Yesterday, I went diving with Trevor at Pura Vida Divers. We had almost 100 foot visibility at North Doubles and Shark Canyon lived up to its name. After a second tank at Jolly Jacks and lunch at the Tiki Hut, I drove over to the Blue Heron Blvd bridge.
Some of you may know that the park has been closed since the onslaught of hurricanes earlier this fall. However, the park is now opened for recreational boating so I figured it was time to see how one of my favorite dive sites weathered the hurricanes. The usual beach area on the south side is fenced off and "Closed" so I went over to Phil Foster park, slipped into the water next to the public boat ramp and swam over to the small span east of the main span of the bridge.
It was immediately apparent why the bridge is closed. There are still several sunken boat under and around the bridge, not to mention lots of scattered debris. While a lot of the sponges are gone, there is still a lot of marine life. There were about 10 huge barracuda patrolling along with large schools of sheepshead and jacks. One eagle ray cruised right over my head while two southern stingrays were digging in the sand. While I couldn't find the resident seahorses and didn't see any batfish this trip, there were lots of tropicals, several small lobsters and crabs, and a sharp tailed eel on the prowl. There were still a lot of blennies around but the usually numerous fireworms, banded coral shrimp, and other small creatures were noticeably absent. Hopefully they will return in time.
Check out my website (www.debersole.com) under "galleries" for photos from the boat dives and from under the bridge.
Some of you may know that the park has been closed since the onslaught of hurricanes earlier this fall. However, the park is now opened for recreational boating so I figured it was time to see how one of my favorite dive sites weathered the hurricanes. The usual beach area on the south side is fenced off and "Closed" so I went over to Phil Foster park, slipped into the water next to the public boat ramp and swam over to the small span east of the main span of the bridge.
It was immediately apparent why the bridge is closed. There are still several sunken boat under and around the bridge, not to mention lots of scattered debris. While a lot of the sponges are gone, there is still a lot of marine life. There were about 10 huge barracuda patrolling along with large schools of sheepshead and jacks. One eagle ray cruised right over my head while two southern stingrays were digging in the sand. While I couldn't find the resident seahorses and didn't see any batfish this trip, there were lots of tropicals, several small lobsters and crabs, and a sharp tailed eel on the prowl. There were still a lot of blennies around but the usually numerous fireworms, banded coral shrimp, and other small creatures were noticeably absent. Hopefully they will return in time.
Check out my website (www.debersole.com) under "galleries" for photos from the boat dives and from under the bridge.
