Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[Scuba_Jenny]

We might, er; let's make that a little stronger, probably will go Monday--Jenny, John? AND, Thursday too!! I am hoping the viz continues to improve!

Tim, it's a late tide-take off a little early.........5:23PM hi tide. btw, Force E night dive on Thursday--Pura Vida on Friday.

---------- Post added October 13th, 2013 at 09:55 AM ----------



I did see some broken shells during the dive--it didn't occur to me they were turtle eggs. Any further info?? Would it be washed out nests? Debby or Jenny?

i dunno why the egg shells were there. I first thought poachers when I saw the first few. But they were all over the place, so I have no idea why or how they got there. maybe an unmarked nest hatched out and then the extra high tide washed it out? I dunno.. none of the eggs I saw were whole..

Fortunately, BBJ's are small and slow--total length with 4 tentacles is about 6-8 inches. They are easily avoided and usually seen only at night in the top few feet of water. They are deep during daytime. The sting is NOT small though, but not generally life threatening. Might be a trip to the hospital though. Many trips to Bonaire have resulted in 0 stings for us. I have heard the screams of someone stung though. There is a box jelly up here(aka Sea Wasp), but I've not seen them here.......They are attracted to light as is the Bonaire version.

Don't worry though--the wierd jellys seem to be attracted to the Diva and me! AND, uh; jeez--the bridge IS the top few feet of water!!

I saw a sea wasp once on an exit from a beach dive at LBTS a few years ago. It was during a night dive and there were lots of jellies in the water. I was only a short distance from shore, and it caught my attention only because of its clearly different shape.. I had to look it up in the book to verify it was what I thought it was..

 

[jimw]

I know from Ned and Anna DeLoach's blog the one they saw and photographed in Bonaire or St Vincent was moving pretty fast.

John
..

I read their blog usually. Was it in the blenny one or marinelife? I couldn't find it anyway. Will google further. If you would send it to me by PM or post it here, I would be grateful!! I know they do Buddy's every year in September for the month--so the Bonaire Box Jelly would almost certainly be seen during their visit. Thanks!

With proper googling technique----
http://blennywatcher.com/2012/02/09/bonaire-banded-box-jelly-tamoya-ohboya/

 

[Biminitwist]

I read their blog usually. Was it in the blenny one or marinelife? I couldn't find it anyway. Will google further. If you would send it to me by PM or post it here, I would be grateful!! I know they do Buddy's every year in September for the month--so the Bonaire Box Jelly would almost certainly be seen during their visit. Thanks!

With proper googling technique----
Bonaire banded box jelly - Tamoya ohboya | The Blenny Watcher Blog

I can't recall which of their awesome blogs it was but if you do a search even on the Blenny Watcher site
(which I did to confirm my memory, low; it was St Vincent though I do remember a Bonaire post specifically)
it will pop up on the search of their site under box jellies.
Hope to see you tomorrow, if we get in too early, look for the ridiculously tall dive flag dive or the jelly fish slick and we will be nearby! Lol.
John
l 'll pm the link when I go thru my saved wanna see lists!

---------- Post added October 13th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ----------

checked your link and found:

"Tamoya ohboya. In it, the first was the St. Vincent specimen (I was on snorkel; Ned was below me on SCUBA). The second specimen was one I encountered two years ago in Bonaire"
very cool video especially on snorkel: shock and awe as usual for their work!
J

 

[jimw]

Today at BHB---crappy viz, lots of particulates in green water--BUT. we did see an Eagle Ray try to eat a dead Mullet. Now that was somethin'!! This was under the east bridge, I'm guessing the mullet was caught by a fisher and thrown back, never having heard of smoked mullet! We then saw the same eagle a few minutes later cruise by twice. Viz foggy and 15 ft sometimes. The mullet were beating up the sand making a bigger mess than the divers walking on the bottom................At least the temp is still 82F. Nice to see ScubaJenny and THE biminitwist before the dive. Did you 2 find that seahorse, we looked without success? Kathy found a little jawfish right off the beach today-nice find!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I'm pretty sure the seahorse we found was the one we were looking for, but it wasn't where I was told to find it. Nice on the eagle ray. Didn't see anything big, but the divers hoovering at one time. You guys weren't far from us for a long time.

Filled up the card on the camera taking out of focus stuff. You would think by now I know my camera, but it continues to have a will of its own.

 

[Biminitwist]

Epic dive even if we never hooked up with the other group and I lost my flag toting partner for the bulk of the dive.
Luckily Jenny was spotting all kinds of cool stuff leaving me slightly guilty for not sharing, luckily her flag eventually surfaced and they hooked up as I was out of air.
No one found the froggies but I have at least three fish we have never seen before, one of which is a black version of a very rare one. Top secret for now.
Great 4 hour adventure, really glad I could dive with Jenny, she is good karma!
John
Pictures blurry and otherwise to follow later

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Which black one is the rare one? Both were pretty cool.
Might you need a bigger tank? (fwiw, as much as i hate to post this I was low on air)

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk 4

 

[jimw]

I saw both Jenny and John at one point but both had their heads buried, so I didn't bother them. That was shortly after the munching eagle ray, which dropped the mullet and gave up chewing on it's tail. I shot a couple of pics and will post something of the ray vs dead mullet if we can stand the backscatter! Nice diving with you 2 in a same day/same ocean sorta way!!

 

[Biminitwist]

JimW
It was nice meeting you, sorry we didn't have more time to chat (realized the wife was locked out of our truck with no idea where I wandered off).
I saw your divers on the east side but there were quite a few folks over there and some snorkelers so after the umpteenth time surfacing from (gasp) 20 feet to look for my wayward flag bearer I lost track of you. Needless to say when we eventually got out it was dark , late and we were the only ones left (winners!)

Hopefully next time you can meet Kelly and we can be introduced to your friends (I am socially inept at the best of times).

Jenny- the black one referenced was the one we talked about being collected last sighting despite zero location intell.

Saw so many cool things I will need to rewatch the video to count them.
Favorites would be the orange filefish, fighting longarm octopus (only captured the fleeing flounder mimic part ) and of course the cool micro nudie (doto of some type, great spotting!).....
Oddly, no mullet sightings but lots of jellies (I'm good now...) Saw them cast netting armfuls off the boat ramps (mullet not jellies)

Jenny-I would need a Brownie's third lung to hang with you girls!
Seriously I'm using a 149 cf tank in 15 feet of water so can't really go bigger (it rolls me over now).
You had an 80? and went forever.
Kelly went in with a 100cf tank at 3400 lbs and 4 hours later came out with 3402.......
I think you two only stopped because you had turtles to babysit!
Great time, will pm you when (if) I get ID's on mystery fish.
John

 

[jimw]

Here's a lousy pic, due only to backscatter of course; of that Eagle Ray trying and failing to eat a Mullet, it dropped the fish after chewing on it for 10 or 15 seconds...........and a couple of more pics somewhat pleasing to my eye. The Telesto octocoral(I think) in the middle is on the little wreck on the east side--down under the bow--it usually opens up in lower light. I saw some others that were closed where there was more sunlight an hour earlier...........The last 2 dives we've seen these jellys--yesterday in abundance. Anyone know them? I guess we are not sensitive to their sting as there were a LOT of'em!

Other than the several dead ones around the east bridge--I saw a big bunch over by the beach--they looked aggressive, circling me closer and CLOSER--I think they wanted to take on Mr Eagle for mangling the carcase of their buddy!