My apologies to all, meant to post this in the West Palm Thread. But did not realize my mistake until after the posting.
Went out on Pura Vida's Aurelia for diving yesterday. I am going to do a REEF Trip at the Flower Gardens in the Gulf next week and decided it might behoove me to do a depth greater than 20 feet in preparation. Reading this thread and diving at BHB in 78f water last Thursday, there was a little trepidation caused by the thought of cold water. I did the afternoon trip and was happy to hear sea temps were back up in the 80's from those that did the morning dive.
Crew was captain Jason, divemaster Amber, and unfortunately the other divemasters name escapes me right now. For such a big dive boat there were only 16 people so it was nice not to be crowded. We did Bath and Tennis for the first dive, followed by the Flower Gardens the second dive. On Bath&Tennis sea temp remained a constant 84f. On the Flower Gardens there was some cooler water at 82f for a while, but it quickly returned to 84f as we moved north with the current. Visibility was a hazy 40 with a little bit of green mixed in with the blue for coloring. Current was fast enough to make it difficult to linger for photography or searching for smaller critters and fish.
Despite the fact Blue Heron Bridge is the most fish species rich site (467) in the database, there are many species that are rarely seen there, yet common out on the reefs. Glasseye Snapper, which are not in the Snapper Family but in the Bigeye Family are common on the reefs. Whitespotted Filefish are common on the reefs, but rarely seen at BHB.
@Johnoly I like the map an explanation above. I would like to add that cold core eddies that are responsible for the upwellings wreaking havoc the last week spin counter clockwise. While warm core eddies spin clockwise and are an aid to hurricane formation.
Respectively, Blue Angelfish and Whitespotted Filefish Trio, and Glasseye Snapper.