July 2nd, 2010 - Lionfish sighting

Today I was diving with James, Chris, Lisa and Emily. All visiting from Atlanta.We had a pretty nice day, a little breezy and a little choppy out there, but with about 80 ft visibility, 86 degree water  and almost no current it was not too bad..

Saw my first lionfish today, actually 2 of them.  This is an invasive species here in the Keys, in fact all along the east coast and the Bahamas. Get more information about this problem at this website:  http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/lionfish.html

We were diving today on Molasses Reef at ball 21 when I spotted the first one on the side of a ledge near an old upside down brain coral. 

Next I went on around the brain coral and found another slightly larger one.

This is a real problem here. I read an article that they have collected over 100 Lionfish off the reefs in this area this year alone. They just had a roundup in the Bahamas and captured over 900.  This species is not native to this area, have no natural predictors and eat voraciously.  They can very quickly put a heavy dent in the local reef fish populations.  Because of this whenever they are discovered they are reported and attempts are made to remove them from the reef.  I did report these two, hopefully someone will be able to locate them again and remove them.  You have to be licensed to remove them from a sanctuary reef, I guess I should probably consider doing that, especially since I am out a Molasses all the time.

But that wasn't all we saw today, here is a nice sized Porcupine fish. I have been seeing it on Molasses for the last few weeks, this was the first time I was able to get close enough to get a picture.

A couple of French Grunts having a chat...

A Peterson Shrimp and it's buddy the Corkscrew Anemone..

and finally an Goldentail Eel.

Just another great day on Molasses Reef.

Saturday, June 19th

Beautiful day on the reef today.  Absolutely no current on Molasses.  The wind was blowing a little over 10mph out of the Southeast, so it was a little choppy but not too bad. Visibility was good and the water temperature was in the upper 80s.. Overall an excellent day on the water.

Found this guy up under a ledge. he wasn't that concerned with me taking his picture. Usually they head back up into their holes when you start getting close to them.

Channel Clinging Crab

Blenny - Probably a Saddled Blenny

Couple Christmas Tree Worms on a Brain Coral

Eagle Rays

The Eagle Rays came up near the end of the dive, I was able to swim around with them for a while. They were actually doing circles right around the area I was in. Near the end I approached a little too close I guess, one of them came right at me (the short tailed fellow) and the other 2 swam away as did the one that came straight at me.  Pretty cool.

Sunday June 13th, 2010

Did a couple of dives yesterday with some new friends from Atlanta, Barry Sheldon and his daughter Stacey.  They were visiting the Keys and we got 2 dives in yesterday. Went up to the Horseshoe and then Grecian Rocks (The Christ of the Abyss). Visibility could have been better but it was a beautiful day and the water temperature has made it to around 85 degrees now.  Getting to the temperature I like now.

Wasn't planning on diving today but the weather was perfect and there was little to no wind, so I jumped in the boat and headed out to Molasses. Beautiful day with  the water temperature between 85 and 86 degrees. There was a moderate current on Molasses, but nothing too bad.  I dove on ball 22 first and then moved over to ball 1 for the second dive. Visablity was great, probably in the 80 ft range..  So, beautiful day, water temps in the mid 80s and great visability, doesn't get much better than that.

I don't think he was too happy to have me interrupting his cleaning.

A little Goldentail Eel.

Back on molasses again . Tied up on ball 21. If you follow the mooring line down you can't miss the old Spanish Anchor.  A few years back, I spent a lot of time looking for this thing. Everybody kept telling me where it was and some of them were actually close.  So to find it, follow the mooring line down on ball 21, there you will find it  a little south west of the mooring line,  look around... you can't miss it.  From there head north over into a large sandy area surrounded by reef..  This is one of my favorite areas to just hang around an watch..Lots to see in this area of the reef.

Spanish Anchor

A Permit cruising the reef looking for a snack.

Fire Coral

Pretty sure this is a  Porgy of some type.  I have only seen a few with this color pattern. As I tried to get close to him it would flare his fins up and try to look very aggressive. After a couple of times doing this it took off and didn't slow down . I wasn't able to get close enough to get a get a better photo.  

Saturday, June 5th

Went out to Molasses reef yesterday, took a few pictures. Nothing spectacular to say the least. Here is the best of the few I took.. Notice that behind the Glassy Sweepers there is a fin. That was a small to medium (couple hundred pound) Jewfish (Goliath Grouper). He swam up under the reef as I approached..

Glassy Sweepers (with Jewfish fin in background)

Either a Red Hind or a Graysby.. Can't tell since I can't see the markings on the base of the dorsal fin hat would identify it. Guess it could also be a Rock Hind, but since I can't see the rest of the fish, it is one of the three..

Heading out diving in a few.. Looks like a beautiful day here in Key Largo..

It's cold.........

Since it has been so cold lately thought I would just add a photo to the blog from a previous dive. I know it has been cold all over the county, but when we get to 38 degrees in the Keys, it really is cold all over. It has warmed back up to the 60s today. Holding out hope that it will warm enough to get in a little diving this weekend. Chances don't look all that good right now, but you never know.

Peterson Shrimp with it's buddy the Corkscrew Anemone.

First Dive of 2010

The first dive of 2010. The weather was on the edge but with a cold front pushing in during the afternoon this was going to be the only day of this week that I could get out. Winds were in the 10 to 12 mph range when I left the dock, they were in the 18 to 19 mph range when I came up.. Visibility was poor to say the least, but I didn't expect it would be good. The dive site was North North. This site is marked as horseshoe on the charts and is just north of Grecian Rocks (Christ statue). It has 2 mooring balls that run basically north south, one is at the horseshoe end and the other is at the south end of a straight line reef. Nice easy dive to navigate. This site has large coral walls with breaks and caves all along it. There usually are tons of silver sides in the cracks and crevices and therefore lots of grouper and other fish trying to get a easy meal of the silver sides. I went there because as I left the south creek the winds were picking up out of the west, this would have made Molasses quite rough. Usually when there is weather like this the sites on the north side of Key Largo have poor vis but are less rough, and so it was today, but at least it wasn't that rough and almost no current. I don't think that would have been the case on Molasses. The water temperature is really dropping, I was getting readings in the 72 to 73 range and even saw some form my boats depth finder that showed it below 70.. It definitely is wet suit time in the keys.

Found a lot of very small lobsters (and a few larger ones ) on the outer edge of the reef line out in the sandy areas. The small rock out croppings had 6 or 8 small lobsters crowding together underneath at several of them.

"Three-Rowed Sea Cucumber", haven't seen one of these in a while.

Still trying to figure out what this is for sure. I'm pretty sure it is a juvenile Parrot fish of some sort, just never seen a yellow headed version of one.

Even though it was pretty windy and the water is really starting to get cool, it was an ok dive for the first of the year.