Went to the bridge yesterday and Thursday for diving. It was crowded both days. Sheriff was chasing people away wanting to park in trailer spaces on Thursday. On Friday there was no sheriff so those spaces were all occupied by cars. Just so we are clear I am referring to the 19 trailer spaces in that center aisle, not the whole rest of trailer parking. Maybe because of the how the lots are separated people understand the larger trailer parking is not for cars without trailers.
It seemed that there were way more divers on Thursday than Friday. 40ft of vis on Thursday with sea temp at 76-77f. 50ft of vis on Friday with 76-77f temperatures. Still using a 5mm with a beanie hoodie and I was quite cold after both dives, albeit both dives were 150 minutes long.
Snorkeled the trail on both days prior to diving. Did REEF surveys while snorkeling the trail on both days. On Friday while snorkeling observed a Caribbean Reef Squid that unconcerned with my presence. Later while on scuba I went back to get video of the same squid. It was busy enthralling snorkelers with its presence. I have seen this species do some instantaneous color changes that would put human generated light shows to shame. However for whatever reason this particular specimen was less flashy than usual.
Another interesting find on Friday was also from Phylum Mollusca as well. At first it looked like some sought of sponge to me. Up close observation revealed that it was some sought of egg sac. I posted the image on inaturalist.com and sent a message to another BHB diver who happens to be excellent at identifying difficult to identify "stuff".
Was informed by her that it was the egg tower of a Scotch Bonnet Snail.
Beyond never having observed this before I most impressed with how the top was squared off and how it formed a cylindrical shape. While the geometry of any species of gastropod shell is impressive, it usually about curves not necessarily straight lines or geometric shapes that human beings would necessarily make.
It was approximately 75cm high and 75cm diameter.
Side view to the right, top down view below
I feel like a bit of traitor for this post as I am only displaying invertebrates and no fish. I did do REEF surveys on scuba both days I dived. There two other interesting invertebrate finds on the dive Thursday. A pair of
Yellowline flabellina and an unidentified species of Sea Spider. Yellowline Flabellina are relatively common at the bridge, and similar in appearance to its cousin
Dushia flabellina the most common occurring nudibranch species at the bridge according to the Sea Slugs of Florida project on Inaturalist.com. Respectively below
Yellowline Flabellina and Unidentied Sea Spider.
Boats with trailers pay a fee. No parking for cars is enforced 7 days a week.
No parking for those trailer spaces is "enforceable" 7 days a week. It has been my observation over the last four years that it is rarely "enforced" during weekdays (until recently), and usually but not always "enforced" on weekends. So Thursday a sheriff was there, Friday a sheriff was not. Not sure having a sheriff guard 19 parking spaces that would not be used by trailers during the week anyway is an appropriate allocation of resource. Perhaps the park ranger instead. Or perhaps a parking enforcement person that gets paid 1/3 of what a sheriff makes. Or perhaps its just a waste of time and not worth enforcing at all.
Some other facts to consider. There are 206 car parking spaces, and 127 vehicle/boat trailer spaces. Given that a vehicle and trailer take up twice as much space as a just vehicle that amounts to 254 car parking spaces. The whole park is about ten acres, boat trailer space takes up 2.25 acres, car parking about 1.5 acres. There is 24 hour access for boat trailers not so for "just" vehicles. The fee for boat trailers is $10/24hours.
