Seth Patterson
Registered
Living in Brownsville, I am a quick 30 minute drive from South Padre Island. During the summer months part of my daily ritual is to check the South Padre Island SurfCam (http://spadre.com/southpadresurfcam.jpg) to see how the water is looking. Typically, as you all well know, near-shore waters along the Texas Coast are a murky, chocolate brown but every once in a great while a little blue water is pushed in by prevailing winds, currents, tides, etc... I like to monitor these conditions closely and try to take every advantage that I possibly can.
Last week I noticed the surf had calmed down and stayed fairly flat for a few days so come Friday I asked for the day off at work, grabbed my gear, and headed out. I was fortunate to have someone with a boat offer to take me out scouting for blue water before I donned all my gear and jumped in. The first place we stopped was the Boca Chica (south) side of the Brazos Santiago jetties. I was shocked to be able to see the rocks 10 feet below me when we pulled up to the jetties. Before jumping in at this site, we did zip over to the beach side of the jetties on both South Padre Island (north) and the Boca Chica (south). Visibility was fairly poor at both locations. For some reason the blue water was just sitting in the channel. We had a double-tide that day so by the time I was geared up and in the water, the tide was going out. This strong tidal flux did cause a bit of sediment to stir up in the water. By the time I reached the bottom (around 12 feet) I was effectively doing a drift dive with the current pulling me out towards the end of the jetties. Had the tide been slack, I think I would have had a good 10-15ft viz but with the sediment being stirred up I realistically only had 6-10ft. Still, for the jetties that isn't half bad! I had taken my camera with me and took an 82 minute dive, drifting along photographing all of the lovely juvenile tropical species common along the jetties during the summer. Unfortunately the particulate matter in the water column made photography challenging but I did snap a few shots (below).
Later in the day, after I got off the boat and grabbed some lunch on the Island, I headed by car to Isla Blanca Park. Parking by the jetties I walked down to check the conditions on this (the north) side of the channel. The visibility was actually still fairly good so I decided to go ahead and again put on my dive gear and do a shore entry. On this side I started out in approximately 4 feet of water and worked my way down the jetties (on the channel side) to around 25 feet. The second tide had begun to come in but it seemed fairly slack with no significant current at the time. This dive was around the same viz as the first one and again I spent my time taking pictures with my macro lens (sorry, no wide angle shots!).
About half way into the dive I did have my first run in with a fishermen, coming face-to-face with a baited line. I was around 15 feet down and regrettably tried to push the line out of my path. Of course the moment the fishermen felt me brush his line he tugged and one of his treble hooks snagged me in the glove. I immediately grabbed the hook and began to pull against the fishermen who now realized he had hooked something and was trying to reel me in. I managed to pull the hook free and, again not thinking, let it go only to have the second treble hook on his line zip up and grab me in the very same glove. Frustrated I quickly pulled out the second hook and tried to "toss" his line away from me only to have it zip around and dig into the dive skin on my leg. Finally I took a moment to think things through and grabbed the line by the weight, unhooked myself for the final time, and, putting tension on the weight, I carefully lifted the tackle up and away from me and let go. I never felt in danger nor did any of the fishermen's efforts truly put any pull of any significance on me it was more just an annoyance. I learned my lesson though. Also, I did consider just cutting the line, but I didn't want any tension between myself and any of the fishermen along the jetties. I'd rather remain a curiosity and have my presence be tolerated than be scorned or a potential target. Shortly after I ended my dive and while walking back to the car I ran into the guy who hooked me and we chatted a long while about what had happened, fishing, diving, and the such. Nice guy and a good day!
It is a rare day when one gets to do a two tank dive on the jetties. Also, I do think the major construction the jetties are undergoing at the moment is keeping things much murkier than they should be, so I was very grateful for the 6-10ft visibility I had. It was plenty for me to explore and enjoy all the life our jetties has to offer.
Here are a few pictures I took, again they are all with my macro lens so just little stuff or small parts of bigger things!
First thing I saw when I got in the water, an Octopus!
I completely failed to see the shrimp while photographing this piece of whip-coral...
Some very cool tube worms.
Belted Sandbass, these guys are all over the place below 10ft.
Juvenile Spotfin Butterflyfish
I want to say this is a juvenile Comb grouper?
Curious little Spotfin Butterfly
Sometimes a macro lens is just too long to photograph bigger critters... so here is the eye of a Spotted Scorpionfish
Juvi Cocoa Damselfish
Vacuum-cleaner of the sea, a Sea Cucumber
Hairy Blenny
Another Belted Sandbass
A bit closer on the Belted Sandbass
Beaded Anemone
Band-tailed Puffer, I've been seeing a number of these around lately.
Scorpionfish were especially numerous along the jetties, I saw dozens.
