the happy combination of all the right things, in the right places, at the right times!  To learn more…

by

Coral Locations in the Gulf Of Mexico

Gulf Council Publishes Known Coral Locations in Gulf

gulf corals[News release from Kelly Drinnin at the NOAA Marine Sanctuary] Coral reefs are a crucial foundation for many of the marine species living in the Gulf of Mexico. They provide food, shelter, and nursery grounds to a seemingly endless list of fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and other inhabitants. Many of the fish we target as commercial or recreational fishermen spend some part of their life on a reef feeding, growing, or seeking shelter   that s why these habitats are so important.
Unfortunately, coral reefs, their health, and abundance, are threatened by many things including; oil spills, ocean acidification, climate change, and rising ocean temperatures. Advances in technology such as satellite imagery and remote sensors that monitor the ever-changing ocean environment have allowed scientists to better understand the factors threatening coral reefs. Identifying coral communities allows for better management against the many threats posed on corals.
The coral web mapper created by the Gulf Council allows scientists, managers, and the public to explore the different corals in the Gulf of Mexico.
The five categories of corals/organisms that are depicted on the map tool are:

  •   Black Coral
  •   Octocoral
  •   Sea Pen
  •   Soft Coral
  •   Sponge
  •   Stony Coral

Check out the map tool to explore this comprehensive inventory of known coral locations in the Gulf of Mexico. See the map here.
SOURCE: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council

by

Scuba Diving Holiday – Panama City Scuba Diving Trip Update

We’ve made it to Panama City Beach!!   After checking into the hotel, we hit the new oyster bar across the street for a great dinner of oysters, shrimp and the “cheapest beer on the beach”. All of us ate too much and complained that it seems we can’t seem to find fresh seafood like this on our side of the gulf.
This morning we’re off to the famous Vortex Spring for a shake down dive and a picnic. Everyone is excited to cheek out the springs gin clear water and freshwater eels. Well Elizabeth seems more excited about the clear water than the eels.
This afternoon we get to the main event, Viola’s first saltwater dive! Everyone else is also looking forward to great artificial reefs that Panama City Beach has to offer.

As the group’s only photographer, I’ve been charged with getting a new profile picture for everyone’s Facebook account. So hopefully we’ll have so cool pictures to share by the end of the day.

by

2011 Harvest Moon Regatta

Sailors aboard ArtemisYou may not have realized it but last week, was the 25th sailing of the Harvest Moon Regatta, a sailing race from Galveston to Port Aransas Texas. The annual event draws sailors from all over the area to compete for the coveted Bacardi Cup and a host of other prizes. This year’s event saw 188 boats start from the Flagship Hotel pier in Galveston begin jockeying for position. Colourful spinnakers flew and the offshore racing club fleet surged off in the moderate winds.
Unfortunately, the winds were destined not to hold and they became progressively lighter. What is normally a beam reach, (c), to broad reach, (d), to Port Aransas, turned out to be a very broad reach, (d), to a run, (e), requiring many boats to sail wing on wing.
While this meant a slow sail to Port Aransas, the night was beautiful. There was a spectacular moon rise and the stars were incredible. It was a beautiful night to be offshore and away from the city lights.
Ashton, Drew Trent, Doug Markem, and I joined another of our clients, Bob Thompson, on his boat Artemis. We finished the race in a flurry of activity but unfortunately, we did not finish fast enough to place in our group but we were there early enough to enjoy the party with all the Bacardi rum you can drink. Of course, in previous years, Bob’s son Steven was heard to comment that at times the party was not “pretty” – too many drunk old people.
The party was fun and then it was back to sailing the next day for the return trip home. It was a fun trip and a great reason to be out on the water! Thank you for the sail Bob! We are ready for next year!!!!
We put a video together highlighting some of the weekend’s events. Please tell us what you think!

<