Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III

[Scuba_Jenny]

Here are a few more to share from our dive Wed afternoon. Not sure what that mystery snail is but I think the second one is a small dark mantis which was a first for us. Lots of garden eels, friendly crabs and even a tiny Pederson shrimp. We ventured off to the west side for a change but there was not much going on in the grassy area. Most of these were along the western snorkel trail. Seem to have hit a new limit of 'only 5 attachments' .. ah well.

View attachment 792817View attachment 792819View attachment 792820View attachment 792822View attachment 792824

NIce photos! Love the mantis.. I saw those snails on the east side "not fighting" a few weeks ago..
There is some talk of a possibly invasive snail, but I don't know if that one is it or not.

 

[Jaan]

Speakin' of fighting ... or is this also 'not fighting' ...a couple of crabby box crabs boxing
Quite some moves on the little feisty one


Nice day at the bridge with great viz and even lucked out with a spot close to the crossing.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Huh, looks like a female with eggs on the bigger one??

 

[Dan]

Speakin' of fighting ... or is this also 'not fighting' ...a couple of crabby box crabs boxing
Quite some moves on the little feisty one


Nice day at the bridge with great viz and even lucked out with a spot close to the crossing.

Nice footage! The fish was acting as the referee of those box crabs boxing.

 

[tarponchik]

NIce photos! Love the mantis.. I saw those snails on the east side "not fighting" a few weeks ago..
There is some talk of a possibly invasive snail, but I don't know if that one is it or not.

The talk was, I believe, about Naria turdis, a species of cowrie.

Sea Snail First Seen in the U.S. May Have Arrived as a ‘Stowaway’

A researcher from FAU reports that the mollusk, Naria turdus, found in Lake Worth Lagoon took two years to arrive in South Florida most likely as a stowaway attached to the hull of a ship as larva.

www.fau.edu

The snail in the picture is a common Atlantic marginella

 

[Jaan]

Nice footage! The fish was acting as the referee of those box crabs boxing.

It was quite interesting to see the slippery dicks with the crabs. One fish would come and nip at one of the crabs while another slippery dick was doing the same to the other. At the end of the video (and after we stopped it) two of these were nipping at both crabs like they were either participating in the fight or trying to break it up. I couldn’t find anything really on any kind of symbiotic relationship except this reference to fish ‘stalking’ where these fish might stalk the crabs hoping for dislodged food. To us it honestly seemed more ‘personal’ than that and it seemed one fish was favoring a particular crab.

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3068

We saw over a dozen box crabs on yesterdays dive and noticed this behavior on multiple occasions. Even when individual crabs were moving along (not just the ‘fight’)

 

[Johnoly]

Quite some moves on the little feisty one

Nice video capture !!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

The talk was, I believe, about Naria turdis, a species of cowrie.

Sea Snail First Seen in the U.S. May Have Arrived as a ‘Stowaway’

A researcher from FAU reports that the mollusk, Naria turdus, found in Lake Worth Lagoon took two years to arrive in South Florida most likely as a stowaway attached to the hull of a ship as larva.

www.fau.edu

The snail in the picture is a common Atlantic marginella

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[MrChen]

The facebook BHB group chat is saying temps have dropped to 78 degrees.

 

[Pipehorse]

Went to the bridge for diving yesterday. In general I try to tamp down my expectations for the bridge with an "it is what it is attitude" and just go about my diving no matter the distractions, in this way disappointment is avoided. Too many people in the park, too many people in the water, too many people on the beach, beach closed because of construction, the noise from the construction, bad visibility, bad weather, the constant drone of boat motors, the disgusting over used bathrooms, the guys that drive through the parking lot with the bass on stereo shaking car windows playing music one would never choose to listen to in a million years, trash all over the parking lot, the idiots that can't seem to keep their car alarms from honking incessantly, the macro photographers with $20,000 rigs that can't get over their own brilliance because they take 150 exposures of the same subject, the dead guy in the car a month ago or so, the sight of those stupid little beach wagons almost everybody has now, the list goes on and on. All of which is usually washed away by the prospect and realization of finding a new critter or fish. Unfortunately, yesterday it was all just a little too much to deal with.

@MrChen is correct, the water temp was a disappointing 78f. The tide was not strong enough to push the green water entirely past the pier. So vis under the pier and the vicinity of the bridge pilings was 10feet and green. Vis on the snorkel trail was better, maybe 20ft with blue color. The cold temps for this time of year are not unprecedented. I remember many times in the past near mini-season that we have had some kind of strange cold water upwelling, indeed I remember it because of the proximity to mini season. Nevertheless, having been away on vacation up north and not diving for eleven days I was not in a frame of mind to deal with 78f water in the middle of July. And even as I write, it makes me laugh because a cold water diver reading this would think "what, is this guy nuts, he is complaining about 78F water being cold?".

Anyway, I did do a REEF survey, but my photography was off, because the red filter was missing, and I was uncomfortable in the cold water. Did get some good video of Dash Gobies doing some kind of display. Respectively, Blue Stripe Grunts, Phoronopsis Californica, and Dash Goby Video.