Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Even though we had blue water on Monday, on Tuesday the water was green again, but the dive was still doable with 20ft visibility, and sea temp of 82f. Conditions on Wednesday were the same as Tuesday. Today, was better than Tuesdays and Wednesday, but not as good as Monday. Water color was dependent on where I was, in front of the beach it was blue, on the westside at the fishing pier was more green. Visibility at about 25ft, with sea temp of 82f. Did REEF fish surveys on all three days, today was 85 species in 110 minutes. Besides the usual Moon Jellyfish, in last two days I have seen three other species or partial pieces of species anyway. Spent some time videoing the small fish that hide inside the mantle/bell of a Moon Jellyfish. I always assumed they were some sought of juvenile Jacks, but have never been able to make a positive identification. I think I figured it out today though, they are Harvestfish, (Peprilus paru), the forked caudal fin is the telltale, and the behavior of using Moon Jellyfish for protection. Observed a Black Drum on the eastside while snorkeling, and the second juvenile Short Bigeye of the year on the westside. Images and videos are from Tues, Weds, and today. Respectively, a very pale colored Spotted Moray, Plumed Scorpionfish, Shortnose Batfish, Unidentified Jellyfish, Harvestfish, Lionfish, Whitenose Pipefish, Black Drum, Short Bigeye, White Mullet, Juvenile Short Bigeye video, White Mullet video, Juvenile Black Drum, and Harvestfish hiding in a Moon Jellyfish video.

 

[PBcatfish]

Wow, great work as usual. Thank you for posting.

I have a few questions that I was hoping you might be able to help me out with.

I had only been familiar with black & silver mullet. Is white a third option? Or is white another name for the silver?

That lion fish has spines that look to bend more than I normally see. Also the two protrusions off the nose look unusual to me. Is this an unusual sub species? Or do I just not usually look that closely before letting a spear fly?

Where did you find the scorpion fish? I’d like to know where to be extra careful. Those things often elude my eyesight.

I’ve been seeing the moon jellys off & on for a while now. Some days they are there. Other days they are not. Some have been VERY large, even in the 16-18” range. I haven’t seen a long tentacle jelly in a very long time. How many of those did you see? The stings from those are usually a lot worse than the moons. You pretty much have to press into a moon to really get nailed by them, but the other ones are usually much more potent & sometimes hard to see coming, especially when you are going for the surface & run across the tentacles sideways. I ask because I got a couple of mystery stings several days ago while climbing back into a boat.

 

[Pipehorse]

I had only been familiar with black & silver mullet. Is white a third option? Or is white another name for the silver?

From Humann's book it was always Striped Mullet and White Mullet. From the Kells and Carpenter book there are five species. Perhaps Striped is Black and White is Silver? You can see the others in the image below. The Mountain Mullet is Anadromous, the Striped, White, and Liza are Catadromous according to the book the Fantail Mullet is not specified.

That lion fish has spines that look to bend more than I normally see. Also the two protrusions off the nose look unusual to me. Is this an unusual sub species? Or do I just not usually look that closely before letting a spear fly?

I found 2 Lionfish that day, they were both small, less than two inches. Both had the protrusions off the nose. On other fish those protrusions are normally called cirri, but I don't know if they are cirri on a Lionfish. I looked at a ton of Lionfish images, some have it and some don't, I doubt it would make them a subspecies but maybe a genetic recessive type of thing like hair color or eye color in other animals.

I think the spines look that way because they are juveniles and are a rapid growing phase of their lives. When I was taking classes at FAU there was a PHd candidate that was studying (among other things) the strength of Lionfish Quills or Spines. I am not sure though if she was using different size or aged fish, so I do not know how she normalized that variable. But I think you are right, they do appear more flexible than on larger individuals. Image below is of the second Lionfish that day, again the cirri/protrusions.

Where did you find the scorpion fish? I’d like to know where to be extra careful. Those things often elude my eyesight.

I found the Plumed Scorpion fish in algae patch in front of the west lifeguard stand. It was only about 3 inches long, and very well camouflaged. I just happened to see it because it moved.

I haven’t seen a long tentacle jelly in a very long time. How many of those did you see?

I saw two of the long tentacle jellyfish like the image from my last post. Below are images of other unidentified species or the remnants of an unidentified species.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

NIce photos. And thank you for all the information.
I think the bigeye is one of the prettiest fish with a close second the harliquen bass. Both exquisitly colored.
Need to get back to the bridge.. I miss it.. been too long..

 

[Jaan]

Happy to make it back to the bridge today after some time out of the water. We were hesitant after reading many of the recent reports, but pleasantly surprised to see a good 20-25 ft viz. Still lots of stringy stuff floating around in the water. Actually felt a bit slippery/slimy getting out of the suit! Yuk. Also quite a few moon jellies. Stay away folks, it's still not safe!! (and easier for us to find parking with less cars there

A few screen shots from Nathalie's photos.

Very shy sooty eel (thanks pipehorse ) in a sandy mound ... quite the snout! Bad photo, but he was quick to retreat.
Hadn't seen one of these before.

A few of the regulars: Upside down jelly, shy jaw fish, blue throat pike blenny, sea horse.

 

[Pipehorse]

Happy to make it back to the bridge today after some time out of the water. We were hesitant after reading many of the recent reports, but pleasantly surprised to see a good 20-25 ft viz. Still lots of stringy stuff floating around in the water. Actually felt a bit slippery/slimy getting out of the suit! Yuk. Also quite a few moon jellies. Stay away folks, it's still not safe!! (and easier for us to find parking with less cars there

A few screen shots from Nathalie's photos.

