I made my annual summer trip to Destin June 17-28 along with my 14 yr old nephew. I am an avid snorkeler (dont scuba dive), so this report will concentrate on snorkeling. There was a persistent pattern of extremely hot, calm weather during this whole period, which was conducive to water activities, although it was sweltering topside. This was the only time I have been to Destin for a longer vacation in which there were never any red flag days at the beach (indicating rough sea conditions). Thus conditions were pretty good for snorkeling at the Destin jetties. Most days, visibility at high tide was about 25 ft, maybe up to 30 ft a few times, although it never reached the absolute maximum visibilities I have seen (rarely) in some other years. Compared to the hot air temps, the Gulf water in the Pass was surprisingly refreshing, probably no more than the low 80s at the surface. I even got a little cool a couple of times with my dive skin on when I hovered in one spot for a while.
Snorkeling allows me to spend a long time in the water, and I have always found, everywhere I have been, the longer you stay in the water the more things you eventually see. This was not the case this year at the jetties. There was a disappointing lack of diversity, and despite all the time I spent in the water on multiple days, I saw very little besides the fish you always expect to see: pinfish, numerous cocoa damselfish, a few small sergeant majors in the shallows, many gray snappers, pigfish grunts and a few groupers in deeper water, belted sandfish, Gulf toadfish, some slippery dick wrasses (a lot more than last year, when they were very scarce), chubs, spadefish, and tons of baitfish. Not that this was especially bad, but its always fun to find things you dont see all the time. I did see one barbfish (Ive only seen a couple of those before), and for the first time ever, a dolphin briefly swam around me right off the small beach between the two jetties. You could even hear the clicks, but he was gone in flash. A brief encounter, definitely no time for photos, but pretty cool. Off the small beach there were small stingrays on a few days. I also saw two big barracuda off the end of finger jetty on a day when the viz was not that good for photos.
Its interesting to observe how the currents and visibility in the pass change unpredictably from day to day. Im sure those of you who frequently dive the Pass know this. On most days, the clear Gulf water stayed around the jetties until three hours after high tide, when the warm, murky water from the bay abruptly filtered in. However, on the last two days I was at the jetties, partial infusions of bay water came in only half an hour after high tide.
For something different, we went underneath the Destin Bridge one day (west end off Okaloosa Island), and it turned out to be loaded with June grass. This was the only significant June grass I saw. Despite this, I did observe two pipefish, which are first ones Ive ever seen in Destin. I also went to the old Crystal Pier pilings one day. I hadnt been there for three years, since before the beach renourishment project was completed. The pilings are definitely snorkelable again, although as before, the marine life is pretty modest. The visibility was a very nice 25 ft, there was a huge school of 1000s of scad (cigar minnows) extending along the underwater pilings, and I also saw a couple of barracuda.
Finally, we went to Panama City and rented a pontoon boat one day to go to Shell Island. Id never been there before. When I went to the boat rental place, I was dismayed to find that they would not allow their boats go near the jetty on Shell Island (they said it was too shallow and that the boat might be stranded when the tide dropped). I really wanted to snorkel there as I had heard good things about it. We ended up stopping in the bay at two spots behind Shell Island. The first, farther away from the pass, turned out to be very murky with a visibility of about 6-8 ft. In the murk, we stumbled across two large bat or bullnose rays, similar to eagle rays. They probably had a wingspread of 4 ft. One had a large remora attached. It would have been great if the viz were better. The second spot, off Spanish Shanty Pt. closer to the pass, had improved viz of 12-15 ft. The grassflats there were full of young pinfish, and we also saw several small stingrays, toadfish, a burrfish, scallops, large pen shells, starfish, many sea urchins, and live sand dollars. My nephew loved it, especially driving the boat and the easy snorkeling, and it was a different experience than Destin.
Here are some photos:
Striped hermit crab in a lightening whelk shell. Blue fish are juvenile cocoa damselfish.
