Blue Heron Bridge 1/17

[Videodude]

Well guys it appears our schedules crossed for BHB. Hey the original posting did say 1.17.09....

Anyhoo, I ended up doing a solo dive due to Tas' ears being in jeopardy and the fact that Blue Heron Blvd was closed for a MLK day parade. I got some good solo experience and found some cool stuff even if the viz was only about 10ft. Hey, muck diving can be fun too!! Overall sightings: Flounder, Banded Shrimp, Red Batfish, Spadefish, 2 Lobster, Arrow Crabs, a Sea Urchin with a crab skeleton attached (see photo), Filefish and an Octopus Garden complete with Octopus!!.

Hope you enjoy the video stills!

Doug

 

[crd_kats]

Nope, we dove the west span. Saw a frogfish in that little canyon between the pilings (sp?). Not as colorful as yours, but just as cool.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Jim,
Since your a regular at BHB....

When we were doing our site overview (hey, it was my first time...), we saw a fisherman over on the bridge pulling over to shore an octopus caught in his line... we didn't see if he took it home for dinner, or if it was still alive and released..., it definitely seemed to be wrapped around his hook..., given their curiosity for stainless steel, I wouldn't be surprised one 'taking the bait...'

So, next time your over on the west span, keep an eye out for any regular octo's...

I've only been on the west span one time myself... I keep telling myself I need to investigate that area in much more detail, but the east span keeps drawing my attention... I'll keep an eye out...

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Nope, we dove the west span. Saw a frogfish in that little canyon between the pilings (sp?). Not as colorful as yours, but just as cool.

Ouch, the elusive frogfish have evaded my camera thus far... :depressed:

I assumed we all dove the east side based on the Manatee pictures. It now seems the Manatee drifted past the west span for pictures, then crossed through the east span to get to feeding grounds...

 

[showboat]

Here are pics from my dive at BHB West Span

Blue Huron Bridge

 

[OSOK]

Cool pics Showboat! So you were on the East side? I don't remember seeing you there...

 

[showboat]

Cool pics Showboat! So you were on the East side? I don't remember seeing you there...

Thanks OSOK, I was on the West......

 

[williama]

Dive Report:

It was good to meet up with Tim and Carmen this Sunday. Tim and I walked over to do a site check and saw Bob L. at the site also. I had not seen Bob in about 4 years. Bob was going to check some gear and didn't join us on the dive. As we walked towards the fishing pier we saw a fisherman pulling up an Octopus. Bummer, we didn't stick around too long but it looks like we have one less Octopus at the bridge. There aren't many sport fisherman at this park and I am sure it fed a couple of people that night.

We met a couple of folks from Scubaboard (Bryan, Justin and Mitch) that had come up from Miami. It turns out they are from Kendall and that's where I used to live when I started diving. This crew reminded me of me 10 years ago when I first started diving with a couple of Army/College buddies.

We finished setting up for our dive and the plan was for a nice and slow tour of the site with cameras in hand (Great Pics, Tim!). 2 mins into our dive look back and see 3 buddies swimming behind me, Tim, Carmen and a Manatee! That was pretty cool. I got within a couple of feet and was enjoying checking it out and saw a remora on its belly. I almost forgot to take a picture since I was just enjoying the experience. That made the dive for me and I could have ended it there and been pretty happy.

We continued the tour of the fishing pier nice and slow bumping into a couple of other teams along the way. We saw a couple of fishing lines but stayed under the bridge to avoid them. Our group stopped near the channel marker to practice some skills and then at 61 mins, we turned and started heading back to the entry point. On this return trip, I felt that my flag was being pulled by a fisherman, I motioned the team and then let out all the line in my spool expecting the fisherman would pull up the flag and then release it. No sense in popping up and trying to do the same from in the water or try to have a tug of war.

The tension on the line was released and I started to bring the line back in but to our surprise the line ended and no flag. I made a loop on the end of the line, deployed a lift bag (I need to do that a little bit slower since I caught my reg on the side of the bag...good thing we were in 6' of water) and we continued to make our way out. We ended the dive at 80 mins and there was plenty to talk about from the stuff we saw, skills practice and the missing flag. The other group also mentioned seeing the flag get pulled up to the bridge. I was able to get my flag back after talking with the kid who pulled it up.

We wrapped up the afternoon with some food at the Quarterdeck. We had the place to ourselves and it was half price Appetizers.

Thanks again for a nice afternoon of diving and lets be sure to do that again soon.

William

 

[williama]

Bryan, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much for voting me the best looking :blush::blush::blush:. I know it was close... I mean, William's long eyelashes and Tim's sweet smile probably made that discussion interesting, but good to know I came through!!!!

Tim, William - great pics

Bummer. I thought once you guys saw me in the robe I would be the winner of that contest. I'll have to show a little more leg next time.

Just wait till the summer is here...Speedo's Gone Wild at Blue Heron Bridge!!!

 

[OSOK]

When you see Justin next time, mention to him about speedo's. It was quite funny when he shows up with 'red' speedos to our training course. Of course, this was in the middle of a public pool, with parents, kids, and everything in between... so I geared up as FAST as I could to stay away from him as long as possible.

It's funny how we have so little diving and already have so many stories...

Bryan