Hey! Another report.
Seas were fairly calm today, about 2' or so. Water temps were about 83, there was a moderate north current on both dives. We started out at Clubhouse for a little Meandrina meandrites research action followed by a Briney to Gazebo to Lynn's combo.
Visibility on both dives was okay, maybe 50' or so. I took a crappy shot of the reef at one point that didn't pan out the way I wanted it to, but it represents the vis pretty accurately.
The crappy reef shot that shows the water.
We did some coral studying, which requires a camera and something to reference size with. I decided that a lobster gauge would fit the bill, and away we went. The gauge also came in handy for measuring lobsters in between coral pictures!
The non-scientist portion of the trip (diveMatt and his girlfriend) just did a normal drift on Clubhouse (which is a great dive, by the way) and reported seeing everything... rays, turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels... the works. Hopefully we'll hear from him.
There have been alot of moon jellies lately, sometimes huge ones. They're pretty benign to me, but some folks are sensitive to them I guess and experience irritation if stung, so if you are sensitive to these and are planning to dive in the area anytime soon you may want to wear some kind of exposure suit or skin.
One of the moon jellies near the surface.
I found out later that on the second dive the chain moray was spotted! That's awesome. I would have tried to get some more pics if I had known, but at least I know where to look. I was having a pretty bad camera day anyway though... lot of fish butts, and the only turtle I found, a juvie green, was pretty shy. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow! Oh yeah, on the second dive, on Gazebo I saw something new (to me)! It has been my experience until today that four-eyed butterflyfish are usually found in pairs, meandering along the reef top. Today I found a pair or regular sized ones, with a third, smaller one. I took a picture, which isn't very good, but does show all three of the fish.
The butterflyfish.