Venice Sea Life encounters

[Wormzer]

While fossiling, has anyone had any interesting head-to-head sea life encounters?

Back in Feb, in 2 feet of vis, I saw an interesting shaped rock. Just before I reached for this 6" meg, it moved. Then this giant eye, right in front of my mask. Turned out my meg was the rear fin of a napping 3 foot loggerhead, which I apparently disturbed.

Yesterday at Alhambra vis was decent at 10 feet. For some reason, an eerie feeling came over me so I gave a quick look to my six. SHARK...WHALE...Jesus Christ...OH thank God, a manatee. A big one. I guess it was following me. As soon as I turned, it quickly turned and sped off.

I see flounder on almost every dive. Yesterday I saw a big one, close to 30". Are they good eating?

 

[dkramer]

We had a pretty good size cuda pay us a visit at alhambra once. He did a couple of laps around us & then took off. I'm not a fish eater but I'm told that Flounder is pretty good.

 

[Mmm Scuba]

Sunday I saw some kind of squid cuttlefish thing.

Yellow and purple, a little bigger than a football.

Crazy alien looking thing scared the crap out of me. I didn't see it till it was about a foot from my face.

 

[sglake]

I had my heart pounding last year when the biggest sting ray I've ever seen took off from underneath me and we also have had the giant shadow of a manatee come out of nowhere and swim by!!! It makes you breath a little harder for awhile!

 

[Bastian76]

Last July I was diving in maybe 3-5' of visibility and had a spotted eagle ray that had to be more than 8 feet across circle around me for a good portion of the dive. I knew it was harmless but it was the biggest thing I've ever seen under water and it definately got my adrenaline pumping. It also got me wondering what else was around me that I couldn't see.

There's a big tractor tire out there and several ledges that I usually see a medium sized goliath grouper hanging around. I've yet to see a sea turtle while diving. I'm looking forward to that. I'm wondering how my body is going to handle seeing my first shark underwater. I'm almost tempted to dive epcot just to get that out of the way and perhaps build a little comfort being around them before I experience one in the wild.

 

[thedaddy]

Two weeks ago diving S Brohard I saw a decent sized barracuda hanging around the top of the blocks to the South. Pitched about 45 degrees up with his head toward the surface. Looked underwater to be 6 feet long and fat (as big around as my thighs) - probably only 4' long though w/ the refraction.

I came right up behind him and he didn't move. He looked cranky so I kept a respectable distance. Wish I had my camera though.

 

[Walter]

There's lots of life at Venice. Exactly what kind varies from time to time. On my last dive there I saw a Florida Regal Sea Goddess and a Sea Hare (I think Spotted, but can't be certain). On other dives I've seen thousands of migrating nudibranchs (unidentified), Stargazers, Toadfish, Sea Horse, Pipefish, various types of Rays, Mantis Shrimp, Medusa Worms Calaco Crabs and yes even Manatee and Dolphin. It's a great place to watch sea life.

 

[Reef_Haven]

3 spotted eagle rays, and a regal sea goddess today. Oh and a 1" slipper lobster.

 

[H2Andy]

For some reason, an eerie feeling came over me so I gave a quick look to my six. SHARK...WHALE...Jesus Christ...OH thank God, a manatee.

nicely told

 

[mlynch21]

I ran across a fairly large loggerhead in very low vis... Huge shadow then the beak was the first thing i saw and i wasn't sure for what reason he was coming right at me. I was def uneasy for a minute or two. I had the exact same reaction to be honest... Shark? Whale? oh god... Volkswagen?