Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[arigunz]

I'm super interested in diving blue heron bridge, anyone up for meeting up and diving as buddies on a weekday over the next few weeks?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

When I first started diving in the early 90's, almost every single beach dive I would see at least 1 baracudda. Now I rarely if ever see one off the beach.. Broward County.
I attribute it to poor water quality. The trumpetfish are mostly gone too. Used to see them on every dive. Now, lucky to see one every 20 dives.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 1225, for a 1440 high tide. The park was not crowded. I planned on only diving the beach today, so current is far less of a concern. Entered the water at 1245, east of the east lifeguard stand, and zigzagged my way from the snorkel trail to the swimming area drifting west the whole time. I surprised not to see all that many divers, given that so many do the snorkel trail. I was even more surprised when I got out of the water a 1425, to find the park was more filled than at any other time this week. I guess people like the mid afternoons. Visibility was diminished since yesterday, a hazy 15ft. Sea temp was 80f. Surface conditions were a bit windy. Observed a pipefish, seahorse, half a dozen trunkfish, and since I was in front of the beach lots shrimp gobies, i.e. Orangespotted Goby, Dash Goby, and Spottail Gobies. Continued the hunt for tunicates and sponges. Lots of sponges but not many tunicates. Did a REEF fish count 73 species in 100 minutes. Respectively, Flying Gurnard, Lane Snapper, Lined Seahorse, Shortfin Pipefish, Rosy Blenny Masquerading as Saddled Blenny, Striped Burrfish, and Juvenile Trunkfish.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

rosy masquarading as a saddled..
what is the defining difference? size, movement? something else?

 

[Jaan]

Today was a bust. We looked over the fishing pier and didn't see the bottom, but had not been in the water for a while and thought we'd give it a try anyway. Mistake. We lasted about 10 mins, and just gave up. Coming back ashore, we could see lots of disappointed divers coming back out and shaking their heads. A few die-hards remained, but it certainly wasn't great. Having to drive back in traffic and wash all the gear anyway sucks even more! ;( Next time, we'll stick to @Pipehorse 's bottom visibility test and just turn back! Happy that Pura-Vida does volume fills, so we only had to pay for a small top-up of the tanks!! Better luck next time

A few of our favorite pictures from today .. hahaha Geez

 

[PBcatfish]

@PBcatfish, your comments always make me give further thought on the images of different species I post. I appreciate that, thank you....

A lot of my "knowledge" on the subject comes from fishermen & other locals who are not formally schooled in the correct names for some of the fish they occasionally see. A few names, like Amberine, are close to the correct name of Amber Jack, but others, like Slippery Dick, seem like something that was just made up by a frustrated guy who was having a tough time getting a "garbage fish" off a hook. I have yet to figure out where the name Jewfish came from. The currently accepted name of Goliath Grouper makes more sense to me.

I thank you very much for your clarifications. They help me to remove the weeds from my garden of recognized fish names. It's something that I strive to improve.

 

[PBcatfish]

@PBcatfish, ...

I have been diving on the reefs in Broward and Palm Beach County since I moved here in 1992. Without taking a deep dive into 3700 or so fish surveys I have done I couldn't make a claim one way or the other with regards to snapper/grunt/porgy/small grouper populations. I will say that on an anecdotal basis groupers are few and far between on the reefs, and that is going back thirty years. I see a few small Black Groupers at BHB, I see a few small Red Groupers (and I mean small 8 inches or less), this is usually the case on reefs as well. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen Nassau Groupers, Cubera Snapper, Yellowfin Groupers, and Tigers Groupers. Total speculation on my part, I think it has far more to do with humans overfishing popular species, than it has to do with predation by Barracudas, or other large piscivore species.

From a fishing perspective, my old go-to snapper holes are now populated with cudas. The few snapper that I can jig up there, seem to have a 50-50 chance of getting to the boat before getting eaten off my line. When I put down bigger rigs on wire right after a fish munch, I get a cuda, so that's how I am identifying the thief.

I can still find Cony & Graysby groupers in some traditional holes in the area that are not yet cuda infested. Gags & blacks are much less plentiful in this area than they were 5 years ago.

Cuberas were never found in good numbers here since I've been fishing the area. They are plentiful in parts of the keys. Occasionally I find a Nassau Grouper here, but they are no take. In the Bahamas, they are plentiful. I've never seen a tiger of a yellowfin grouper, at least not one that I recognized as such.

 

[scubadada]

Slippery Dick, a species or wrasse

Edit; incorrect photos, see #1950, thanks @Scuba_Jenny

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

A lot of my "knowledge" on the subject comes from fishermen & other locals who are not formally schooled in the correct names for some of the fish they occasionally see. A few names, like Amberine, are close to the correct name of Amber Jack, but others, like Slippery Dick, seem like something that was just made up by a frustrated guy who was having a tough time getting a "garbage fish" off a hook. I have yet to figure out where the name Jewfish came from. The currently accepted name of Goliath Grouper makes more sense to me.

I thank you very much for your clarifications. They help me to remove the weeds from my garden of recognized fish names. It's something that I strive to improve.

My understanding re: jewfish. Name came about because it could feed a jewish family/celebration. Not familiar with jewish traditions though. It was renamed Goliath Grouper as not to offend anyone.. but noone was offended, it was a proactive decision. Poor one at that, cause Goliath tried to destroy the Jews!

Slippery Dick, a species or wrasse
View attachment 756797

Juvenile phase looks correct, initial phase looks more like a parrotfish to me, the shape is all wrong for a SD, and the terminal phase does not look familiar to me. Is missing the small spot above the pectoral fin and is usually shades of green.

 

[scubadada]

Juvenile phase looks correct, initial phase looks more like a parrotfish to me, the shape is all wrong for a SD, and the terminal phase does not look familiar to me. Is missing the small spot above the pectoral fin and is usually shades of green.

You're right, poor source from the internet, I failed to check

Here are Terminal, Initial. and Juvenile Phase from Humann's Fish ID