Goliath Groupers at MG-111

It’s that time of year again and just like the last 3 seasons that I’ve been diving here, this Goliath Grouper season does not disappoint. The groupers have been showing up in large numbers and I truly enjoy diving the sites where we find the larger numbers. In my opinion the MG-111, the Mississippi river barge that is sitting just outside the Jupiter Inlet, is the best spot to dive with these gentle giants.

The wreck itself isn’t that interesting, a big rectangle shape area of a lot of rubble. of course there’s al lot you can find in the rubble, but most of the time divers are more interested in the big fish that like to get together over here this time of year. But after swimming around with the goliaths, it can be interesting to go back on the wreckage and see what else you can find hiding in the rubble. We see a lot of scorpion fish, all kinds of different eels, crabs, lobsters, different types of smaller fish and shrimps and all kinds of other critters. I’ve even seen frogfish and nudibranchs over here! Pretty cool.

But of course the main attraction are the groupers. Just to the north of the MG are all these random pillars sitting in the sand. Some upright and some laying down. They were from the old Jupiter high school and dumped here as an artificial reef. For some reason the groupers like to group together around these pillars, resulting in big clusters of groupers all over the place. It’s really cool to swim up to these “walls” of groupers and as long as you don’t approach them to quickly, they’ll let you hang out with them at a close distance. A must do dive for sure!

-Anne