KEY LARGO dive report, wed 9/17/2014, pics,,,,,,,,,,

[reefman]

very strong currents effecting the deep wrecks/reefs this morning so we decided to double on shallow molasses. terrific topside conditions: sunny skies, light winds, calm seas. beneath the seas, not so much: moon jellies, coral bleaching everywhere, current and below avg visibility! dive #1: buoy M4(aquarium), ripping current, dusty blue viz 45FT, water temp 86F @ 20-30FT. # 2: M9(winch hole, logans run), current, blue/green viz 35-40FT, 86F @ 25-42FT. by far the most significant hard/soft corals/octocorals, zoanthids bleaching event iv'e observed on the upper keys outer reef tract in years, approx. 60-70% coverage(partial or total). add the abundance of moon jellies, it was ugly underwater on the reef today! pics from TIMG,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,



reefman
key largo

 

[reefman]

a few more,


reefman
key largo

 

[Steve_C]

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Do you know the name of the Jelly? Think I saw one like it offshore NC a few days ago.

 

[CajunDiva]

it was ugly underwater on the reef today!

...and yet Tim managed to capture some beautiful pictures

 

[deeper thoughts]

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Do you know the name of the Jelly? Think I saw one like it offshore NC a few days ago.

Pretty sure they are moon jellies. We got zapped a few times today but no biggie

 

[drrich2]

Especially liked the jelly fish close up. Shame to hear about the coral bleaching; I wonder to what extent a coral can 'heal over' the damage over time? As opposed to a permanently disfiguring scar?

Also wonder what's causing the bleaching? Sounds fairly abrupt.

Richard.

 

[timg]

Especially liked the jelly fish close up. Shame to hear about the coral bleaching; I wonder to what extent a coral can 'heal over' the damage over time? As opposed to a permanently disfiguring scar?

Also wonder what's causing the bleaching? Sounds fairly abrupt.

Richard.

Thank you Richard. Here is a link with info on coral bleaching. Research at Mote's Tropical Research Laboratory - Florida Keys

---------- Post added September 17th, 2014 at 10:41 PM ----------

...and yet Tim managed to capture some beautiful pictures

Thank you CajunDiva.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2014 at 10:45 PM ----------

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Do you know the name of the Jelly? Think I saw one like it offshore NC a few days ago.

Thank you Steve_C. Moon jellyfish are common here, quite heavy at certain times.

 

[Steve_C]

Moon jellies that I saw before (and knew they were all moons) were a pink color. In your photo the jelly looked clear. Off NC a week ago I saw two jellies. One very clear (see pnoto below) and one pink colored. The pink was a moon. I thought the clear was a different kind since it tended to ball up more than the moons I had seen and was a more active swimmer. So they come in two shades?

 

[WAR]

Great pics!

 

[timg]

Great pics!

Thank you WAR.

---------- Post added September 18th, 2014 at 01:58 PM ----------

Moon jellies that I saw before (and knew they were all moons) were a pink color. In your photo the jelly looked clear. Off NC a week ago I saw two jellies. One very clear (see pnoto below) and one pink colored. The pink was a moon. I thought the clear was a different kind since it tended to ball up more than the moons I had seen and was a more active swimmer. So they come in two shades?

I don't know if they come in different colors, Steve. The ones in the Keys are Moon Jellies (Aurelia aurita), see page 85 of Reef Creature Identification (from REEF/Humann/DeLoach).