Saturday night was a bust... the 2-3 foot seas forecast turned out to be 6 with a 5-7 second period. That's "bone-breaking ladder" rough, so we canceled.
Sunday we dove the Quonset hut, Black Bart, USS Strength and Bridge span 1. Vis ranged from 15-20 feet on the Bart down to 3-5 feet on the Strength, but the overriding factor that made these dives sad wasn't the vis - it was the lack of life. Looks like the Red Tide events of a few weeks ago here really did a number on the inshore sites. Where I would expect to find a toadfish every 5 feet or so, I saw one on the Bart and none anywhere else. Where every empty barnacle shell usually houses a blenny, I saw about 20 empty shells for every occupied one. Where we usually find several batfish, there were two. The shoals of baitfish aren't there... we did see a few nice snapper and grouper, but no babies. No octopus. No adult blue crabs. The list goes on... I think I saw a grand total of three belted sandfish - normally we'd see hundreds.
On the bright side, I've seen it this way before, and the Gulf is remarkable in its recuperative powers. Still, it's sad.
Rick:sulkoff:
Sunday we dove the Quonset hut, Black Bart, USS Strength and Bridge span 1. Vis ranged from 15-20 feet on the Bart down to 3-5 feet on the Strength, but the overriding factor that made these dives sad wasn't the vis - it was the lack of life. Looks like the Red Tide events of a few weeks ago here really did a number on the inshore sites. Where I would expect to find a toadfish every 5 feet or so, I saw one on the Bart and none anywhere else. Where every empty barnacle shell usually houses a blenny, I saw about 20 empty shells for every occupied one. Where we usually find several batfish, there were two. The shoals of baitfish aren't there... we did see a few nice snapper and grouper, but no babies. No octopus. No adult blue crabs. The list goes on... I think I saw a grand total of three belted sandfish - normally we'd see hundreds.
On the bright side, I've seen it this way before, and the Gulf is remarkable in its recuperative powers. Still, it's sad.
Rick:sulkoff:
.
