Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[Pipehorse]

I have been somewhat remiss on posting dive reports lately. Out of the last 50 days I have been diving on 40 of them, including an 8 day trip to Costa Rica, a dive report of which I still have not posted. By the time I enter REEF surveys, go through images that I have taken, do all my household chores (we have a lot of animals, they all need to be fed), workout, and get ready to go diving the next day I am spent for the day. Not complaining, I would hope any retired person has as full a day as I do.

Went to the bridge for diving this morning. Was also at the bridge for diving on Monday and Tuesday. Park was not crowded on Monday and Tuesday when I arrived ahead a 14:30 and 15:30 high tide respectively. It did fill up some by the time I got out of the water, but given that school started in Palm Beach County this week, I am sure it kept the crowd down. This morning tide was at 0730, I just couldn't get moving so didn't arrive until 0745. I was pleasantly to surprised to find and uncrowded park, with not that many divers in the water.

Monday and Tuesday visibility was 25ft, with 86f sea temp. Today visibility 20ft, with 84f sea temp. Spent a lot of time in algae patches searching for nudibranchs. Two species showing up ifrequently are Warty Baeilidia, and Elysia zuliecae. Did manage to observe a Lined Sole, more than a few Emerald Nerite (a species that had evaded me for a long time), and a Serate Arrow Shrimp.

On another note, I did dives on the beach in Deerfield and Singer Island this week. Saw a Manta Ray in 7 feet of water in Deerfield. Unfortunately was not able to get my camera on it in time for a decent exposure or video .

Respectively, Elysisa zuliecae, Lined Sole, Serrate Arrow Shrimp, Emerald Nerite, and Smallmouth Grunts.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving Monday, Tuesday, and today. For approximate respective tides of 0800, 0900, and 1000. Arrived by 0720 all three mornings. The park was not crowded, and remained uncrowded, even on Tuesday despite school being out for election day. Visibility in 30ft-40ft range all days with blue but cloudy water, sea temp holding steady at 84f.

Snorkeled the trail prior to diving on Tuesday, and Wednesday. Did REEF surveys while snorkeling the trail. I have been intently searching for nudibranchs of late. Thing is, whenever I go searching with high specificity in mind, I am pleasantly surprised with a species I was not searching for at all. I have been finding many nudibranchs, but today I observed a Goby unknown to me. If I wasn't looking so closely I would have said it was a Spottail Goby, and been done with it. But I was looking closely, so it doesn't quite fit match what a Spottail Goby, or any other Goby I know of looks like. Also observed Blue Spot Hermit Crab today and Monday, a species I had not observed before. Always something new and interesting to be found, even after 1600 hours of bottom time there. Respectively, Unknown Goby, Blue Spot Hermit, Lobiger souverbii, Cone Eubranchus, and Doto genus, species unknown

 

[PBcatfish]

Yesterday, vis just south of BHB remained good for several hours past high tide. I can only assume that the locks are not passing a lot of Lake O water down this way at this time. It was a great day to go for a swim or dive.

 

[MrChen]

I dove the bridge yesterday with @SubNeo. We had 10ft of vis and 82 degree water temp. There were 2 VERY large out of town dive groups diving that day. Fortunately, we never saw them.

I was having a heck of a time navigating the snorkel trail. The current was pushing north and even though I was navigating east, I was also getting pushed off the trail. I overcompensated to the south and when we got to the east boat dock area, we were further south than I recognized. Michael always does trash cleanup and we landed on the motherload of trash. We filled his bag up with beer cans, rags, misc rubber, broken glass, and other misc items. From there we went north to the bridge and to the west side. I was jump scared by a stargazer that I was swimming over. Then we had a southern ray swim past us. We cleaned out a bunch of fishing line, hooks, and weights from the rocks. From there we headed south and exited.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0640 for a 0704 high tide. Most if not all southern facing parking spaces were taken. Though, when I entered the water at 0710 I did not see more than five flags in total. I think most of that parking were people going out in boats, and not divers. Sea temp 84f, visibility about twenty feet.

Intended to shot with LX10 in the Nauticam housing, but I had left the pressure port cap sitting on my desk at home. However I always take the Sealife Sportdiver housing for iphone with me so I switched to it. Recently bought an attachment that fits on the front, and can hold a wet macro lens. Went looking for macro subjects. Did not get out of the water until 0945, the diminishing visibility from what was not good to begin with made little difference, since I was concentrating on macro. Been trying to bump of my count of nudibranch species lately. Found four different species today. I found two specimens of Sargassum Spurilla, the only one of the four species new to me. Sargassum Spurilla look a lot like the more commonly occurring Long-Eared Favorinus. But if you look closely there is a bulb like shape on the rhinopore of the Favorinus missing in the Spurilla. Did a REEF fish survey of 40 species, low count from being distracted by smaller subjects. Respectively, Sargassum Spurilla First Specimen, Sargassum Spurilla Second Specimen, Long-eared Favorinus, Brittle Star (species unknown to me), Juvenile Scrawled Cowfish.

 

[Johnoly]

... the Sealife Sportdiver housing for iphone

I'm seeing MANY more Iphone housings on the charter boats. The pictures right out of the camera with zero post processing and large file size is making DSLR cameras obsolete. The Iphone picts you posted are excellent quality!

 

[mattfish]

The divevolk housing is even better than the sport diver since you can use any of the camera apps, apple’s own, or the fancy ones that let you have more manual control. If you have an iPhone 15 you can capture 48MP raw if you like to manually edit post-capture

 

[MrChen]

For those who don't know, Carol Woodward, known to many of us as Dive Diva, passed away last week. Her husband Jim is a SB member, goes by Jimw. He used to be very active in this very chat. When I first started diving, I posted in the BHB Trolls thread asking for a buddy and he invited me to dive with them.

I adopted Carol and Jim as my Scuba mom and dad. I would introduce her to others as my scuba mom. We've grown the scuba family out with several other scuba brothers/sisters and over time, Carol became known as Scuba mom to others outside of the group.

She reliably scheduled annual trips to Bonaire and in retirement, started guiding for Pura Vida. She was a regular at BHB and she will be missed.

I took Jim out to lunch yesterday and invited the core scuba kid group. Joy and Brenda (both SB members) were able to join us. It felt good getting him out of the house and sharing memories.

 

[MrChen]

For those who know Carol, aka Dive Diva, aka Scuba Mom, Jim has scheduled a dive and eat memorial at the bridge on November 2nd. HT is 9:32am. If you know Carol or not, I guarantee someone you know knows her. Come out and dive with us and join us in remembering someone who touched a lot of lives at the bridge.

 

[MrChen]

I'm also looking for ideas to make the day more special.