Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[tarponchik]

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.
View attachment 748470

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

I posted a picture of this eel here several years ago for ID. Honestly, I do not remember the results. Most likely, this is Shrimp Eel, Ophichthus gomesii, although this species is not listed in the Blue Heron Bridge database.
PS: I found the photo:

 

[tarponchik]

The Scorpionfish are everywhere and they move around so it makes no sense to ask for a warning where the last one had been seen. I counted up to 7 on some dives under BHB.

 

[Pipehorse]

I posted a picture of this eel here several years ago for ID. Honestly, I do not remember the results. Most likely, this is Shrimp Eel, Ophichthus gomesii, although this species is not listed in the Blue Heron Bridge database.
PS: I found the photo:
View attachment 748686

Not sure what Blue Heron Bridge database you mean, Inaturalist? See links below, also, this fish is in Humann's 4th edition. Good find BTW.

Observations

Observations of Sooty Eel

www.inaturalist.org

Shorefishes - Gallery

Fishes of the Greater Caribbean

biogeodb.stri.si.edu

Sooty Eel Bascanichthys bascanium

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

@Pipehorse, how do you tell the difference between a dwarf (AFAIK, only the second one recoreded at that bridge) and the lined and longsnout?

 

[Pipehorse]

@Pipehorse, how do you tell the difference between a dwarf (AFAIK, only the second one recoreded at that bridge) and the lined and longsnout?

Are you doubting my fish id skills? Just kidding. I considered that it might be a juvenile Lined Seahorse. However watch the video and look at its snout relative to its head, its some what shorter than Lined Seahorse (proportionally) and definitely shorter than a Long Snout. But also look at the end of the video where it drifts over towards the green feather algae, compare it in size to the feather algae, its tiny. So tiny overall, less than 1.5 inches, and a shorter snout, to arrive at Dwarf Seahorse. Also check out the inaturalist link. I have a theory that a lot "brackish water fish" that are rare or uncommon at the bridge could be found in greater abundance a mile north off the mangroves near Munyon and Little Munyon Island. Makes sense that it might have been displaced during the hurricane like the Black Drum and the Atlantic Croakers.

Observations

Observations of Dwarf Seahorse

www.inaturalist.org

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Good to know.. that also confirms my suspisions that the two small seahorses I found off Hollywood beach earlier this year (#3, 4 lifetime finds off the beach in Broward) are both lined, not dwarf. The first one was only about an inch long, the second seemed large at 1.5"

 

[PBcatfish]

... I have a theory that a lot "brackish water fish" that are rare or uncommon at the bridge could be found in greater abundance a mile north off the mangroves near Munyon and Little Munyon Island. Makes sense that it might have been displaced during the hurricane like the Black Drum and the Atlantic Croakers.
...

The water north of the bridge is usually pretty murky. There are lots of sting rays. There are sections of an old bridge that were dropped there. They were torch cut during demolition & still have lots of jagged steel edges, as well as dangerous overhangs. The sections are usually 10 or 15 feet high & about twice as long. There is a fair amount of lost fishing line, hooks & nets hanging from the sharp edges. Typical depth is 30 feet to the bottom. You can almost never see the bridge sections from the surface because of the water quality. I sometimes itch for hours or even days after diving there. I have gotten an eye infection from swimming there on an outgoing tide. It is an unfriendly place to dive. I don't recommend it.

I will confirm that the fish you see there are a different group. With the exception of lion fish, they are far less colorful & there is less diversity. Snapper, porgies & grunts can be found there, but not as often as in the past. Few of the species you see up there are seen at the bridge. As you get into the flats of Munyon Island, you get into some good fly fishing territory. That is where the drum, croakers, and sometimes snook hang out. Bone fish are occasionally reported, but I haven't seen them. Juvenile permit are present this time of year. Toadfish are usually on the oyster beds at certain times of the day. Convicts (sheep head) are sometimes present, but not often. Large rays occasionally make it up there as well, usually on the incoming tide. Gafsail catfish are there in aggravating numbers in some places. As you get a little further NW of there, juvenile grouper can be found. Further upstream moon fish & look downs become common. I've seen more than 20 look downs come up in a single cast net throw. Shrimp are in certain areas too. This time of year the mullet can be quite thick at times. I've seen what had to be tens of thousands in a single school that pretty much filled little lake worth lagoon. Spotted sea trout are sometimes caught up there.

