Destin Harbor intake and mystery fish

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Location
Tennessee
My brother-in-law and I kayaked out several hundred yards to one of the intakes that feed the harbor (I believe that's their function). This one is about one mile east of the Destin jetties and seems to be the only structure this close to shore. It basically looks like a 8x8x8 concrete box just sitting on the sea floor. It's at about 20 - 25 feet and we thought it would be fun to snorkel around it and take a closer look. I'm in the water first and taking a look around when I see a tail fin slip around the corner of the intake. A tail fin that's definitely not attached to any of the bait fish that are swirling around me. Knowing this might be one of the few buffets available for the bigger guys in this particular area, I surface and grab my camera and take some video of him. I'm still not sure what it was and hope by posting this video someone will be able to ID it for me. Shark? Ray? Just not sure.

Since I can't post a link yet, please just head to YouTube and then paste in the following after the main address: /watch?v=nNH_cfueGok

I'll be heading back out there this week with my scuba gear (and camera in tow) to see if I can take a better look around for sure now!
 
Second Nurse Shark. Most sharks are not able to remain stationary. The two that I can think of that can are the nurse shark, and the sandtiger (aka grey nurse shark).
 
you can post links after you've had 5 posts. I think it's an effort to keep down spammers.



you post youtube videos with the [yt] [/yt] code brackets

so yours would be [yt]nNH_cfueGok[/yt]





I agree it looks like a nurse shark.... they also are one of the few sharks that will sit on the bottom, usually next to or under some structure or reef ledge.
 
Where exactly is this spot? I'm thinking it may be directly offshore the Oceania Condo. Was it hard to find from the kayak? I heard about this once from a diver I was talking to, but this is the first time to my knowledge it's been mentioned on this board. It's hard to tell from your video - were any other fish around besides the shark? I'm a snorkeler and I would like to check this out sometime, especially because I always stay on Holiday Isle when I go to Destin. However, when I hear "intake", I think of people being sucked to their doom inside some big pipe. By the way, I saw a nurse shark several years back when I was snorkeling at the old Crystal Beach Pier pilings, so they are around nearshore.
 
I've been diving and snorkeling near the Crystal Beach pier pilings. don't think it's near that.

It'd be nice if the original poster could say at least what condo complex it was in front of.


Nemrod might know where it is. he grew up there and still plays there.
 
The way I understand it, there are intake and outtake vents both in the gulf as well as in the bay, to help the tides flush the water out.

I thought I heard of one just south-west of the Destin Pass, this one seems further east. So maybe my information was wrong, or maybe there are multiple vents?
 
I went to this place on my first check-out dive. It is also called "opal rocks" because of the opal like rocks in the surface along the top edge. It is east of the jetties and straight out from one of the condos on Holiday Island. I believe the name of the condo is the Aegean. It is salmon colored and very angular in shape. The intake is not far from shore.
 
I went to this place on my first check-out dive. It is also called "opal rocks" because of the opal like rocks in the surface along the top edge. It is east of the jetties and straight out from one of the condos on Holiday Island. I believe the name of the condo is the Aegean. It is salmon colored and very angular in shape. The intake is not far from shore.


Perhaps in front of this one? (Circles in Green )


Destin-Jetties-circled-condo.jpg
 
The inlet is futher east than that one.
 
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