Went out on Pura Vida's Aurelia yesterday. Jason as captain, Amber, Giona, and Elena as divemasters. Weather was nice leaving the dock a 1000. On the beginning of the second dive at 1249 the weather was still nice, 10k wind, wave action less than ft, and mostly sunny. By the end of the second dive the front that came through yesterday moved in it was cloudy, cool, wind and waves had picked up significantly. By the time I got home it was bright and sunshiney with no clouds again.
Prior to the first dive my computer showed a 29 day surface interval, the longest period time out of the water for me in the past 29 months, enough said about the weather we have had lately. 15 divers on Aurelia yesterday, so just one group, Amber and Elena as guides/divemasters. It makes me laugh the range of thermal exposure worn by individual divers yesterday. From three people with nothing but rash gaurds on, to a guy in a drysuit. I was in a 5mil with a beanie hood, just right for 80f with no variance or thermocline.
First dive was Flower Gardens Reef. Visibility was about 35ft, mostly blue water, with alot of particulate, and a slight north current. The "slight" current was perfect, just enough to keep moving with little effort, and also easy for stopping to look closer at whatever may be of interest. Did a REEF fish survey of 67 species for the hour long dive. The standout species would be a Dog Snapper hanging out in a mixed school of Sailors Choice and Black Margates. Dog Snappers don't usually hang out that way, are generally difficult to approach before they hide. Not the case with the one from yesterday.
The second dive was on 4th window, REEF.org describes this site as Breakers Reef (Elevator,4th Window,King Neptune), so take your pick of what you call it. Giona was the divemaster/guide. It is a fishy reef. My survey count was 64 species for the one hour dive, 3 less than the last dive. By fishy I mean quantity of fish as opposed to quantity of species. Big school of Lane Snappers with 300 to 400 individuals. Large school of Gray Snappers with 100 individuals. Smaller schools of Sailors Choice, Tomtates, Black Margate, and Smallmouth Grunt sometimes homogenous schools, other times mixed. One small Goliather Grouper (battery was dead on my camera by the time we reached it), and two Large Black Groupers. Given the amount of spearfisherman in Florida I am always surprised to see keeper size Black Groupers.
The standout species of the dive were definitely the Pink Meanies (
Drymonema larsoni). Two large ones with lots of smaller fish hanging out in the oral arms. The first one had tentacles in every direction, ten feet in radius. When I got under it the scuba bubbles seem to disturb it and the tentacles retracted much closer to the main body. Pink Meanies were described a short while ago in 2010. They eat Moon Jellyfish! Apparently they die rather quickly with no prey to eat, and cold water will also kill them. I went to inaturalist to compare observations of Pink Meanies to Lions Mane Jellyfish. For all intent and purpose the ranges do not overlap. From the maps it can be seen that Lions Mane do not survive warm water, and Pink Meanies do not survive cold water or even temperate water. Pink Meanies have only been observed 242 times while Lions Mane 2979 times. Images of the Pink Meanies from yesterday and range maps below.
play.google.com
