Finally went diving yesterday after a long dry month for me. My first time in the water post Wilma.
Here's my mini-recap of yesterday's highlights from Boynton Beach.
Captain Tony - Viz was about 20 - 25' (not so great for any regulars, but it was wet)... The water actually looked a little greener than usual too...
Water Temp was 78F by my computer. We saw a fair amount of fish, as usual on the Captain Tony a few large cudas, and the resident goliath grouper... Also shot some footage of a good sized green turtle... The only noticible difference post Wilma, is that there is about 2' more exposed hull on the starboard side of the wreck. Otherwise, this site did quite well during the storm.
Dive 2 was on the Gulfstream Ledges. Here again, the viz was about 20-25' (pretty poor for there) and the water temp was the same 78 degrees.
There was some noticible damage to many larger barrel sponges. Many were broken apart. We also came upon a debris field with a lot of broken Branched Finger Coral. Kev said that it's a resiliant form of coral, and very fragile.
Aside from the broken sponges, and a few moderate sized debris fields, the reef looked in good shape. There was the usual abundance of fish there, probably an average amount for that site... but we're spoiled by the amount of sea life we see there... There were 2 guys on the boat from Tennessee, who had never been in the ocean before. They were amazed by the quantity of fish there.
So all in all, I would give the day a thumbs up... But how can you not give a thumbs up to scubakevdm, and Lynn from Splashdown...
I'll have more pics posted on my gallery soon.
Here's my mini-recap of yesterday's highlights from Boynton Beach.
Captain Tony - Viz was about 20 - 25' (not so great for any regulars, but it was wet)... The water actually looked a little greener than usual too...
Water Temp was 78F by my computer. We saw a fair amount of fish, as usual on the Captain Tony a few large cudas, and the resident goliath grouper... Also shot some footage of a good sized green turtle... The only noticible difference post Wilma, is that there is about 2' more exposed hull on the starboard side of the wreck. Otherwise, this site did quite well during the storm.
Dive 2 was on the Gulfstream Ledges. Here again, the viz was about 20-25' (pretty poor for there) and the water temp was the same 78 degrees.
There was some noticible damage to many larger barrel sponges. Many were broken apart. We also came upon a debris field with a lot of broken Branched Finger Coral. Kev said that it's a resiliant form of coral, and very fragile.
Aside from the broken sponges, and a few moderate sized debris fields, the reef looked in good shape. There was the usual abundance of fish there, probably an average amount for that site... but we're spoiled by the amount of sea life we see there... There were 2 guys on the boat from Tennessee, who had never been in the ocean before. They were amazed by the quantity of fish there.
So all in all, I would give the day a thumbs up... But how can you not give a thumbs up to scubakevdm, and Lynn from Splashdown...
I'll have more pics posted on my gallery soon.