I had to go back and look when the last time I wrote a dive report here, been more than a month. And because 0f visibility issues and traveling I had not done a dive at the bridge since Sept 29th. I have not been in the water on scuba for10 days now, seemed much longer than that. Anyway, went to the bridge for diving today. Excited to try my new mask with prescription lens in it. Arrived at 0950 for a 1125 high tide. The park was not crowded. I did a quick water temp test (toes and hand), and visibility test. Air temp was 71f, so the water seemed relatively warm, but I decided on the 3mm instead of the shorty anyway. It was a good decision, water temp was 79f. The visibility test passed, but just barely, water was brown green, with 10ft of visibility.
Entered on the west side and immediately observed a Spotted Eagle Ray. Made my way to the first set of bridge pilings and observed a Goliath Grouper, not really big, more than a 100lbs, less than 200lbs. Visibility made trying to obtain images of either the Goliath or Eagle Ray pointless. Did a REEF fish survey, 45 species in 65 minutes. Visibility is definitely a factor in the amount of species counted on a particular dive.
The prescription lens mask worked out fairly well. My normal glasses have progressive lens. However, the place that makes the lens for the mask (Prescription Dive Mask), highly recommends bifocals instead of progressive lens for mask. So it just takes a little practice switching line of sight between the distance portion, and close up portion of the bifocals. Besides the getting used to them, the lens are a drastic improvement over not having them. I was really tired of squinting through a magnifying glass for small objects.
I wanted to address the above discussion vis-a-vis the presence or absence of Red Lionfish at BHB. Instead of using anecdotal information, the REEF database can be queried for a better quantification. At present there are 2664 REEF surveys completed for BHB. Sighting frequency of Red Lionfish for all surveys is 11.67%. However if I do a query of the 280 surveys done since 1/1/23 to present the sighting frequency is 24.64%. This makes sense given that Red Lionfish didn't start showing up at the bridge until 13 years or so ago. If I query just the surveys I have done, starting from late 1990s, and just this year the numbers are similar, 13.1% for all surveys, 25.1% for this year. My observation of Red Lionfish at BHB, is that the larger ones, remain well hidden, and the smaller ones are more out in the open. If I went looking specifically for Red Lionfish, I could guarantee at least one (big) in the south rock piles on the snorkeler trail. I could guarantee at least two more among the odd shaped modules on the snorkel trail. I can guarantee at least one, in the rubble pile under the pier, at least two more in the main bridge pilings (west side), at least another in the pilings of channel barrier on the westside, and at least one more in the rip-rap pile at the northwest corner of the park. I have counted as many as four on one survey. Red Lionfish are omnipresent at BHB, just not in great numbers. Furthermore, if I do similar queries of LBTS the Red Lionfish sighting frequency is low 1.3%. Leads me to believe that Lionfish do not have an affinity for shallow water, and is why BHB is not completely overrun with them.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I found a new fish observation wise for BHB and the REEF database, back sometime when Scubaboard was migrating to the new server, and never reported it here. Depending on where you look the common name is Cutlass Fish, or Largehead Hairtail. If you look on inaturalist.org you can see plenty of observations, but they are all of fish that have been caught, and thusly out of the water. The image I managed to get was not very good, because they are rather shy and move away quickly. Nevertheless, its always cool to add a new fish species to the number observed at BHB. Respectively, Cutlassfish, Lionfish Images From Aug and Sept.
Entered on the west side and immediately observed a Spotted Eagle Ray. Made my way to the first set of bridge pilings and observed a Goliath Grouper, not really big, more than a 100lbs, less than 200lbs. Visibility made trying to obtain images of either the Goliath or Eagle Ray pointless. Did a REEF fish survey, 45 species in 65 minutes. Visibility is definitely a factor in the amount of species counted on a particular dive.
The prescription lens mask worked out fairly well. My normal glasses have progressive lens. However, the place that makes the lens for the mask (Prescription Dive Mask), highly recommends bifocals instead of progressive lens for mask. So it just takes a little practice switching line of sight between the distance portion, and close up portion of the bifocals. Besides the getting used to them, the lens are a drastic improvement over not having them. I was really tired of squinting through a magnifying glass for small objects.
I wanted to address the above discussion vis-a-vis the presence or absence of Red Lionfish at BHB. Instead of using anecdotal information, the REEF database can be queried for a better quantification. At present there are 2664 REEF surveys completed for BHB. Sighting frequency of Red Lionfish for all surveys is 11.67%. However if I do a query of the 280 surveys done since 1/1/23 to present the sighting frequency is 24.64%. This makes sense given that Red Lionfish didn't start showing up at the bridge until 13 years or so ago. If I query just the surveys I have done, starting from late 1990s, and just this year the numbers are similar, 13.1% for all surveys, 25.1% for this year. My observation of Red Lionfish at BHB, is that the larger ones, remain well hidden, and the smaller ones are more out in the open. If I went looking specifically for Red Lionfish, I could guarantee at least one (big) in the south rock piles on the snorkeler trail. I could guarantee at least two more among the odd shaped modules on the snorkel trail. I can guarantee at least one, in the rubble pile under the pier, at least two more in the main bridge pilings (west side), at least another in the pilings of channel barrier on the westside, and at least one more in the rip-rap pile at the northwest corner of the park. I have counted as many as four on one survey. Red Lionfish are omnipresent at BHB, just not in great numbers. Furthermore, if I do similar queries of LBTS the Red Lionfish sighting frequency is low 1.3%. Leads me to believe that Lionfish do not have an affinity for shallow water, and is why BHB is not completely overrun with them.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I found a new fish observation wise for BHB and the REEF database, back sometime when Scubaboard was migrating to the new server, and never reported it here. Depending on where you look the common name is Cutlass Fish, or Largehead Hairtail. If you look on inaturalist.org you can see plenty of observations, but they are all of fish that have been caught, and thusly out of the water. The image I managed to get was not very good, because they are rather shy and move away quickly. Nevertheless, its always cool to add a new fish species to the number observed at BHB. Respectively, Cutlassfish, Lionfish Images From Aug and Sept.
