Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[Scuba_Jenny]

No, photograhers with big *ss cameras without any regard for the environment or their surroundings should be banned.

 

[letterboy]

Fine. Ban everyone with poor buoyancy. And bad manners.

Ohhh and no more colored gear. That is distracting.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

 

[Biminitwist]

Chilly yesterday - Water temp 70! But Jenny and I had a beautiful dive. Finally, for the first time ever, I managed to get a flabellina somewhat in focus. Yay! Happy Birthday to me. (Jenn's index finger for perspective).

View attachment 176197 QUOTE]

That finger model looks familar

 

[danvolker]

Just thought it was interesting to tell people not to do one frowned upon thing but then proceed to show photos where the taboo touching of the wildlife obviously occurred.

BTW for reference I am in no way claiming to be the ideal diver...I do occasionally gently flip over the odd urchin looking for shrimp, and yes, I do sometimes put an elbow or knee on the bottom to stabilize.

You may be expecting me to argue this....but I am probably closer to your way of thinking on this than you imagined.
While I can't speak for photographers in general...I will say the shots Sandra takes of the Nudibranchs on the black slate...are not a case of her grabbing 2mm long creatures....the nudis are pretty much always on the march, and the trick is to see where they are going, and to put the black slate in the line they are heading in...and most will walk right out on it...giving you the time you need for your shots. I don't think this stresses a nudibranch --they have a nerve ganglia with an IQ just slightly higher than a pet rock. They instinctively move along what they sense to be food...part smell, part taste, and their tiny eyes probably show light and dark and some structure--but I think it unlikely they could SEE the difference between a diver and a concrete piling. They get blown off weed strands by current all the time--they get to the BHB by being blown here from somewhere else--they drop out of the water column on the BHB.

Sandra does NOT touch the Seahorses, or the other macro life....and if she lies down on the bottom to shoot, she tries to do this in sand, carefully trying to avoid any life--which she is very good at finding and seeing--- and she does this in a completely horizontal posture so the per square inch weight she exerts on the bottom is minuscule, and comes down like a feather --nothing like the concentrated weight of standing on the bottom with 20 pounds of lead ( like the students in the video).


So the real issue. I hope you don't think I want to STOP dive classes at the BHB. I love that we have this as a resource for Instructors and students. The real issue to me, is just getting the instructors to be aware of where the life is concentrated, and to point these areas out to their students, and then TRY not to jump up and down on top of some of the richest concentrations of life at the BHB.

There are many great instructors at the BHB that never, ever, have their students destroying the life on the bottom....Jeff from Force E is a perfect example of this.
And...there are some photographers that care more about their shots, than the health of the marine life....and this needs to change--probably by peer pressure.....And I see peer pressure among instructors as a viable method of negative or positive reinforcement for classes as well--maybe we start RECOGNIZING the ones who do a really great job.

The ones doing a bad job, also teach their students it is just fine to trample the delicate life--and we can only expect should they make it to Fiji, they will be standing on a coral reef in no time.

 

[Biminitwist]

I think the message the algae in only a few feet of water harbors some pretty cool life is an important one, while buoyancy, like diver etiquette should be a goal everyone regardless of level can strive to do better. The knee walking hordes are the far end of the spectrum, but I know I have been guilty of inadvertant bottom contact, and just strive to be better. Don't get me started on fondling marine life but I too have searched my share of urchin bottoms:anonymous2:, hopefully without lasting trauma....
John

 

[mntlblok]

The ocean web cams I follow down yonder show a glassy surface today. I hope some of you guys take advantage of that. Even LBTS could be especially nice if it's a shorter trip. . .

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Oh I wish I could.. got commitments today.. ugh... figures..

 

[mntlblok]

the algae in only a few feet of water harbors some pretty cool life

That algae is something I'd enjoy learning more about. About all I know is that there's more "brown stuff" over towards the west channel and wall. I have no idea whether that is one species or whether that stuff is made up of a bunch of different things. I hear about "hydroids" (and even remember reading about them back in freshman biology class) being amongst it and seem to recall that maybe that's what the nudi's eat, but don't know whether they're part of an algae or something "with" the brown stuff. I think I also recall that hydroids might be involved in some human skin pain.

If I knew more about it, I *might* be more inclined to go into that dark area and strain my old eyes to look for some of that small stuff - in *spite* of my memory of things suddenly moving within the depths of the brown stuff. I could pull a muscle or get a cramp from those sudden jerks back. Sharptail Eels look a *lot* like snakes.

 

[djtimmy77]

Made it out to the bridge today. Trampled a bunch of algae with my fins. (kidding)

25-30' vis, 73°F.

Saw this wee little sea hare. Not a great angle but he wasn't moving much.



A few neat shrimp:



A wee little oxynoe sea slug:



And some other stuff: