Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[Airleron]

I've been diving BHB for years and this year has, by far, been the worst in regards to the amount of OW classes being taught, new divers thrashing about, etc. We have almost decided to wait until winter to go back. Are there any solutions out there, such as limiting classes to sand areas? This place will be decimated in 5 years at this rate.

 

[mscott556]

6/15/12
Good vis, 82deg. I haven't played w/my macro lens much so I figured I'd spend some time with it..


Seaweed Blenny


Mantis Shrimp


Octopus (I didn't poke him, just set my stick in front of him)


Bandtail Puffer


Mantis Shrimp


Bandtail Searobin

 

[Shcubasteve]

Heads up, vis tonight was 6' of MERK. totally sucked. 82 degrees

 

[Sik_Z33]

Heads up, vis tonight was 6' of MERK. totally sucked. 82 degrees

Hmm must be all the rain, does that mean vis will probably suck tomorrow morning too? I was thinking about diving tomorrow, high tide is at 7:19 am.

 

[Angry Turtle]

Bobbit Worm




??

Cool....Both pics are of Mantis Shrimps

 

[Sully3]

View attachment 127105

Here's another "I don't know what it is" photo. I believe a pipefish, but don't know what kind.

Nice to meet you also, Jim and Carol! Thanks for the helpful hints. We hopefully will be back next summer! All of us, especially Beth, learned alot in our 5 dives this week. What a treasure you have there.

Brenda, David, and Beth

chain pipefish. nice find, they get huge

 

[mntlblok]

6/15/12
Good vis, 82deg. I haven't played w/my macro lens much so I figured I'd spend some time with it..

It would appear that you require very little playing with that thing. Very nice. You were kidding about the ID's, no?

Kevin

---------- Post added ----------

Heads up, vis tonight was 6' of MERK. totally sucked. 82 degrees

After recently announcing that I wouldn't bother with trying low tide dives at the bridge any more, I tried it again, yesterday - figuring that the tiny stuff that I'm finding wouldn't matter much - especially with some of the new, neat spots I've been led to there. *And*, I got a rumor of a froggie location yesterday at the dive shop, so I figured that it would be more fun looking for him than sitting in my motel room processing pics. *And*, the skeeters are *really* bad at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

As bad as the viz was for yesterday's morning dive, it was really no worse than yesterday afternoon's dive. Six hours of bottom time is better than three, anyway. Going with the poor viz was tons of chunks of sargassum tumbling by - none of which seemed to have any interesting creatures hiding in them - or, were at least hiding very *well*.

Have now had enough coffee to start thinking about packing up and heading home. Had planned to "dawn" dive this morning, but it was too late to get an air fill after yesterday afternoon's dive. Oh, well. The back is about to give out, anyway. Here's a couple of pics from yesterday. The conch orgy was occurring in the same area where the ragged sea hares were doing it last winter. Found only my second pair ever of golden coral shrimp, too.

Kevin

 

[phillies1224]

If anyone knows someone who left there BCD in the middle of the parking lot (no cars within 50 ft) please have them contact me. There was nothing and no one around so I picked it up. Email me at mheacock15@gmail.com


Hope to find the owner!

 

[mscott556]

It would appear that you require very little playing with that thing. Very nice. You were kidding about the ID's, no?

Thanks, the macro lens is hard for me to get consistent results. For every one good pic there are at least 10 that get thrown out. For IDs, I do the best I can with my reef book or google then wait for one of you guys to correct me. I thought I saw the worm that was posted earlier but the pic didn't come out.

 

[danvolker]

I've been diving BHB for years and this year has, by far, been the worst in regards to the amount of OW classes being taught, new divers thrashing about, etc. We have almost decided to wait until winter to go back. Are there any solutions out there, such as limiting classes to sand areas? This place will be decimated in 5 years at this rate.

This is something that is being addressed now by the Palm Beach Dive Association, and by the Parks Department and ERM. Personally, I am expecting mandatory sand areas for the initial dives, until skills have been taught. Except for very small ( one or 2) Resort courses where the Instructor can virtually guarantee that no student will be frequently impacting and trashing the bottom of sensitive habitat, I don't think large classes can be permitted to run wild as they have been. The videos we already have of this, paint a very clear case for what can not continue.