Venice Sea Life encounters

[krawdady]

I was diving yesterday at the boneyard and almost bumped into a huge sea turtle. I'm honestly not sure what kind it was but this thing was massive. The vis was only 2-3 feet and I had my face close to the bottom looking for teeth when I came within about 3 feet of him. He (or she I didn't lift the tail) must have been sleeping or something because all of the sudden this sand blew into my face from one of the turtles fins as it was lifting itself off the bottom. I thought maybe I had come up on another diver in the low vis so it was quite a shock when I picked my head up and saw this this thing. I guarantee he surprised me much more than I surprised him. Later I ran into a plastic deck chair someone dropped off their boat. That wasn't quite as exciting.

 

[mcgowman]

...Also saw the usual snook, grouper, spade fish, stone crab, snapper, porkfish, lizardfish, searobin....

Am glad you mentioned seeing a searobin off Venice.

I saw one there back in September 2008, but doubted myself after checking the Reef Fish books that said they were 'uncommon in Florida'.

I thought it was such a strange looking fish while watching it crawl on the bottom with it's little legs under it's jaw.

Thanks for the sanity check.

 

[Walter]

Searobins are frequently found at Venice. Sometimes I go for months without seeing them and sometimes I see lots of them on every dive for years.

 

[loquat149]

Let's see...last weekend I saw a seahorse about the size of my hand lying against a rock, tail curled up, eyes closed, fins folded down, playing 'possum. I picked it up thinking it was one of those dried varieties you find in Chinatown. I also noticed a flounder in a very unusual posture with its head and tail flexed upward completely off the bottom. This must be its cleaning-station behavior as there was a small shrimp 'grooming' it.

Dave

 

[Jayde323]

We were boat diving off Venice this past Sunday closer to the shore and saw 2 different sea turtles. Both were loggerheads but one was definatly bigger than the other. Wonder if one of them was the one you saw... Also saw a couple dolphins, school of tarpon (one jumped clear out of the water) and a huge lobster. Great day for wildlife.