Very shy snake eel (we think) in a sandy mound ... quite the snout! Bad photo, but he was quick to retreat.
Hadn't seen one of these before. Can anyone confirm?
View attachment 748470

A few of the regulars: Upside down jelly, shy jaw fish, blue throat pike blenny, sea horse.

View attachment 748466View attachment 748467View attachment 748468View attachment 748469

Its a Sooty Eel.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday (10/14/22). Arrived at 1000 for a 1203 high tide. The park was not crowded, and there were not many divers there (relatively speaking). Visibility was improved from Thursday, with 30 feet of visibility with mostly blue components and sea temp at 83f. Snorkeled the trail first, did a REEF fish count 51 species in 45 minutes. Entered the eastside at 1115. Went I got under the east span I was surprised at how dark it was given the relatively blue water. Granted all of us who dive the bridge know that the east span is always a little darker than the west span because of the east span elevation above water is far less the west span and the fishing pier. Yesterday I was concentrating a lot on Moon Jellyfish because I wanted to get more images of the Harvestfish hiding under the bell of the jellyfish. At one point though I stopped to get a good wide angle view of underneath the east span and the darkness was explained. There was an easy to distinguish halocline (difference in salinity). The fresh/brackish green water sitting on top of the blue ocean saltwater. I would say the halocline was half and half, i.e. in 14ft of water the green water component was the top 7 feet and the blue water component was the bottom 7 feet. Interesting enough, during the dive Monday on the westside this difference could easily be seen as well, but I am not sure that it could be called a halocline. The reason being the split in saltwater and fresh water was on a vertical bias not horizontal bias, i.e. looking south at the wall just east the channel, the channel side of the wall was green, and the shore side of the wall was blue. Tons of Moon Jellyfish about, and a gigantic float of mostly Sargassum covering a third of the size of the whole area north of the east span stretching to the boat ramp. Observed a bunch of Hardhead Catfish mostly just east of the east lifeguard stand. Having seen a Barred Hamlet (Caribbean) yesterday, I want to illustrate the difference with Barred Hamlet (Florida). The Barred Hamlet (Caribbean) has blue components in its coloring, in the Barred Hamlet (Florida) blue components are missing and it also has two small vertical spots on the caudal peduncle (the base of the caudal fin or tail). The image of the Florida Barred Hamlet is not from yesterday. Respectively, Florida Barred Hamlet, Caribbean Barred Hamlet, Blue Stripe Grunt, Hard Head Catfsih, Harvestfish, Queen Angelfish, and Yellowtail Parrot with Whitefin Sharksucker.

 

[scubadada]

Thanks @Pipehorse

I look forward to each of your posts. I almost always learn something new. I am very familiar with the Caribbean Barred Hamlet, this is a photo of one from my recent trip to Bonaire

I did not know about the Florida Barred Hamlet. I have seen them, recognized them as Hamlets, but did not know they were a Barred Hamlet.

Your photo of the Parrotfish with the Sharksucker reminded me of something I saw on my recent visit to Florida. On the outside reef in Boynton, I saw a Queen Triggerfish with a Sharksucker. The Triggerfish appeared annoyed with the Sharksucker and would continually shimmy, turn on its side, or put on a burst of speed. Of course, the Sharksucker just stayed put. It reminded me of what I do when a Sharksucker takes a liking to me, I still find them creepy. Just when you think they are gone, they are back, right under your chin

 

[Rick Brant]

It's a little hard to be sure but that spotted eel looks like it is caught up in some fishing line.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday (10/15/22). Arrived at 1015 for a 1249 high tide. It was not to crowded when I arrived, but the parking lot did fill up rapidly after my arrival. I was little surprised given the weather, and lack of attendance during the week. Visibility was about 30ft with components of blue and green water depending on where one happened to be. There were haloclines on the east and west sides of the park, but not so much on the southside/snorkel trail. Sea temp was 83f. Snorkeled the trail prior to diving, did a REEF fish count 51 species in 45 minutes. Entered the eastside at 1125 and did a 70 minute dive. Did another REEF fish count 63 species in 70 minutes. Exited the eastside, walked across the parking lot and did another 70 minutes on the westside. Observed 4 seahorses on the westside. The two species of seahorse found at the bridge are Lined Seahorse and Longsnout Seahorse, yesterday I observed a third species, a Dwarf Seahorse. Dwarf Seahorse only appears in the REEF database 6 times in 182,000 surveys. 5 times on the west coast of Florida and one time somewhere else in the Caribbean. That makes a total of 4 new species added to the REEF database at Blue Heron Bridge in 16 days. Atlantic Croaker, Black Drum, Harvestfish, and Dwarf Seahorse. Sorry for the quality of the Dwarf Seahorse images, the video is better, you can get a good idea of the size of the seahorse by comparing to feather algae in the background. The other video posted is a good example of Commensalism (unrelated species benefiting from each other) of Orange Spotted Goby and Commensal Shrimp. Respectively, Barred Hamlet (different from yesterday), Dwarf Seahorse, Dwarf Seahorse, Lined Seahorse, Lined Seahorse, Pygmy Filefish, Dwarf Seahorse Video, and Goby/Shrimp video.