Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[Pipehorse]

In my original post I stated that I wasn't sure. The markings on the right fish looked more like gag to me & the tail fin on the left fish didn't show the spikes that I normally see on a scamp, so I asked if that possibility had been considered. Someone who watched the fish for several seconds is going to have had a much better look at the fish than someone who is looking at a single picture. I do not consider myself to be in a reasonable position to argue that the fish were gags. I was just asking the question. I appreciate the response that was given.

They were very nice pictures. I'm not a biologist.

It’s all good, I immensely enjoy identifying fish while diving and consider myself relatively good at it. Questions about how I arrived at an identification are always welcome.
P.S. You don’t have to be a biologist to be good at fish I’d, Paul Humann was an attorney when he started taking fish pics.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Thanks for helping ME ID the difference between scamp and grouper. The radiating eye pattern and the tail.. big help!

 

[Pipehorse]

Thanks for helping ME ID the difference between scamp and grouper. The radiating eye pattern and the tail.. big help!

You’re welcome!

 

[Pipehorse]

Did a REEF fish count today 71 species in 65 minutes. I have a D300 in an Ikelite housing, and a D800 in an Ikelite housing with all the associated strobes, arms, lights, snoots, and ports. I got tired of carrying them around on dives. So I did my diving without a camera for a while, which is not really satisfying, and prevents image documentation of unusual species. So I used a Gopro for a while and found it small to be practical. So I bought a Sealife Sportdiver and put my iphone 12max pro in it, without any lighting. It has some limitations, but dollar for dollar I have say its a great value. Respectively, Spotfin Butterfyfish, Slender Filefish, and Southern Stingray.

 

[Pipehorse]

Did a REEF fish count today, 75 species in sixty minutes. Current was particularly strong today on the west side, as it has been for the last three days due to king tides. One benefit of the king tides, even after tide turns slack and goes the other way the water still stays relatively blue. I seemed to have the whole west side to myself, unusual given the amount of divers at the bridge today.
About twenty-five years ago, I was lying in the sand taking pictures of some fish under a ledge, and felt something hitting against my fins. Turned around to see Spadefish one after another turning sideways to rub against my fins. It was not a one off, I have seen them do this again and again, see the video below of today at the bridge. Has anybody ever observed this? Try it sometime see what happens.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Did a REEF fish count today, 75 species in sixty minutes. Current was particularly strong today on the west side, as it has been for the last three days due to king tides. One benefit of the king tides, even after tide turns slack and goes the other way the water still stays relatively blue. I seemed to have the whole west side to myself, unusual given the amount of divers at the bridge today.
About twenty-five years ago, I was lying in the sand taking pictures of some fish under a ledge, and felt something hitting against my fins. Turned around to see Spadefish one after another turning sideways to rub against my fins. It was not a one off, I have seen them do this again and again, see the video below of today at the bridge. Has anybody ever observed this? Try it sometime see what happens.

Yup. They do this out on the reefs offshore too. It’s always cool!!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Did a REEF fish count today, 75 species in sixty minutes. Current was particularly strong today on the west side, as it has been for the last three days due to king tides. One benefit of the king tides, even after tide turns slack and goes the other way the water still stays relatively blue. I seemed to have the whole west side to myself, unusual given the amount of divers at the bridge today.
About twenty-five years ago, I was lying in the sand taking pictures of some fish under a ledge, and felt something hitting against my fins. Turned around to see Spadefish one after another turning sideways to rub against my fins. It was not a one off, I have seen them do this again and again, see the video below of today at the bridge. Has anybody ever observed this? Try it sometime see what happens.

I love it when they do that..

Was gonna hit the bridge today, but then.. noon high tide, get there 3 hours early, means leaving 4.5 hours before high tide..
pass...

 

[Pipehorse]

I love it when they do that..

Was gonna hit the bridge today, but then.. noon high tide, get there 3 hours early, means leaving 4.5 hours before high tide..
pass...

It was a little bit less crowded today, you could have arrived 2.5 hours early and still had a parking space.

 

[dianna912]

Hi BHB trolls! I hope it is okay for me to post this here: we have started a BHB project on iNaturalist to document the diodiversity of the site. It was suggested that this could help with future protection efforts for the bridge.

If you are on iNaturalist already, feel free to join the project. Any observations from the bridge should show up in the project automatically, but do watch the size of your “certainty circle” because if it is too big, it won’t be included. I made it a pretty large area to try to catch everything I could, but it still can miss some observations.

If you haven’t ever used iNaturalist, it is an amazing tool. You upload photos of your observations and then pick the species you think it is. If you don’t know, then you can go all the way up to “family.” Citizen scientists and pro scientists (Terry Gosliner is even on there!) will agree or offer alternatives. It’s been really fun to learn about taxonomy and I’ve had some great conversations with fellow macro hunters!

Anyways, check it out: The Blue Heron Bridge Project

 

[Catito]

Did a REEF fish count today, 75 species in sixty minutes. Current was particularly strong today on the west side, as it has been for the last three days due to king tides. One benefit of the king tides, even after tide turns slack and goes the other way the water still stays relatively blue. I seemed to have the whole west side to myself, unusual given the amount of divers at the bridge today.
About twenty-five years ago, I was lying in the sand taking pictures of some fish under a ledge, and felt something hitting against my fins. Turned around to see Spadefish one after another turning sideways to rub against my fins. It was not a one off, I have seen them do this again and again, see the video below of today at the bridge. Has anybody ever observed this? Try it sometime see what happens.

I have a video at 60 ft of a school of spadefish doing the same on the sand bottom. This summer off Palm Beach.