Diving With Carlos Torres

Summertime and the livin’ is easy”—easy, that is, unless you’re a spiny lobster in Florida waters during “mini-season.” Held every July on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of the month, divers from all over the Southeast travel to Florida’s east coast to “bag some bugs.”

This year’s season runs July 26-27, and divers holding a mini-season permit are allowed to take up to 12 lobsters per day as long as they are of legal size (3-inch carapace). However, diving along the Treasure Coast isn’t just limited to those two days in July.

For Carlos Torres, the instruction tech at Deep Six Watersports on Miracle Mile, diving is more than just tickling lobsters off the reef or spearing 40-pound groupers. “There are so many things you can see down there,” he says. “Between Sebastian and Fort Pierce there are a lot of really neat things to explore, from reefs to wrecks.”

A few of those neat things can be seen just by walking into the water with your diving equipment on. For example, the state’s first Underwater Archaeological Preserve, the “Urca de Lima,” is located roughly 100 yards offshore on Hutchinson Island, where the UDT-Navy SEAL Museum sits today. The Urca de Lima was once part of the fabled Spanish flotilla that sank off the Treasure Coast during a hurricane in 1715. Those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time might even recover some of the silver and gold that was lost at sea. And in Vero Beach, after lunch at the Ocean Grill, you can beach-dive the 1833 wreck of the Beconshire that sits in 20 feet of water about 150 yards in front of the landmark restaurant.

Read the entire article in the Summer 2006 issue