Trip report for Gulf Breeze, FL - USS Massachusetts and coal barges, 7/22/09

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sladerer

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
307
Reaction score
67
Location
Florida, USA
# of dives
500 - 999
Went out with Bay Breeze Dive Center on 7/22/09 in Gulf Breeze, FL. Capt. Dave piloted their in-house 6 pack (26 footer?) and Kent Stone was DM for the morning.

A few tense moments passed as we found out (after our hour drive) that the alternator
went up on the boat we were scheduled for. Kudos to Kent was able to shuffle some folks around
and got us off the dock just after 8, almost on schedule. On the trip were my wife and 17 year old with my my 9 year old watching bubbles, plus a father and son.

Our first stop (after getting petrol across the bay) was the USS Massachussettes.
Conditions were on the poor side, with viz around 20' and a bit of current and surge
pushing us around. Min temp was 78 but we were right on the thermocline so moving
in and out of warm/cold throughout the dive with the accompanying "haze". Max depth
of 29' and 29 minutes was more than enough at the Mass. on this day. Here's a few pics:

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Gives you an idea of the visibility - part of the USS Massachussettes wreck

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My wife and her giant snail :D

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One of numerous large jellies in the area

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The "Friends of the USS Mass." plaque

From here we headed to the coal barges. Much better than the Mass today - 78 at depth, 55' and 46 minutes BT,
viz was 30 to 40 for the most part, no current. A pretty cool site to dive, with lots of
overhang and a decent variety of fish plus huge schools of baitfish/silversides. A few pics from the barges

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Cowfish (specific variety?)

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??? - help

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Gulf toadfish - an ugly cousin of Cozumel's splendid toadfish :shocked2:

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Juvenile spotted drum and a yellowline arrow crab (I think)

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Spotfin butterfly "hiding" in the gorgonians

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One of two octopus seen on the barges

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Huge schools of baitfish/silverside-like fish were all over the barges.

The rest of the pics are in my gallery -
ScubaBoard Gallery - sladerer Gallery

Headed to the Oriskany tomorrow, hopefully with good conditions for more pics.
 
Last edited:
Nice pictures & really cool octopus picture. Great job spotting some really neat fish in low viz!
 
Nice photos, esp. the octopus. Your unknown fish is a cubbyu (a type of drum), and what you call the juv. spotted drums are actually juv. cubbyu. The big shell looks like a horse conch. It's Florida's biggest snail.
 
Thnx for the report
 
Nice photos, esp. the octopus. Your unknown fish is a cubbyu (a type of drum), and what you call the juv. spotted drums are actually juv. cubbyu. The big shell looks like a horse conch. It's Florida's biggest snail.
Arent they actually highhats?
 
I didn't catch it on the first pass, but the picture are Juvenile Cubbyu not highhat and defiantely not spotted drum.The key to ID is the Head between the eyes on the more colorful juvenile. The juvenile Cubbyu have an oval shape beetween the eyes and a high hat has a line between the eyes that touch each eye and a Jackknife fish has a vertical line between each eye that does not touch either eye. Hope that helps. The ID on Adults completely changes and becomes much less clear but the picture you have is of an adult Cubbyu.

Also, did anyone happen to notice the Scrawled Cowfish is upside down? Is this a post processing issue or was this fish actually photo'd this way?

Arent they actually highhats?
 
Good catch - not post processing but failure to correct. I noticed early on the dive that
the fish here are more skittish than many places I've been, so I developed a "hiding" strategy
to get closer shots. Basically, if I saw a fish I'd try to get something between us and then hang
the camera over and shoot. In this pic, I came over the top of the barge deck (which sits at
an angle to the bottom) and shot this from an inverted position.

Thanks for the ID assist on the Cubbyu as well.

I didn't catch it on the first pass, but the picture are Juvenile Cubbyu not highhat and defiantely not spotted drum.The key to ID is the Head between the eyes on the more colorful juvenile. The juvenile Cubbyu have an oval shape beetween the eyes and a high hat has a line between the eyes that touch each eye and a Jackknife fish has a vertical line between each eye that does not touch either eye. Hope that helps. The ID on Adults completely changes and becomes much less clear but the picture you have is of an adult Cubbyu.

Also, did anyone happen to notice the Scrawled Cowfish is upside down? Is this a post processing issue or was this fish actually photo'd this way?
 

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