ShallowSeasGallery
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I noticed that there is at least one squat urchin shrimp (Gnathophylloides mineri) lurking on your stacked variegated urchins. I'm finding that these guys are way more common than they get credit for.
Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III
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Yes, it was. On every dive at the bridge, I've been checking at least a dozen urchins. Usually, I find bumble bee shrimps, but could not find a squat urchin shrimp. When I saw them on this last dive, they were easy enough to spot. If they are as common as shallowseagallery suggests, then either I was missing them (very possible) or very unlucky. Gabriel Jensen was posting pics of them regularly, he's the one who told me how to find them. He said he'd point some out to me, but on those dives where we were in the same area, he said he didn't find any.
@ShallowSeasGallery Gabriel?
@Scuba_Jenny I'm here to officially state that I told you on the phone, that, let me quote, "you were right."
The do not submerge area in front of the lifeguard station does not extend as far west as I thought it did.
The do not submerge area in front of the lifeguard station does not extend as far west as I thought it did.
My cousin and I dove last night (Friday), HT was 7:45pm. For him, it was his first dive in 59 days. He travels down from SC every few months to dive. There was maybe a grand total of 10 divers who braved showing up. The manatee cam looked bleak 3 hours prior to HT. About 1.5 hrs prior to HT, it started raining. The wind was blowing really hard, easily 20+mph. The water looked angry with small waves crashing against the bridge pillars. Water temp was 76 degrees, but felt colder than that, maybe because the sun wasn't out. Visibility, drum roll, was 10-15 ft. My cousin was a hound dog looking for critters. He found the first seahorse and he later found a frogfish. I found another seahorse and frogfish (both striated). We exited a just short of 2 hours. I was cold and ready to get out. It was raining hard when we finished our dive, and the raindrops were cold. By the time we got out of our wetsuits, into our clothes, and in the truck, we were so wet it looked like we dove in our clothes.
There is a very fine line between crazy and adventurous! Glad you got a dive in. Glad I didn't join ya!
I dove the bridge this morning right at sunrise. Park was maybe 10% full. Hardly saw another diver underwater. Viz was 10-20’, 74-75 F temps. I love diving BHB as the sun is coming up!
It was windy & cloudy but no rain. Winds had died quite a bit & shifted to out of the west throughout my 2h7m dive. Offshore conditions look much better this afternoon & tomorrow morning before getting rough again tomorrow afternoon.
It was windy & cloudy but no rain. Winds had died quite a bit & shifted to out of the west throughout my 2h7m dive. Offshore conditions look much better this afternoon & tomorrow morning before getting rough again tomorrow afternoon.
Went to the bridge for diving yesterday and today. Arrived kind of late with respect to the high tide on both days. Not crowded yesterday, and more people than I would expect today with an air temp of 62f. But if they are mostly tourists, maybe not a deterrent. Sea temp still holding at 73f, visibility yesterday of 15 feet, with improvement today out to 30ft. I am ready for temps to start moving up a little, was shivering the whole dive.
I was intrigued by @MrChen finding the elusive Squat Urchin Shrimp. Not only because it is a very tiny and interesting critter to observe, but also for the fact that I have been observing a population explosion of Variegated Sea Urchins lately, or so it seems. This is completely anecdotal because I have no hard data for the amount of Variegated Sea Urchins on a given dive, like I do for fish. Anyway my thought is, if the Squat Urchin Shrimp are commensal with Variegated Sea Urchins, then the more urchins the more shrimp. Entered the westside, cut the corner around the retaining wall and worked my way north of the pier. Did a REEF survey of 62 species in 65 minutes. Worked my way to a point just east of the channel while staying north of the fishing pier. Sorry for the quality of the image below but it does illustrate the amount of Variegated Sea Urchins.
If the visibility is thirty feet and we make a thirty by thirty foot box, I would say a couple hundred per box.
I did not find any Squat Urchin Shrimp when I first started looking, because I found a Bumblebee Shrimp on a Slate Pencil Urchin. Somewhat of a much easier find than the Squat Urchin Shrimp.
As I have mentioned prior, I was shivering the whole dive, and have a problem concentrating on micro macro when I am that cold. So I moved on with the dive heading south now between channel barrier and wall stanchion. I reach the south end of the stanchion and loiter in that general area for a while. Always a good place for uncommon to rare fish. There are not as many urchins as a little to the north, but more than what I would consider an normal amount.
About to head back east to finish the dive, but before I do so, I check one more purple colored urchin. And to my delight there is and elusive Squat Urchin Shrimp. It was very shy, and would not show itself entirely, however you can see an eye, and a small claw just right of center frame.
Lastly I include a picture of a very interesting looking Sea Cucumber (exact species to be determined), found inside one of the modules on the snorkel trail yesterday.
I was intrigued by @MrChen finding the elusive Squat Urchin Shrimp. Not only because it is a very tiny and interesting critter to observe, but also for the fact that I have been observing a population explosion of Variegated Sea Urchins lately, or so it seems. This is completely anecdotal because I have no hard data for the amount of Variegated Sea Urchins on a given dive, like I do for fish. Anyway my thought is, if the Squat Urchin Shrimp are commensal with Variegated Sea Urchins, then the more urchins the more shrimp. Entered the westside, cut the corner around the retaining wall and worked my way north of the pier. Did a REEF survey of 62 species in 65 minutes. Worked my way to a point just east of the channel while staying north of the fishing pier. Sorry for the quality of the image below but it does illustrate the amount of Variegated Sea Urchins.
If the visibility is thirty feet and we make a thirty by thirty foot box, I would say a couple hundred per box.
I did not find any Squat Urchin Shrimp when I first started looking, because I found a Bumblebee Shrimp on a Slate Pencil Urchin. Somewhat of a much easier find than the Squat Urchin Shrimp.
As I have mentioned prior, I was shivering the whole dive, and have a problem concentrating on micro macro when I am that cold. So I moved on with the dive heading south now between channel barrier and wall stanchion. I reach the south end of the stanchion and loiter in that general area for a while. Always a good place for uncommon to rare fish. There are not as many urchins as a little to the north, but more than what I would consider an normal amount.
About to head back east to finish the dive, but before I do so, I check one more purple colored urchin. And to my delight there is and elusive Squat Urchin Shrimp. It was very shy, and would not show itself entirely, however you can see an eye, and a small claw just right of center frame.
Lastly I include a picture of a very interesting looking Sea Cucumber (exact species to be determined), found inside one of the modules on the snorkel trail yesterday.
How about these -... But please keep feeding my “Jones” for more sights from BHB.
Best regards,
First sighting reported in January of 2022 & not seen since
Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III
Nice shot of the black seahorse. I was there on Thursday. By the time I saw the seahorse it had enough of flashes and photographers. Turned its back on me numerous times. I think I got one half way decent shot before I gave up and let it have some peace. Course there were two other photogs...
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