Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[MrChen]

I was lucky enough to get in the water Saturday. Went west. Vis wasn't great. Some guy found an eel eating a lobster tail and pointed it out to us after he was done taking pictures. So, we moved in with our cameras and the guy completely silted us out. Saw a couple batfish, mantis shrimp, and a southern ray enroute from the snorkel trail towards the NW. As we neared the bridge, we found 4 sea horses. One appeared to be a juvenile. By the time we were done taking pictures, a crowd of divers were patiently waiting and moved in as we vacated. 82 degrees, lots of particulates the water. Here's a few pics. I didn't have my strobe placement right so they are a little off on the lighting.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I was lucky enough to get in the water Saturday. Went west. Vis wasn't great. Some guy found an eel eating a lobster tail and pointed it out to us after he was done taking pictures. So, we moved in with our cameras and the guy completely silted us out.

Oh man I hate that!! What is the hand signal for WTF??!!

 

[MrChen]

You could always flap your arms like a turkey...

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday (10-16-22). <snip> 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.<snip>

hmmm I would never think that. I've seen you underwater a couple times, and my impression of you besides having incredible bouyancy skills is you are not overweight at all.. my memory says you are a bean pole!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Oh man I hate that!! What is the hand signal for WTF??!!

GRRRHHHH!!!!!!!! I was shooting a seahorse this past summer.... and as I was watching it, letting it settle down some random diver came in shoving their gopro in to get a shot. I pushed the camera away (I think it was at the same time that one of their buddies kicked me in the head a minute earlier with their fin). She got a hand signal... and a huge WTF!!!!!
Thankfully she steered clear of me the rest of the dive!

 

[MrChen]

GRRRHHHH!!!!!!!! I was shooting a seahorse this past summer.... and as I was watching it, letting it settle down some random diver came in shoving their gopro in to get a shot. I pushed the camera away (I think it was at the same time that one of their buddies kicked me in the head a minute earlier with their fin). She got a hand signal... and a huge WTF!!!!!
Thankfully she steered clear of me the rest of the dive!

It wouldn't have happened to be a universal hand signal, meaning not exclusive to scuba diving?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

It wouldn't have happened to be a universal hand signal, meaning not exclusive to scuba diving?

Yes, it was a universal hand signal.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday (10-17-22). Arrived at 1245 for a 1445 high tide. Park was not crowded, and the rain that started after the dive got rid of anybody that was not a die hard beach fan. As most of you know the substrate on the snorkel trail is much more silt than it is sand. When people dive the snorkel trail which I estimate is at least half the divers on any given day, the visibility is seriously degraded because of poor buoyancy skills and even worse finning techniques. I say this as an observation as opposed to a complaint, its just the way it is. For this reason, if I do the snorkel trail, it is usually well before or well after high tide, and usually on snorkel. If I dive the snorkel trail its the same thing, well after of before high tide to avoid the inevitable clouds of silt. Yesterday was an exception though, there were not many snorkelers or divers so I decided to dive the snorkel trail instead of doing the west or east side. It yielded some good results, a Banded Blenny at the beginning of the dive, and a Pugjaw Wormfish a the end of the dive. Both are rarely observed species, I believe not because they are rare, but because they are well camouflaged (Banded Blenny) or remain hidden in burrows (Pugjaw Wormfish). Also this is the time year for a Manta migration, I did observe a Manta at the bridge two years ago in mid October, so been keeping eyes focused on the water column, but no such luck yet. Visibility was 25ft with lots of particulate still in the water, but mostly blue color, sea temp was 83f. Did a REEF fish count 63 species in 65 minutes. Making the video of the Pugjaw Wormfish was a challenge. I needed to zoom in because of it's diminutive size, that makes it difficult to keep in the camera frame. However the Wormfish did have a Dwarf Sand Perch shadow buddy that made it easier to keep track of as I was shooting. I don't know if the wormfish was hunting or looking for its "regular burrow". Respectively, Banded Blenny, Blue Stripe Grunts, Smallmouth Grunts, Juvenile Three Spot Damsel, and Pugjaw Wormfish Video.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0655 for a 0719 high tide. The park was not crowded. Sunrise was not until 0724, but even in the low light of dawn I could see the water was very green when checking for my go/no go on the dive. Nevertheless I could see the bottom so I got ready to dive. Entered on the westside visibility was 10 feet with a lot of gross particulate matter in the water, and the sea temp was 77f. I had read somewhere that the Lake Okeechobee was not particularly high this year, and that USACOE had not been releasing water. Given that we have had little rain since hurricane Ian, I was a little miffed at the cold water temp (it was 83f this past Monday). Of course this is the time of year when the sea temp starts to drop, but it does not drop at a rate of 1 degree f/day the attached link has sea temp at 80-82f in the ocean, Palm Beach Jetty Sea Temp. Granted we did have the first real cold front blow through but that doesn't explain the temp drop. Anyway, I went looking to see if I could find some kind of report on how much water is released from Lake O. It can be found at this link, Lake Okeechobee Release Report. As far as I can tell, there is little to no water being released to the east of Lake O, towards Lake Worth Lagoon, so Lake "O" water releases are not the culprit for the crappy water conditions and lower than expected temps. Did a REEF fish count of 60 species and sixty minutes. Only including one image, because the particulate matter resulted in a lot of out of focus images. Spotted Trunkfish below.

 

[MrChen]

Could the currents be pulling from the Gulf?