Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[MrChen]

Dove Jan 8, 2024 with my cousin Jared on the east side. 74 degrees again. The cold really starts to get to you after an hour.

 

[Green Frog]

@Pipehorse I missed your question about Pompano. We got there Friday and the group dove Saturday and Sunday. I was still a little wound up from the trip Saturday (long story) so I sat it out, but we went out Sunday and had a good dive on one of the several artificial wrecks there. One dive was “all the fun I could stand” but the rest of the group had a pretty good drift dive after. The rest of the day was the drive up to Riviera beach. You know what happened Monday morning, then it was off for a leisurely trip home. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, especially for the relatively lousy weather that should be expected in January.
This was my first meeting with my dive buddy, a native born Floridian now living near me in VA. We seemed to get along pretty well and are already planning a July trip to Key Largo then back up the East Coast, diving along the way.

 

[Pipehorse]

@that's because it's a dotterel filefish!
Shorefishes - Random Images (lol, my photo!)

I considered it might be a Dotterel Filefish, but still think it is a Juvenile Scrawled Filefish because of the concavity of the forehead.


Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 1045 for a 12:45 high tide. The park was not crowded, and remained that way for entirety of my visit there today. When I arrived it was overcast, it is starting to feel like the Pacific Northwest as opposed to Atlantic Southeast. Entered to east in order to do the snorkel trail on snorkel before diving. Visibility was close 50 feet, sea temp at 75f, and the current was moderate. Did a REEF fish survey of 56 species in 50 minutes. Low and behold the overcast sky had burnt off by the time I finished snorkeling, it remained bright and sunny for the rest of the day.

Entered the water on scuba on the west side, made my way slowly east in shallow water searching algae patches for macro opportunities. Hoping for maybe some smaller seahorses that like to hide in algae but no such look. Did a REEF fish survey of 52 species in 65 minutes. When I reached the eastside I looped around to the south and headed west along the snorkel trail. Normally at this time (an hour after the tide had changed) the snorkel trail is a real mess visibility wise, but with so few people at the park today, visibility remained excellent. The rock piles on the eastern part of the snorkel trail do have tend to have a ton fish in and around them, more so than then the modules on the west side of the snorkel trail. Though I have been very pleased with the performance of the LX-10 I acquired a while ago, without an external wide angle port, I could not do justice to how many fish were piled up today. We will be back tomorrow and Friday, hoping the viz holds up. Looks like we are in for some heavy wind this weekend. Respectively, Bridled Goby, Juvenile Trunkfish, Mangrove Jelly, Rosy Blenny, and White Grunt.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I considered it might be a Dotterel Filefish, but still think it is a Juvenile Scrawled Filefish because of the concavity of the forehead.

My understanding it the lack of black spots makes it a dotterel.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I considered it might be a Dotterel Filefish, but still think it is a Juvenile Scrawled Filefish because of the concavity of the forehead.

My understanding it the lack of black spots makes it a dotterel.

My guess is that one of you is right.

 

[MrChen]

I had an amazing dive with @Scuba_Jenny and @SubNeo yesterday morning (Sunday). HT was just shy of 10am. I arrived around 8:30am and the parking lot was filling to the middle area. We decided to West. Water temp hopped between 76 and 77 on my dive log. Vis was around 25ft. All I can say is wow, what a dive. We found 6 frogfish, 4 seahorses, several nudis, sea hare, and 3 octopus. I took over 200 photos, which is more than I've taken a in a long while. I haven't done an ID on all of these yet and wanted to get photos up to share.

Juvenile straited frogfish

Straited frogfish

Sargassum frogfish

Dwarf frogfish 1

Dwarf frogfish 2

 

[MrChen]

Dwarf frogfish 3

Seahorse 1

Seahorse 2

Seahorse 3

Seahorse 4

 

[MrChen]

Octopus

Octopus

Seahare

Nudi

Nudi

 

[MrChen]

 

[Johnoly]

, and 3 octopus.

Great Octo shots !!