Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[bilsant]

"The dwarf seahorse is not endangered," said Ken Kull, a Big Pine Key commercial fisherman who calls himself the "Seahorse King" of the Keys and sells them for $2.50 or so to aquarium fish wholesalers. "One day I'll get 50, another day 250. If you need 100 dwarf seahorses, give me a week and I'll go and get them."​

So this means for $50, we can get 20 new seahorses from this guy and transplant them under the bridge? I'm only about 25 percent joking here. Any informed opinions as to whether it would work? If it stood a decent chance of success, I'd spend the cash for that cause....and patrol the beach with a baseball bat.

 

[Randy g]

Hey folks a quick heads up and reminder...
Please don't post locations of the various creatures we all love...5 seahorses were harvested from the bridge in the last week.

That's just a damn shame! I was so excited about Jenny showing them to us when we were there over new years. It was the highlight of my trip!

Sad, very very sad!

 

[mntlblok]

drab crab



I'm always intrigued by all the holes in the sand at the bridge, wondering what made them and whether there's anything actually down inside the hole and how long I'd have to sit and wait and watch in order to find out. I've waited a *lot* doing that, often with zero results. I often catch a sudden movement in my peripheral vision as I swim near them, but typically never discover what it was that slank back into its hole. On this particular day, I was very patient and very lucky and finally got a photo of one of them. Turned out to be nothing more than this drab crab. :depressed:

Kevin

 

[mntlblok]

spots



But for all the troll posts over the last couple of years, I might not known to have been excited about having run across this in the sand. . .

Kevin

 

[scubajim 1]

View attachment 116845View attachment 116846

But for all the troll posts over the last couple of years, I might not known to have been excited about having run across this in the sand. . .

Kevin

Attention collectors! PM Kevin and he will give you the location. Please note that this specimen is best collected using bare hands.

 

[scubajim 1]

Thought I'd share a couple of images from my Friday Dive with Jaysun and Jen. We were diving for 112 minutes with a water temp of 74 and 30-40 foot viz.

scaly-tailed mantis shrimp


Diamond Pipefish


Shortnose Batfish


BTW Kevin the big holes in the sand could be the homes of mantis shrimp which I encourage all collectors to catch by hand.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Love the batfish!!!

 

[scubajim 1]

Love the batfish!!!

Me too, but for some reason they always seem like we are imposing when we take their pictures lol

The one above sure did.

 

[Biminitwist]

Kelly and I hit the bridge again for a great 184 min dive (yes, we have big tanks)...
Short version; it was epic.
Saw multiple octos, one intent on fondling anything in reach, more pike blennies "not fighting", dragonettes, pipefish, super micro nudies, seahxxxxes and for our personal new BHB critter list: multiple leaping squat lobsters.
Included in this magic 3 hour tour was a side trip to the elusive sponge garden by myself, only to be cut short by Kelly summoning me back to her location for a new find, which was so much fun we never made it back there together.
That is only a part of what we saw. But need to keep it brief.
For any lowlifes planning on using this post for evil, all specimens described were on the south side of Peanut Island in the shipping lane.
John

 

[Biminitwist]

Very hard to get a decent picture of this but was hoping someone could let us know what the heck it is.
It was surrounded by clear "tentacles" you can see in focus in the foreground.
At the time, I thought it might be a nudie but looking at it blown up I can't even guess...
Thanks
John