Cocoa damselfish (juvenile slippery dick wrasse in background)
There were numerous large gray snappers at the jetties this year
Gray snapper (darker color phase)
Gulf toadfish (I know these are very common and are easy to photograph because they just sit there, but this is the best photo of these I think I have gotten)
Scad (fishermen call these cigar minnows)
My nephew is becoming quite the snorkeler (you can see the Destin Bridge in the background).
There are a few more photos here: Destin Florida underwater 2009 Photo Gallery by Dave_Clausen at pbase.com
Snorkeling allows me to spend a long time in the water, and I have always found, everywhere I have been, the longer you stay in the water the more things you eventually see. This was not the case this year at the jetties. There was a disappointing lack of diversity, and despite all the time I spent in the water on multiple days, I saw very little besides the fish you always expect to see: pinfish, numerous cocoa damselfish, a few small sergeant majors in the shallows, many gray snappers, pigfish grunts and a few groupers in deeper water, belted sandfish, Gulf toadfish, some slippery dick wrasses (a lot more than last year, when they were very scarce), chubs, spadefish, and tons of baitfish. Not that this was especially bad, but its always fun to find things you dont see all the time. I did see one barbfish (Ive only seen a couple of those before), and for the first time ever, a dolphin briefly swam around me right off the small beach between the two jetties. You could even hear the clicks, but he was gone in flash. A brief encounter, definitely no time for photos, but pretty cool. Off the small beach there were small stingrays on a few days. I also saw two big barracuda off the end of finger jetty on a day when the viz was not that good for photos.
Its interesting to observe how the currents and visibility in the pass change unpredictably from day to day. Im sure those of you who frequently dive the Pass know this. On most days, the clear Gulf water stayed around the jetties until three hours after high tide, when the warm, murky water from the bay abruptly filtered in. However, on the last two days I was at the jetties, partial infusions of bay water came in only half an hour after high tide.
For something different, we went underneath the Destin Bridge one day (west end off Okaloosa Island), and it turned out to be loaded with June grass. This was the only significant June grass I saw. Despite this, I did observe two pipefish, which are first ones Ive ever seen in Destin. I also went to the old Crystal Pier pilings one day. I hadnt been there for three years, since before the beach renourishment project was completed. The pilings are definitely snorkelable again, although as before, the marine life is pretty modest. The visibility was a very nice 25 ft, there was a huge school of 1000s of scad (cigar minnows) extending along the underwater pilings, and I also saw a couple of barracuda.
Finally, we went to Panama City and rented a pontoon boat one day to go to Shell Island. Id never been there before. When I went to the boat rental place, I was dismayed to find that they would not allow their boats go near the jetty on Shell Island (they said it was too shallow and that the boat might be stranded when the tide dropped). I really wanted to snorkel there as I had heard good things about it. We ended up stopping in the bay at two spots behind Shell Island. The first, farther away from the pass, turned out to be very murky with a visibility of about 6-8 ft. In the murk, we stumbled across two large bat or bullnose rays, similar to eagle rays. They probably had a wingspread of 4 ft. One had a large remora attached. It would have been great if the viz were better. The second spot, off Spanish Shanty Pt. closer to the pass, had improved viz of 12-15 ft. The grassflats there were full of young pinfish, and we also saw several small stingrays, toadfish, a burrfish, scallops, large pen shells, starfish, many sea urchins, and live sand dollars. My nephew loved it, especially driving the boat and the easy snorkeling, and it was a different experience than Destin.
Here are some photos:
Striped hermit crab in a lightening whelk shell. Blue fish are juvenile cocoa damselfish.
Cocoa damselfish (juvenile slippery dick wrasse in background)
There were numerous large gray snappers at the jetties this year
Gray snapper (darker color phase)
Gulf toadfish (I know these are very common and are easy to photograph because they just sit there, but this is the best photo of these I think I have gotten)
Scad (fishermen call these cigar minnows)
My nephew is becoming quite the snorkeler (you can see the Destin Bridge in the background).
There are a few more photos here: Destin Florida underwater 2009 Photo Gallery by Dave_Clausen at pbase.com