Dive off Anclote Key April 25, 2015

Tim Metcalf and I had a very good dive on a very long ledge we found about 5 miles off Anclote Key today in 28 to 33 ft of water.  We could see the bottom below us as soon as we splashed.  Lots of small hogfish, lots of all kinds of other fish and a very large Loggerhead Sea Turtle.  To see many more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6141856171967178529?authkey=CN--qeLDuuHSwQE

Here's a few pictures from our dive.

 I shot a selfie at the beginning of our dive to adjust my strobe angle and happened to catch Tim's boat on the surface 32 feet above us in the background.

 We do get some extremely colorful tropical Caribbean butterfly fish on our ledges off Central West Coast Florida.

 A nice sized Hogfish.  I was very happy to see dozens and dozens of juvenile hogfish on our dive.

 A large Loggerhead Sea Turtle being disturbed from his attempt to take a nap under the ledge.

 See the remoras or sucker fish to the left of the sea turtle.

 Loggerheads have enormous heads and really big beaks and I was relieved that he didn't get to irritated with me.

 Tim swims above a juvenile hogfish in camouflage.

 Can you see the cowfish in the foreground of the photo under Tim?

Cowfish in the foreground.

Three Dives off Hurricane Pass, April 18, 2015

I've been in Florida almost three weeks and yesterday I finally went diving for the first time since March 12.  My friend Tim Metcalf and I took his boat out and made three separate dives.  We had very calm seas and excellent visibility, about 50 ft vertically and about 35 ft horizontally.  It is always great when you splash and can immediately see the bottom under you.  Water temperature was a very pleasant 76 degrees.

Our first dive was on a ledge that Tim has the GPS coordinates for, it is a long ledge about 2 ft to 3 ft high.  One of the really cool things on the ledge is a very large fossilized rib cage, maybe from a Mastodon - these offshore ledges that we are diving on were above water during glacial periods.

 The exposed part of the rib cage was maybe about 3 ft by 3 ft and the ribs (my hand in photo below) were maybe 3 inches or so in diameter.

We saw lots of red grouper, some black (or gag) grouper, lots of mostly juvenile Hogfish which I was delighted to see, lots of Mangrove snapper (there weren't nearly so many of these this far north when I dived these waters forty years ago), Sheepshead, and the usual grunts.

 Tim found a beautiful Helmet shell which we left on the ledge.

 Tim is swimming up the ledge past a Hogfish and Mangrove Snapper.

 Hogfish are beautiful and also incredibly delicious, we didn't take any yesterday, the ones we saw were a bit small for our standards but it was great to see many many juvenile Hogfish.

 This is the kind of sea star I expect to see in the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean, I never saw one of these off Dunedin forty years ago when I dived out here all the time.  I had no idea they were now being found this far north as the seas gradually warm (and rise).

 Tim found a nice sized Horse Conch which we also of course left on the ledge.

 Sailors Choice and a very nice sized Red Grouper.  And for sensitive folks, sorry about that, but we're having him for dinner tonight, courtesy of Tim's spearfishing and cooking!

 A cool looking toadfish

 A pair of Jackknife fish.

When you start a dive you want to be sure the anchor is well placed so that you still have a boat to go to at the end of the dive.  When you finish a dive you want to make sure you will be able to get the anchor up from the boat.  Tim is getting the anchor ready for retrieval in this case.
For many more pictures from yesterday's dives, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6139465885295293681?authkey=CKfckdCY4erVUA