Juvenile Cubbyu (or Highhat?)
Another butterfly...
Baby Porkfish
Arrowcrab
Mollymiller hiding out in an encrusted barnacle.
Spotted Cyphoma feeding on Whip Coral
Last week I noticed the surf had calmed down and stayed fairly flat for a few days so come Friday I asked for the day off at work, grabbed my gear, and headed out. I was fortunate to have someone with a boat offer to take me out scouting for blue water before I donned all my gear and jumped in. The first place we stopped was the Boca Chica (south) side of the Brazos Santiago jetties. I was shocked to be able to see the rocks 10 feet below me when we pulled up to the jetties. Before jumping in at this site, we did zip over to the beach side of the jetties on both South Padre Island (north) and the Boca Chica (south). Visibility was fairly poor at both locations. For some reason the blue water was just sitting in the channel. We had a double-tide that day so by the time I was geared up and in the water, the tide was going out. This strong tidal flux did cause a bit of sediment to stir up in the water. By the time I reached the bottom (around 12 feet) I was effectively doing a drift dive with the current pulling me out towards the end of the jetties. Had the tide been slack, I think I would have had a good 10-15ft viz but with the sediment being stirred up I realistically only had 6-10ft. Still, for the jetties that isn't half bad! I had taken my camera with me and took an 82 minute dive, drifting along photographing all of the lovely juvenile tropical species common along the jetties during the summer. Unfortunately the particulate matter in the water column made photography challenging but I did snap a few shots (below).
Later in the day, after I got off the boat and grabbed some lunch on the Island, I headed by car to Isla Blanca Park. Parking by the jetties I walked down to check the conditions on this (the north) side of the channel. The visibility was actually still fairly good so I decided to go ahead and again put on my dive gear and do a shore entry. On this side I started out in approximately 4 feet of water and worked my way down the jetties (on the channel side) to around 25 feet. The second tide had begun to come in but it seemed fairly slack with no significant current at the time. This dive was around the same viz as the first one and again I spent my time taking pictures with my macro lens (sorry, no wide angle shots!).
About half way into the dive I did have my first run in with a fishermen, coming face-to-face with a baited line. I was around 15 feet down and regrettably tried to push the line out of my path. Of course the moment the fishermen felt me brush his line he tugged and one of his treble hooks snagged me in the glove. I immediately grabbed the hook and began to pull against the fishermen who now realized he had hooked something and was trying to reel me in. I managed to pull the hook free and, again not thinking, let it go only to have the second treble hook on his line zip up and grab me in the very same glove. Frustrated I quickly pulled out the second hook and tried to "toss" his line away from me only to have it zip around and dig into the dive skin on my leg. Finally I took a moment to think things through and grabbed the line by the weight, unhooked myself for the final time, and, putting tension on the weight, I carefully lifted the tackle up and away from me and let go. I never felt in danger nor did any of the fishermen's efforts truly put any pull of any significance on me it was more just an annoyance. I learned my lesson though. Also, I did consider just cutting the line, but I didn't want any tension between myself and any of the fishermen along the jetties. I'd rather remain a curiosity and have my presence be tolerated than be scorned or a potential target. Shortly after I ended my dive and while walking back to the car I ran into the guy who hooked me and we chatted a long while about what had happened, fishing, diving, and the such. Nice guy and a good day!
It is a rare day when one gets to do a two tank dive on the jetties. Also, I do think the major construction the jetties are undergoing at the moment is keeping things much murkier than they should be, so I was very grateful for the 6-10ft visibility I had. It was plenty for me to explore and enjoy all the life our jetties has to offer.
Here are a few pictures I took, again they are all with my macro lens so just little stuff or small parts of bigger things!
First thing I saw when I got in the water, an Octopus!
I completely failed to see the shrimp while photographing this piece of whip-coral...
Some very cool tube worms.
Belted Sandbass, these guys are all over the place below 10ft.
Juvenile Spotfin Butterflyfish
I want to say this is a juvenile Comb grouper?
Curious little Spotfin Butterfly
Sometimes a macro lens is just too long to photograph bigger critters... so here is the eye of a Spotted Scorpionfish
Juvi Cocoa Damselfish
Vacuum-cleaner of the sea, a Sea Cucumber
Hairy Blenny
Another Belted Sandbass
A bit closer on the Belted Sandbass
Beaded Anemone
Band-tailed Puffer, I've been seeing a number of these around lately.
Scorpionfish were especially numerous along the jetties, I saw dozens.
Juvenile Cubbyu (or Highhat?)
Another butterfly...
Baby Porkfish
Arrowcrab
Mollymiller hiding out in an encrusted barnacle.
Spotted Cyphoma feeding on Whip Coral
