February 08, 2013
By Florida Sportsman
Photo by Paul Dabill
On Thursday, February 7, 2013, I went to Singer Island to do some freediving from the beach with my camera, a Sony NEX-5N. There are some rock piles that are easily accessible from the beach and also a lot of interesting natural structure and rock ledges in 15 to 25 feet of water. The current was moving north at a good rate, so I decided to simply drift with the current, hoping I would come across something. I did the same thing the day before and came across turtles, hogfish and a nice-size gag grouper, so I was feeling good about seeing something interesting again.
About 15 minutes into my drift is when I encountered something amazing. It was the largest school of tarpon I have ever seen and they were all massive fish. They were slowly swimming south following the line of structure on the bottom. My presence didn't seem to bother them as I held my breath, dove down and swam alongside them for the next 5 to 7 minutes. What an awesome experience being surrounded by so many large, beautiful creatures. The giant school circled around me a few times, perhaps a little curious about my presence.
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