Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[scubadada]

I might have mistaken the Snakefish for a Sand Diver, now I see the differences. As usual, thanks for your great photos and identifications.

 

[PBcatfish]

... Snakefish.

View attachment 745216

I would have thought that to be an inshore lizard fish. My fish ID skills need work.

 

[PBcatfish]

Unfortunately, the moon Jellyfish are back

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0755 for a 0904 high tide. The park was not crowded, and blessedly quiet. Entered the westside at 0820. Visibility was 33ft with blue cloudy color, sea temp was 86f. Almost immediately came upon a Flying Gurnard working its way through the sand. Always interesting to watch them and searobins use the specially adapted fin rays (almost like little fingers) for finding prey. After I went diving I snorkeled the trail and found another smaller Flying Gurnard. According to REEF database Flying Gurnards are seen 7% of the time for all surveys conducted at BHB. I only see them 1% of the time at BHB according to the database. Did a REEF fish count 65 species in 65 minutes. Respectively, Black Grouper, Florida Horse Conch (survey sheet to show size), Flying Gurnard, Queen Conch, Squid, and Flying Gurnard Video.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

<3 flying garnards

 

[PBcatfish]

What? Nobody dove the bridge this morning? It was only blowing like 30 knots when I went past the port in the rain at high tide.

Jokes aside, today was a good day to be a fish.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

i imagine the park will be closed till after the storm passes. If any damage, they will keep it closed to assess damages...

 

[blauvelt]

I dove yesterday and it was very nice. There were two others going east I went west. When I finished up there was a small group in the beach area. Vis was 40ft. Saw fugona's in three different places, a manatee, and the friendly squid were there.

 

[Six Feet Under]

i imagine the park will be closed till after the storm passes. If any damage, they will keep it closed to assess damages...

It pales in comparison to the concerns I had two days ago about my own house (was directly in the eye path) and now the concerns I have about my aunt/uncle and three cousins living in Venice, but I'm supposed to go to BHB as well as do some boat dives with Pura Vida Divers next Fri-Sun (Oct 7-9)... hopefully the damage in PBC is not bad from whatever tornadoes and rain you guys get.

 

[PBcatfish]

The park was closed today. A ranger, in an SUV with flashing lights, was guarding the entrance.

Looking in from the roadway, I didn't see any real damage other than palm fronds scattered about the parking lot.

Several boats in the area broke free from their anchorages today, so there will likely be some fresh wrecks littered about. Seatow/TowBoat picked up a few that were still floating. LEO's in boats attended to a few more. Other boats hit bottom.

South winds are forecast to remain strong through tomorrow, so wreckage from south of Peanut Island may continue to accumulate.

Instruments in the area were said to have registered gusts of 65 knots today. Rain was heavy at times, but accumulations were maybe a few inches so far.

the forecast for tomorrow is not looking nice, but the forecast for yesterday was pretty far off, so I'm going to take things as they come.

Thank god we didn't get hit by Ian the way that the west coast did. They are still getting blasted in a big way over there.