Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

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...I saw some movement in the gravel, it turned out to be an Arrow Stargazer. Similar to its much larger cousins it has an ability to bury itself in the sand/gravel in an instant. It just slides into the gravel making the observer wonder it they actually saw anything. The one I found was cooperative today, allowed me to get some exposures before it disappeared for good. ...

Be careful around those things. They are both venomous & shocking. The venom is in the same class as scorpion fish, stone fish, & lion fish. The jolt is said to be about 50 volts, which can be enough to cause problems for a diver. When I have caught those while fishing, I have just cut the line, rather than bring them into the boat to recover the hook.
 
Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0725 for 0738 high tide, the park was not crowded, and not many divers were in the water. Entered the westside at 0745, sea temp 76f, with 30ft visibility. Did a REEF fish count of 62 species in 60 minutes. I seem to be running into more and bigger lionfish. In the past most Lionfish I would see at the bridge were small. Less than 5-6 inches. I always thought they preferred water a little deeper than the depths at the bridge, and would clear out once they got bigger. Now I am seeing bigger ones, and you know they are just having a feast on some of these indigenous fish. One I saw today in the rubble pile under the pier was something you would expect under a ledge at sixty feet in the ocean. For sure the find of the day was a Webbed Burrfish. Striped Burrfish are relatively common, they occur on 8% of the REEF surveys or about once in 12 dives. Webbed Burrfish are uncommon, they occur on .5% of the REEF surveys, or about once in every 200 dives. Camouflage on the Lined Seahorses seems to get more intricate by the day, either that, or I have just become more adept at picking up there shape, camouflage notwithstanding. Respectively, Barred Blenny, Barred Eye Hermit Crab Resting on Cushion Sea Star, Lined Seahorse 1-3, Red Lionfish, and Webbed Burrfish. No, I did not pick up the Hermit Crab and put it on the Sea Star.
03-06-23 Barred Blenny.jpeg
03-06-23 Barred Eye Hermit.jpeg
03-06-23 Lined Seahorse.jpeg
03-06-23 Lined Seahorse1.jpeg
03-06-23 Lined Seahorse2.jpeg
03-06-23 Red Lionfish.jpeg
03-06-23 Webbed Burrfish.jpeg
 
I made it to the bridge tonight 3/6, night dive sponsored by Force-E. Water temp was 77. I would guess vis was around 15-20ft, hard to tell if better since I'm not using really bright lights. I stuck around the beach area looking in the muck. I found 5 of the nudi below, they were maybe 2mm long and extremely difficult to photograph. One of the bumblebee shrimps had a really interesting pattern, dotted lines. I don't normally crop pictures, but I just couldn't get close enough to the bumblebee shrimps to fill the frame because they kept moving and I wanted to show off the patterns.

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Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0725 for 0738 high tide, the park was not crowded, and not many divers were in the water. Entered the westside at 0745, sea temp 76f, with 30ft visibility. Did a REEF fish count of 62 species in 60 minutes. I seem to be running into more and bigger lionfish. In the past most Lionfish I would see at the bridge were small. Less than 5-6 inches. I always thought they preferred water a little deeper than the depths at the bridge, and would clear out once they got bigger. Now I am seeing bigger ones, and you know they are just having a feast on some of these indigenous fish. One I saw today in the rubble pile under the pier was something you would expect under a ledge at sixty feet in the ocean. For sure the find of the day was a Webbed Burrfish. Striped Burrfish are relatively common, they occur on 8% of the REEF surveys or about once in 12 dives. Webbed Burrfish are uncommon, they occur on .5% of the REEF surveys, or about once in every 200 dives. Camouflage on the Lined Seahorses seems to get more intricate by the day, either that, or I have just become more adept at picking up there shape, camouflage notwithstanding. Respectively, Barred Blenny, Barred Eye Hermit Crab Resting on Cushion Sea Star, Lined Seahorse 1-3, Red Lionfish, and Webbed Burrfish. No, I did not pick up the Hermit Crab and put it on the Sea Star.View attachment 773158View attachment 773159View attachment 773160View attachment 773161View attachment 773162View attachment 773163View attachment 773164
WOW! Those are some small seahorses!!! I love the lined and all the appendages/filiments, the curvy shape, and their head structure. All different than the longsnout. Granted, I'm happy finding longsnouts.
 
I made it to the bridge tonight 3/6, night dive sponsored by Force-E. Water temp was 77. I would guess vis was around 15-20ft, hard to tell if better since I'm not using really bright lights. I stuck around the beach area looking in the muck. I found 5 of the nudi below, they were maybe 2mm long and extremely difficult to photograph. One of the bumblebee shrimps had a really interesting pattern, dotted lines. I don't normally crop pictures, but I just couldn't get close enough to the bumblebee shrimps to fill the frame because they kept moving and I wanted to show off the patterns.

View attachment 773177View attachment 773179View attachment 773178
View attachment 773180View attachment 773182View attachment 773183
NIce photos. Glad you had a good dive.
Still looking for the skeleton shrimp.
 
NIce photos. Glad you had a good dive.
Still looking for the skeleton shrimp.
I'll be honest, I lucked into finding it. The blade of seaweed look like something was on it, but I couldn't tell what with the naked eye. I had to get the camera on it to tell.
 
Hi @MrChen

What is the last photo? I was guessing baby Trumpet, but no good idea
Some sort of shrimp I think. It was swimming around just like the green Arrow Shrimp. I assumed it was just another one, but my ID book doesn't show or mention one in that color.

They were constantly moving, that was the best angle I could get.
 
Looks like an arrow shrimp
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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