Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[Scuba_Jenny]

White balance was not adjusted correctly, so apologies in advance...
Ragged sea hare orgy...

[video=youtube;rTHc51W-irQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTHc51W-irQ&context=C355e522ADOEgsToPDskI2Pex4cqrVk6VrGftM bnMV[/video]

 

[Biminitwist]

Got to meet some more nice folks and had a great 175 minute dive.
Found the aforementioned sea hare "love in" and think I got some video of them laying eggs as well as great activity.
Also found a new nudie out by the east channel marker that was very cool, never saw the seahorses but was solo without my sharp eyed sweetie.
Great time, am planning on going Sat am.
John

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Some photos from yesterday's dive.. need some ID on them..

more sea hare sex? This guy and gal were only 3/4" long.

thought this is a sharpnose puffer, but it lacks the black bars on the tail edge. Maybe 1" long

Once I got over the excitement of all the sea hares, I noticed that they were slightly different. Love the spots on this one.

Egg chambers.. I think. This photo shows about 1/4 of the mass, which was easily a foot tall.

My fav. pic of the day. Seahorse is holding onto a mangrove seed

I've seen these guys before, and they dive into the sand if you get too close. This one was cooperative enough to let me get a shot or two off...

 

[mntlblok]

gopeo 2 video clips

[video=youtube_share;o_vClMrWXPQ]http://youtu.be/o_vClMrWXPQ[/video]

I like how you test to see if anyone is actually watching the video, as I've managed to miss that wad of snook on every single bridge dive.

Harassed Jim a bit yesterday and got to meet Biminitwist - and failed to ask the derivation of same. I'm guessing maybe the name of a drink. While all others seemed to be having great dives, I found very little to cheer about and spent too much time running down lost dive flags. The current and the (significant) wind were in the same direction, so my weighted down dive flag made its own drag strip. Finally found its track north of the fishing pier and got a nice tour of the sand flats over yonder. Did find a little seahorse over there whilst waiting for the tide to change. Even *after* the tide change, the flag took off again later in that same wind direction. It didn't make it as far this time, but hid for a good while between the struts on north end of the channel thingy under the bridge.

Think I'll try the east side today. Gonna either take the diopter off the 60mm or pull out 10-17 and maybe try some video. Might even try to carry two cameras. It actually might be doable if only one of them has strobes attached. . . Sounds like I might not have much trouble finding the sea hare orgynization.

Did manage to get my first pics of a pike blenny. She was actually out and about when I first saw her, but, after posing nicely for a good while, she backed into her tube and posed some more. Interestingly, I found her in the precise area that Jim had told me had seen them of late. Been through that area dozens of times previously without ever having spotted one before.

Attaching some mundane shots. Oh, did see a nice flying gurnard, fully unfurled. How many wings do those guys have?? No chance for a photo of either him nor the little purple-headed sea robin we saw with the macro setup that I was stuck with. Or, maybe I won't attach any files. ScubaBoard sez my file is corrupt, but my puter reads that external hard drive just fine. . .

Kevin

 

[Biminitwist]

Kevin
It was nice to meet you and John yesterday.
"Biminitwist" is the name of my boat which is often parked on the last mooring ball closest to West Bridge.
Send me a pm and I can give you a better location to look for the sea hares, they were shallower than I thought.
Jenny: picture #1 looks like a bubble snail followed by a fireworm but I'm sure someone more knowledgable can give specifics as to the type of nudie. That is definately the egg mass coming from the sea hares, saw them everywhere.
Hope to go tomorrow with my designated spotter.
John

 

[jet126]

Happy everyone is finding Jim's and my orgy. (Did I just say that?)

After consulting with one of my marine biologist friends I have found out the correct scientific term is "aggregation" or "copulating mound".

'Nuff said.

I spent yesterday morning on the dive boat, celebrating my natal anniversary with seven turtles, four big green morays and a nurse shark. Awesome in spite of the sporty seas.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I thought it might be a snail, but it looked soft, In the front of them you can see some light brown stuff.. within a minute they were both completely under in, like burrowing into a hole. ..shouda taken a photo...

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Happy everyone is finding Jim's and my orgy. (Did I just say that?)

After consulting with one of my marine biologist friends I have found out the correct scientific term is "aggregation" or "copulating mound".

'Nuff said.

I spent yesterday morning on the dive boat, celebrating my natal anniversary with seven turtles, four big green morays and a nurse shark. Awesome in spite of the sporty seas.

I like copulating mound.. sounds closer to orgy to me than aggregation. That's what geese do...

 

[Biminitwist]

Jenny- I've seen some shells that extrude a mantle like that and burrow quickly into the sand when my lights annoy them, usually only at night though.
Joanie- I checked and the sea hares are supposed to lay eggs from someplace on their right side not the back end (like I thought), which would explain why I could see loops of eggs emerging from somewhere under it, the video also shows them excreting from a hole that opens on the top in the middle of the body.
Wild....
John

 

[mntlblok]

Kevin
It was nice to meet you and John yesterday.
"Biminitwist" is the name of my boat which is often parked on the last mooring ball closest to West Bridge.
Send me a pm and I can give you a better location to look for the sea hares, they were shallower than I thought.

John

Got to talk to one of yer brethren at Force E after today's dive. He didn't say anything about getting to name yer Sheriff's boats, so I'm guessing yer talking about yer own, private ark. He was wearing a *very* scary-looking vest in the shop, but claimed *not* to be Muslim.

Don't think I *ever* need to see another ragged sea hare. Ran completely out of ideas of ways to represent them photographically. Them things got any eyes?? Even cranked out the video. *Did* note that opening on the lower back. Ain't even gonna talk about what *that* thing looked like.

Apparently there *was* something screwed up with my external hard drive. Once I rebooted and reattached it, my own puter claimed it needed to scan and try to fix the thing. It's almost done now. Good thing, too, as today's dive was as cool as yesterday's was bland. Best viz I've ever seen at the bridge. Force E's divemaster sez it was up to 50 feet.

Kevin