Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[PBcatfish]

I saw the same conditions in the ICW a little south of the bridge yesterday as well. The water was gross. White stringy stuff was floating everywhere. The strings were mostly about an inch & a half long & pretty thin. ... but at least the jellyfish, that had been plentiful the day before, were nowhere to be seen. ...and water temperature is back up to the low 80's.

I had looked at the webcam for the inlet before I went down yesterday. It showed murky water outside the inlet on the incoming tide, so I sort of expected poor vis. It's low tide now, so I'll have to check the cam in a few hours to see what's coming our way today.

Usually, the outgoing tide brings murk & muck from further up the ICW, and the incoming tide brings clean sea water from the gulfstream. Now we have murk on the outside as well

 

[PBcatfish]

Today, a little south of the bridge, I saw 5-8' vis, probably 82ish degree water that was more brown than green. Today the suspended crud was little chunks, not the strings that I saw yesterday. The material looked to be the same. It appeared to be just chopped up smaller. Jacks, triggers, puffers & snapper didn't seem to mind the conditions, but I didn't care for them. Gobies were not in their usual places. Neither were the gafftopsail cats nor crabs. Silver mullet are here in good numbers, as is common for this part of October. I am not seeing the usual percentage of black mullet. No Jellyfish today. I haven't noticed any eye or ear infections yet, but I'll see what tomorrow brings. I don't plan to go back in until things clear up a little.

 

[Jaan]

I don't plan to go back in until things clear up a little.

That sounds bad. Nathalie had some stitches and while anxious to get back in, everyone's reports have helped us take the decision to wait a bit longer.

 

[PBcatfish]

The water looked better today & parking was plentiful right at high tide. If I had gear with me, I would have jumped in.

 

[goldfishtornado]

The parking being easy has to be the biggest up side to this. We dove this morning, and I think that's the emptiest I've seen it for high tide. I'm not sure what it is that's suspended in the water either, but it was kind of a mix of little chunks and filaments today. Vis has probably improved but still poor, somewhere around 10'. Water was 80°F.

There was a juvenile lion fish hanging out about 1/3 of the way down the snorkel trail from the shark statues. Looks like it's living in that artificial reef.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving. Arrived at 0810 for a 0817 high tide. The park was only moderately crowded (on an absolute basis), on a relative basis for a Sunday, there was barely anybody there. From the amount of flags in the water, divers were in the minority. Word might be out of the bad visibility, but weather was a bit rainy to the west where I live, and October is the slowest month for tourism in Florida. There was a church group in attendance, and more than the usual amount of fisherman using the pier. Standing on the seawall looking into the water I could see the bottom, so that's go for diving. Entered the water at 0835 on the west side. Visibility was 15ft, water was mostly green, with a lot of clumpy wet dust looking particulate. Did a REEF fish survey 56 species in 65 minutes. My normal circuit on the west side usually brings me underneath the fishing pier, however given the number of fisherman I observed this morning I stayed more south exploring between the main span stanchions. I don't have anything out of the ordinary to report vis a vis species observed. So I will explain the difference between left handed and right handed flounders. When you look at what we consider a more "normal shaped fish" perhaps a Yellowtail snapper, you can see that the operculum (the hard bony plate covering the gills) is open at the bottom. Now imagine looking down on a flounder and notice the operculum. Imagine rotating the flounder ninety degrees along the axis of its length from eye to tail, so that the operculum would be facing with the opening in the down direction. If it needs to rotated to the left, it is a "left handed flounder", if it needs to be rotated to the right, it is a right hand flounder. Images of two Eyed Flounders, considered to be "left handed".

 

[Johnoly]

.. So I will explain the difference between left handed and right handed flounders.

I never knew that!!
Thank you for teaching me something new.......Luv ScubaBoard !!

 

[PBcatfish]

... There was a church group in attendance, and more than the usual amount of fisherman using the pier. ...

It's mullet season. The migration is at it's peak right now. That brings out a lot of fishermen. Give that probably another 1-3 weeks & it should start to wind down.

Mullet were so thick this morning, I saw more than 1,000 square feet where I could have thrown a 6' net & expected no less than 50 fish per throw. The daily holding limit this time of year is usually 50, so in those conditions, you actually need to be careful not to accidentally get yourself in trouble.

 

[Compressor]

Visibility was good today. I saw places over 20 feet.
I don't see the water as being green or brown while diving.
As far as I'm concerned, we are back in business.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0715 for a 0907 high tide. The park was not crowded. Was presently surprised to see enough blue water had moved in to displace most of the green water. Visibility was much improved at 30ft with mostly blue color and some particulate matter. I always estimate visibility when doing the west side by how well I can see the next set of stanchions under the fishing pier (the fishing pier stanchions are 33ft apart). Sea temp was 82f. I normally dive by myself but there was another avid REEF surveyor in town so we did the dive together. Entered the water on the westside at 0815. and exited the water at the same point at 1035. Did a REEF fish survey, 94 species in 140 minutes. Generally up to about 70 minutes in a normal fish count will yield 1 species/minute. But even at Blue Heron Bridge a species "rich" site the species/minute count will start to drop off after 70 minutes. Observed a Mangrove/Upside down jelly swimming in open water, never have seen that before they are usually founding pushing against the bottom. Respectively, Cottonwick Grunts, Mangrove Jellyfish in midwater, and Dusky Jawfish Video.