Emerald Charters — Attraction in Jupiter

TLDR: We had a great time doing a 3 tank shark dive with this company. Their service and professionalism are evident, and they still have great personalities that keep the anxious divers relax.

The story: My wife has been diving for 20 years but has never seen a hammerhead shark. When we were looking at different charter companies for shark diving, we found Emerald Charters and had multiple phone calls back and forth with Randy, the owner, setting up the trip and also answering LOTS of questions. My wife had no concerns whatsoever, but after talking to some people who told horror stories of being thrown into the water after they drop chum in, I had questions. I have a hard time believing that that can even be true, buuut it did prompt me to ask Randy. So it turns out that Emerald doesn’t do it that way. We would be following a guy with a bait bin (think of fish parts in a big cat toy) and never actually be in contact with the bait. Phew! Randy is in charge of the boat. The scuba portion and gear is provided by a concierge scuba outfit called Jupiter Scuba. We contacted them the days before the dive. They helped us fill out all the forms and made sure we had the gear we needed for the dive. The place you meet is under an overpass where there is a fishing dock and ample parking. We passed the turn on the first try because we were looking for an address marker on a storefront.. Pretty sure that was on us. The gear was all there waiting for us and we went through the Nitrox mix on our tanks and checked our rental gear. We only rented fins, wet suits, and hoods, but others came with just bathing suits. The gear was in good shape and easy to use, and after we had all checked through in the parking area, they brought all the gear down to the boat - all we had to do was walk. At the boat, we met Randy who introduced our Skipper, Brandon and deck hand Shelly. They both did a great job the entire time. Brandon handled the boat like a pro. He minimized rolling and was always to us quickly and safely when we surfaced. Shelly was on the spot for everything we needed, including helping me escape from the bungie holding my tank in when I had only seconds to get up and dive. She rocks! The boat was comfortable for the 14 divers we had. The head was clean and easy to use. We saw 20 plus lemon sharks every dive. They are actually sort of tame. During the second dive, an 8 foot, juvenile tiger shark came in at the end, and the third dive had all the lemons, the tiger returning and staying most of the dive, and even Thor, the 10 foot great hammerhead, visited. It was amazing!!

The Good: Nice boat, comfortable and well appointed. Very knowledgeable, helpful staff

The Bad: Nothing

Overall: We will dive with Emerald again when we return. I have no reservations about recommending them.

Since you read this far: Some people have a problem with bait diving for sharks. It is true that this activity is modifying their behavior to a certain extent, but so is every other thing that man does in the ocean. I believe that the more people have a chance to see sharks in person and experience the simple, calm, and pleasant interactions, it will change their opinion about sharks in general leading to greater conservation efforts and people will STOP EATING...

Unprofessional, outrageous and bullying. Dive at your own risk.

My friend and I booked the shark dive with Emerald, while renting gears with Scuba Works(Scuba Works had great staff, book dives and rent gears with them folks! Don’t make the same mistake as we did). So we picked up our gear in the morning and headed to the boarding address. Once we arrived, a guy, Josh Eccles who later I knew is the feeder of our trip , walked up to me saying, “you are the one renting gears with another company? So now go carry all that stuff to the boat by yourself because we do not do it for you”, then he walked away. I was in bewilderment, because we were already getting our stuff to the trolley, why did he have to be so hostile. And the boxes and gear int he trunk he pointed to me were not even related to me. I didn’t know at the time what was just a start. I got Nitrox certificate on the same day with Jupiter Scuba. I couldn’t figure out by myself how to set up for Nitrox and I was told to ask the guide who deals with computers all the time. When I checked with Josh on the boat, he said “it’s your computer, your gear, I don’t know.” He never checked with me again if I managed to switch to Nitrox. Aside from this unprofessional rude behavior, he does not care about the safety issue it could bring to a diver on the boat. Simply irresponsible. After that, we started to get geared up for the first dive, I had only dove in SEA before. The gears have some differences from my prior experience. I noticed the air coming out of my regulator was small, and saw the “-,+” symbol. I adjusted to “+” still not much, so I checked with another guest next to me, she was not sure and asked to check with Josh. I did. Yes, he said “it’s your gear, I don’t know”. Another guest tried to answer my question but was cut off by Josh, he said, “don’t worry, it’s fine.” It was inflammatory and disrespectful. Safety comes first than everything else. I was not asking him to do anything for me, just a step check. I don’t deserve to be answered and don’t have the right to be safe, because I did not rent the gears per his preference? It is crucial and it is his responsibility to assure all the divers on boat are well equipped and comfortable with our gears to minimize risk in the ocean.

Then in the water, somehow he deliberately pushed my friend and me for no reason. We were not below him, or in front of him, simply following his instruction during the briefing. He just pushed us very hard at 90 feet depth. We were astonished and the regulator almost came off our face.

It was unprofessional, dangerous, and outrageous. And it was absolutely a bully.

Stay away from this guy...

I had an absolutely terrible experience with this company. The sea was very rough that day, and my entire group, including myself, my sister, and my husband, got extremely seasick. I lost count of how many times I vomited in those 5 hours. My sister couldn’t even complete the third dive because she was vomiting so much. The boat was small, which made the situation even worse. It would have been helpful if they had warned customers in advance to take motion sickness medication.The biggest issue, however, was their unprofessionalism. From the beginning, the female instructor showed no interest in helping, while the male instructor at least answered some questions. But the worst part? They promised to take and send photos of my sister’s dive, and we even shared our contact information with them to make sure we would receive them. Days later, after multiple messages, calls, and emails, we still received nothing. They even posted a video on Instagram where my sister was visible, but when I asked for the original footage, they ignored me. I called them and message them via instagram and they seen them but no reply. And then the male instructor finally responded, but instead of helping, he asked if we had left a tip—implying that they wouldn’t send the photos if we hadn’t tipped them. In reality, I had already sent a tip via Zelle, which I reminded him of. Even then, he kept making excuses, saying no one was responding to him. This is clearly an intentional refusal to provide the promised photos. 1.5 months later, hoping for a resolution, but they outright refused to help. The guy I spoke (his name is Randy) to claimed he had already asked the person who took the video, but they wouldn’t send it. Conveniently, he also refused to give me their contact information. If they could edit and add sound to the video, that means they received the original footage, so there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t send it to us. Instead of helping, he rudely cut me off, saying, “I have to go, I have to do something else.” This is clearly a dishonest and unprofessional company. They take advantage of customers, promise things they have no intention of delivering, and then ignore you when you try to follow up. If we had known they would be this unreliable, we would have chosen another dive shop. If you’re considering diving for the first time, especially with this company, I strongly advise against it. There are much better and more reliable...