Trip report - Destin May 8th and 9th

[Puffer Fish]

Had to teach a class on Sat, so that meant I could only dive this Sunday.

But thankfully a friend asked if I would like to dive on Monday also...

Was very sad to hear that there was an IPE event at the Jetties on Sat..very scary event and one that thankfully did not result in a death.

Hopefully they will learn a bit more about this very strange event that seems to be increasing at a very rapid rate.

Diving on Sunday was rough, with not very good vis.

I had promised I would let a new diver use my camera and kind of wish that we had had calmer seas and better vis...

I picked a macro setup, because that is the easiest to use...

Here are mostly her images:



Ok, I shot the featherworms.. but she did a pretty good job for her first time with a camera underwater.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Next dive was the rubble pile, not a huge fan of the rubble pile, so only took a few images...

Next morning had the same forecast as Sunday, but the seas were calm... the vis several times what it was the day before.

Of course I should have put a wide angle on, but no, I expect the same conditions and stay with a macro setup.

And, with my luck, we go to Whitehill/liberty ship.

Whitehill is as alive as I have ever seen it... there are frog fish everywhere...sadly one eventually runs out of bottom time after 40 or so minutes.

Here is an assortment of images from the dive:



The crab and starfish were shot the day before.

There were lots of bat fish, but am getting tired of batfish noses.

If you look at the frog fish image, there is one in front of and one behind the one I am focused on.

I believe I took pictures of 7 different ones, but there were a lot more.

The liberty ship, is well, the liberty ship. Lots of bait fish on it, but they kept getting in the way of taking pictures (the butterfly, for example).

Capt Dave was on the boat.. so was a great two dives and a nice group of people on the boat.

Would like to do some video this next week, so hope conditions are like they were yesterday.

Oh, the frog image... well don't really have a reason for posting it, except I like tree frogs and this one was outside on Sunday night... sorry.

 

[Comp.Air.Junkie]

Nice report and pics. I love whitehill. Saw my first shark there. Forgive my ignorance what's an IPE event?

 

[Dave C]

Especially like the sharpness of the first damselfish pic, the teeth on the flounder, and blue eyes of the hermit. I don't think spiny lobsters are very common off Destin; they tend to like tropical waters more. Shovelnose (slipper) lobsters are the more common ones.

 

[Puffer Fish]

I would hardly consider it ignorance... IPE is supposed to be a very rare type of pulmonary edema... liquid suddenly filling the lungs...due to the change in pressure.

Frequently the person does not survive the event when diving. (think altitude sickness in reverse). Most noteworthy symptom is pink frothy liquid coming out of the person.

There has been a rather rapid increase in this in the last few years...as it once was considered extremely rare.. but our own Denise had an event not that long ago, and now this person.

DAN and Duke university are extremely interested in understanding what has caused the sudden rise in cases.

Nice report and pics. I love whitehill. Saw my first shark there. Forgive my ignorance what's an IPE event?

 

[Puffer Fish]

Thanks Dave, we have lots of spiny's here, they just don't live in shallow water. Every year a few make it up to the shallows (around 100 ft) and live until lobster season, where they are removed from the gene pool.

Wish we had enough habitat for them in shallower water...Shovelnose take less space, hide better and can avoid divers better.

Especially like the sharpness of the first damselfish pic, the teeth on the flounder, and blue eyes of the hermit. I don't think spiny lobsters are very common off Destin; they tend to like tropical waters more. Shovelnose (slipper) lobsters are the more common ones.