 

[Pipehorse]

There are sections of an old bridge that were dropped there.

The fishing pier at Phil Foster is the old bridge, do you think those sections up there are when they demolished it after finishing the existing bridge?

 

[PBcatfish]

The fishing pier at Phil Foster is the old bridge, do you think those sections up there are when they demolished it after finishing the existing bridge?

I don't know where the bridge sections came from. Google might bring up the answer. Your thoughts on the subject would seem to make sense.

The artificial reefs offshore attract a lot of life. These bridge sections have attracted little, other than benthic invertebrate. If the water quality in the ICW ever cleans up, that may change, but for now the muck seems to ruin the habitat.

I think that the Munion Island flats have more to offer because the water there does not mix with the muck as much due to limited inflow/outflow & the oyster beds filter it out to an extent. It's a little oasis of slightly better water with a little less salt.

About 6 miles further south in the ICW, closer to the Southern Blvd Bridge, there is another artificial reef that was sunk. That one is so covered over with muck that I can't even find it on sonar anymore. That area attracts basically nothing. The oyster beds in the area are just overwhelmed. They haven't been able to clean up the water there. At least that's how it was several years ago. Since Trump got elected, security in that area was ratcheted up because of Mara Lago's proximity. After that, construction of the new bridge saw the removal of all parking in the area to make room for the construction equipment. I used to night fish there a lot, but along with everyone else, I got pushed out. That's what brought me up to BHB in the first place. I needed a new fishing spot

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday (10-16-22). Generally my MO for the weekend is to skip the bridge and drive down to LBTS, but I didn't want to do the drive yesterday so went to the bridge instead. Arrived at 1035 for a 1349 high tide. Given the attendance at the park for the last week and Saturday, I was surprised at how little parking there was 3 hours before the tide. I parked over near the building on the north that the Sheriff's Department uses. Even though I am 61 and a little overweight, I am still in decent physical condition. I don't find walking across the parking lot in full gear burdensome. And given that a have a 30 gal water tank in the bed of my truck for rinsing the distance to the beach is no big deal. In fact during the pandemic I would park way to the north even when better parking was available to south to avoid close contact with other individuals. Snorkeled the trail first, visibility was degraded since Saturday, no halocline, water was green throughout the column. By the time I finishing snorkeling at about 11:20 there were many cars circling the parking lot looking for spaces. In the meantime the Park Ranger had that row of parking for trailers in the center staked out, anytime somebody with a car tried to park they were immediately shooed away. During weekdays in the summer the park ranger is not there, and I have seen that whole row spaces filled cars and not get ticketed, by I digress this is supposed to be a post about diving not parking. Entered the westside at 1129 on scuba. Spent 2 hours in the algae patches on the south westside. Vis was a little better than when I was snorkeling about 15 feet, sea temp was 82f. Did a REEF fish count, 50 species in 120 minutes. Why so few species in two hours? Because I covered very little ground. Was looking for the Dwarf Seahorse but no luck. But nevertheless there were other interesting things to see. Spotted Dragonets supposedly have been observed at the bridge. I am not entirely convinced, they might be Lancer Dragonets. Certainly from description and picture in the book Spotted Dragonets are well camouflaged. Which is case with the image below. Lancer Dragonets have large sail like dorsal fins which they unfurl often. Spotted Dragonets have smaller dorsal fins with tiny hair like filaments streaming behind, I never saw the dorsal fin the image below so I can't tell one way or the other. The other excellent find was a very unusually colored Pipefish. I believe it is a Shortfin Pipefish which are the most common found at the bridge. Very pretty colors, green with thin black and white banding. I apologize for the image the fish was well camouflaged, and I do not like to roust a fish from a hiding spot just so I can get a good exposure. Also another rare find was the Spotifin Flounder, observed 59 times out of 182,000 surveys. But not a first for Blue Heron, it is in the database once before. Respectively, Green Pipefish, Juvenile Trunkfish, Harvestfish, Lined Seahorse Perched in a sponge, Spotfin Flounder, Possible Spotted Dragonet, and Twin Trunkfish.


EDIT: I added a link from STRI of a Spotted Dragonet feel free to weigh in. Shorefishes - Random Images