Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[Scuba_Jenny]

Gear is scattered all over the living room floor will finish packing first thing in the AM. This talk of “cold” water at 74 still sounds good to me. We don’t have snow on the ground here, but hard frosts at night. Florida here we come!!

Keep in touch with the group! Would love to meet up with ya!

 

[Jaan]

I've managed to sample just about every respiratory bug that is floating around since New Years, one more nasty than the next, (so do be careful coming up @Green Frog). We do Miss those critters and thanks to everyone for sharing.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Bummer to hear that Jaan, hope you're feeling better soon. Good news, if it is, is that the water is cold and you're not missing much

 

[Green Frog]

We plan to be in the parking lot @ Phil Foster Park about 9:00 AM Monday in preparation for the high tide coming a few minutes after 11:00. There will be 4-6 of us from Central VA, looking all wide eyed and excited. I think this will be the first visit to BHB for any of us. Are any of you ”regulars” planning on being there Monday?
BTW, this will be the first trip for my camera rig discussed elsewhere. My SeaLife Micro 3.0 now has the SL closeup lens, the middle sized Suptig video light (36 LEDs), and a one piece aluminum tray and arm by Natefemin. Fooling with it at home, it makes a nice, compact package that is easy to manipulate. I’m anxious to actually get the complete setup into the water!

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0715 for a 0930 high tide. It was not crowded when I arrived. Walked east in order to snorkel the trail west before diving. Did a REEF fish survey of 49 species in 45 minutes. More divers had arrived by then but I guess the windy weather kept all but divers away from the park so it was not overly crowded.

We had an uncharacteristic SW wind this morning. I believe the wind is what accounted for the unusually strong current this morning. Yes of course there is always a current before and after the tide. but this was out of the ordinary. Many times when I enter on the west side I head towards the west end of the snorkel trail (cross current) and then drift back into the bridge pilings. Today even the cross current was difficult to navigate, so I capitulated and immediately drifted into the bridge pilings. With a normal current I can use the bridge pilings strategically because counter currents exist that allow moving with ease in the opposite direction of the current, but not today. The water was just blasting between the pilings so all I could do is stay behind them, or do the best I could cross current moving from one set of pilings to the next. Sea temp was 74f and visibility was 40ft. Visibility remained high and the water remained blue at least two hours after the tide had changed.

The best find of the day was four Orange Filefish. According to the REEF database they are seen in .3% of surveys for the Tropical Western Atlantic Area, and .5% of the surveys from Jupiter Inlet to the Florida Keys.
It is usually difficult to get good images of Orange Filefish, because they generally move away from divers. For whatever reason they were not concerned with my presence today. I normally post a variety of images from the dive, but today it is nothing but Orange Filefish. They have a very prehistoric look about them. An the orange coloring on their sides is iridescent to say the least.

 

[Johnoly]

Visibility remained high and the water remained blue at least two hours after the tide had changed.

Nice to see/hear of that sweet blue viz !! It will hopefully make it easy to see the incoming BHB manatee's as the air temps plummet this week and they show up in crowds around the corner at the free lagoon. Great Filefish picts !!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I saw pics from yesterday.. lots of manatees and spotted eagle rays

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving. Arrived at 0750 for a 1021 high tide, the park was not crowded. I did not snorkel before diving because of the rain and cooler air temps than yesterday. Entered the west side a 0900, hit the west side of the snorkel trail first and proceeded to the area of algae and bryozoan patches directly west of the snorkel trail and south of the bridge.

Visibility was outstanding today at 50ft. Sea temp holding steady at 74f. Did a REEF fish survey of 62 species in 70 minutes. I did not find any out of the ordinary fish today. I did find some species of Spaghetti Worm that was out its hole, a Spiny Jewel Box, and Spotted Eagle Ray. I heard a report from a Pura Vida dive instructor of 20 Spotted Eagle Rays on the east side yesterday. The most I have every seen at one time is 6. Respectively, Sand Perch, Spotfin Butterfly, Orangespot Goby, Spaghetti Worm, and Spiny Jewel Box.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I was at the bridge this Sat & Sun as well. Those strong SW winds & stronger than usual current Sat were something else! I had to fin against it coming back from the N side of the E span 15 min after high tide. I was thinking to myself, ‘this is odd!’

I did see 4-5 eagle rays both Sat & Sun on the east side.

The rain this morning made gearing up less than fun but the diving was awesome!

 

[ShallowSeasGallery]

I think the strong South Winds this weekend brought blue water and delayed the feel of the tide change a bit. 2:46 dive time Saturday and 2:37 dive time Sunday and both days were still very calm 1.5 hours after the predicted high tide.