Hetland
Contributor
The Saturday plan was to dive both sides of Perdido Pass. I was tasked with doing an early recon of the area, so I checked out the SW seawall first. Viz from the surface was dismal, so I made my way to the SE bridge piers. Things on that side looked a little better, but I lucked out and spotted two divers at the surface. They advised me that I would be wasting my time if I put my gear on, so I got on the phone to XRay and told him we would need to switch to plan B.
We ended up switching to plan "C", which turned out to be the USS Massachusetts. I met XRay, Recharge and Brandon at the launch, and we made quick time to the dive site.
Viz varied from 10 to 25, and the water was comfortably warm. Barry spotted a requiem shark (possibly a sandbar) and was twice buzzed by a nurse shark. Barry and Brandon each shot a few mangroves, but I needed a break from the gun, so I took my camera and strobe, and went about tearing down a few cast nets that were killing fish for no good reason. On my second dive I saw a huge, curved, broom tail. I was quick enough to get into position and take a photo, and a little video of the resident goliath grouper, which I guess was a tad shy of 400 pounds. I could easily have fit my head in his mouth with lots of room left over. Before I could get anyone's attention, he eased his way back into the wreck, and out of sight. We also recovered two anchors, two fishing reels, a snorkel, a pair of sunglasses, and a wristwatch LOL.
Good times as always.
Photos now, video later:
Damselfish
Mangrove Snapper
Damsel & Urchin
Cowrie
Cowrie
Cowrie
Decorator
Scorpionfish
Goliath Grouper (I'm guessing about 400 pounds)
We ended up switching to plan "C", which turned out to be the USS Massachusetts. I met XRay, Recharge and Brandon at the launch, and we made quick time to the dive site.
Viz varied from 10 to 25, and the water was comfortably warm. Barry spotted a requiem shark (possibly a sandbar) and was twice buzzed by a nurse shark. Barry and Brandon each shot a few mangroves, but I needed a break from the gun, so I took my camera and strobe, and went about tearing down a few cast nets that were killing fish for no good reason. On my second dive I saw a huge, curved, broom tail. I was quick enough to get into position and take a photo, and a little video of the resident goliath grouper, which I guess was a tad shy of 400 pounds. I could easily have fit my head in his mouth with lots of room left over. Before I could get anyone's attention, he eased his way back into the wreck, and out of sight. We also recovered two anchors, two fishing reels, a snorkel, a pair of sunglasses, and a wristwatch LOL.
Good times as always.
Photos now, video later:
Damselfish
Mangrove Snapper
Damsel & Urchin
Cowrie
Cowrie
Cowrie
Decorator
Scorpionfish
Goliath Grouper (I'm guessing about 400 pounds)