I haven't, but I'm typically not looking at the fish swimming around. Maybe Jenny?
Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III
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I'm told they are quite common but I guess they just got my attention the last time. Had to look them up.
Gear's in for service now so I'll miss a week or so but hope to be back soon
In crossing the bridge on the way home, I too saw at least the far lane prepped for the pouring of concrete. Would be AMAZING if they would open the beach up after that as Pipehorse suggested.
That long walk is getting ,. well long
Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 0715 for an 0830 tide. More than a normal amount of people for a Monday morning, but not as many as a weekend. I assume it will be quite crowded tomorrow, I will not be there. The barge that had been put in place to paint the bridge columns a week ago this past Friday was still there. With only one set of columns painted, it did not take them that long to complete the columns west of the boat channel. Stayed on the west side for the entirety of the 130 minute dive. Visibility was a disappointing 25ft with hazy blue color. Sea temp is 85f. Did a REEF fish survey 61 species in 70 minutes. Lots of Spanish Sardines, Scaled Sardines, and Round Scads swimming around trying to avoid Bar Jacks and Blue Runners. Seems like there are tons of lobsters in every crack and crevice suitable for Spiny Lobsters to hide. The vast majority of them shorts. Headed east to exit and even then I did not encounter another diver underwater. Respectively, Atlantic Spadefish, Feather Duster Worms, Spiny Lobster, Spadefish Video, Spadefish Video, and Spiny Lobster Video
When you say that you stayed west, does that mean west of the channel that goes under the big bridge? Also, roughly how big were the sardines that you saw?
I snorkeled the trail this morning. 25' was the max visibility I saw. many areas were less than that, but I may have been a little late getting in the water. I may have just been catching the tail end of high tide. I didn't bring a watch, so I don't know for sure.
The only fish I saw that could have been sardines were about an inch long. I had called them minnows, but my fish ID skills for things that I don't eat are pretty rudimentary. For all I know they could have been juvenile sardines. They had that shape & a green stripe along their backs. The bodies were not tall enough to be the bait fish that are locally called greenies or green backs.
Nice shot of the lobsters. I've never seen that many in one place in South Florida.
...actually, all nice shots, as usual. You never seem to disappoint.
goldfishtornado
Registered
Not very crowded for a holiday when we arrived at 0750 this morning, though things were getting busy as we finished.
If anyone lost a piece of dive gear on the Eastern part of the snorkel trail, DM me with a brief description. I'll try to get it back to you.
If anyone lost a piece of dive gear on the Eastern part of the snorkel trail, DM me with a brief description. I'll try to get it back to you.
When I say west, I mean anywhere within the area outlined in blue. I have been on the pilings west of the channel, but not often. Even hugging the bottom on a not busy day I prefer to avoid crossing the channel.
Right. so all these little fish swimming around have lots of common and generic names. Probably the most apt description is "baitfish". To further add to the confusion, there are sometime as many as eight species all mixed together. However for the REEF fish surveys I do try to identify some of them down to species level, the ones I cannot identify get marked down as "Unidentified Silvery Fish". By far the most common occurring of these is the "Scaled Sardine" Harengula jaguana aka Pilchard, aka Greenback, aka Greenie. According to the FWC fact sheet Scaled Sardine, they can grow to 7 inches long. At the bridge they seem to never get bigger than 2 inches. The second most common occurring is the "Spanish Sardine" Sardinella aurita. According to the FWC fact sheet, Spanish Sardine they can grow to 10 inches long. At the bridge they seem to never get bigger than 3 inches. The species look alike color wise, however the Scaled Sardine has a deeper body. When I am watching them underwater the give way is swimming style. Scaled Sardine are totally polarized look fish like. Spanish Sardine is less polarized and swim in a fashion that makes them look like eels. It seems like they are weaving a pattern with each other instead turning in a polarized fashion like the Scaled Sardine. Red Ear Herring Harengula humeralis aka Red Ear Sardine is also common. About the same size as the other 2 species and can be distinguished and red mark at the corner of the operculum.
tarponchik
Contributor
I stray there sometimes. It is pretty much the same thing except you do not bump into other divers.
I've always preferred the west side, if only because there are usually less divers
Thanks for the clarification. When people here were saying east side & west side, I had no frame of reference before.
Bigger sardines are generally found on the outside, near shallow reefs. Boynton is a hot spot for them. So are some places in St. Lucie County. A mixture of Scaled Sardines, Spanish Sardines & Cigar Minnows typically show up in the 3-6" range there, with the occasional outlier that can be a little bigger. Thread fins & horn bellies are often mixed in to the north of here. ...That's what the fishermen call them. As for proper names, I don't know.
the same small minnows I saw at the bridge the other day are common in good sized schools throughout the area at this time. I am seeing few pilchards, and ballyhoo in their usual places.
I'm surprised to see the area circled in blue extend north of the fishing pier. I never dive or swim near the fishing pier, let alone north of it. Fish hooks are the main reason.
I do know a few spots a little further north from there that are interesting to take a look at, but the water quality in that area is generally terrible, unless we go for more than a month without rain. With the amount of rain we have had recently, & the levels I see catch basins at, I would expect that it would take longer than that for clean sea water to move in that far again. And since we are just getting started with the rainy hurricane season, I would expect it to be a very long wait until that area sees workable visibility again.
One of the many things that makes BHB fantastic, is that it is very close to the inlet & when the ocean is clean, fresh sea water cleans out the area by the bridge every day, at least for a little while.
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