22 Jun 2021
Good morning, Florida!
I typically don’t take vacations over the summer- I prefer to travel in the spring/fall when it’s slightly less busy, but work’s been crazy and I decided a break in the summer would be nice. Unfortunately, a lot of other people had similar plans so my dive boats were all full for this first morning. Fortunately, that gave me time to do one of my other favorite Keys activities: Feeding the Tarpons at Robbie’s!
For a few dollars, you get a bucket of dead fish and can go out on their dock and hand-feed the tarpons!
Watch out for the birds though, they’ll try to steal your fishes!
Also new this year- that netting over the middle feeding zones. I think it’s supposed to keep the birds out, but it make it really hard to get good pictures of the fish so I opted to feed my tarpons from the outskirts of the dock.
Here, fishy, fishy, fishy…
Maybe…
CHOMP!
They have such huge mouths!!!
After I fed them all the fish in my bucket, I watched some other people feed the tarpon:
That tarpon has a remora on his face!
Hungry thieves waiting to snag some fish: a cormorant
and another pelican
I got there a little after 9am and basically had the dock to myself, but by 10 it was getting pretty busy, so it was time to leave.
On the way back up to Key Largo, I stopped at the Blonde Giraffe for slice of key lime pie on a stick- one of my traditions when I’m in the Keys
Frozen, then dipped in chocolate- so tasty!
Dive #1 – Conch Ledge
Hello there, school of Bluestriped grunts!
Juvenile Green razorfish:
Little balloonfish (with a crazy reflection in his eye from my strobe):
Hogfish!
This porcupinefish looked like he was waving 🙂
I think this guy is a blenny- he was super-skittish and even though his face is pointed away, his eyes are turned back, watching me:
One of these fish is not like the others… a Yellowtail snapper (and a white grunt at the bottom of the picture):
Farewell, bluestriped grunts!
Dive #2 – Snapper Ledge
A trumpetfish:
I ended up seeing quite a few of these guys on this trip!
That red-bellied guy is a Stoplight parrotfish (in the initial phase):
A well-hidden scorpionfish:
Hello there, Hawksbill turtle!
A sneaky stingray:
I saw several of these little gobies scooting along in the open sandy patches- I think he’s a brindled goby:
Fourspot butterflyfish:
Filefish!!!
Another one! I don’t remember seeing these Orangespotted filefish here in the Keys before
Trumpetfish:
Sharpnose puffer! I love these little guys!
NUDIBRANCH!!! So this is a terrible picture- that purple sea fan was waving back and forth in the current so I struggled getting even this shot, but that there is a tiny Tritonicula hamnerorum, a new-to-me nudibranch, and I spotted him all on my own!
(and yes, I found more of them and got some better shots later in the week)
Nurse shark, resting:
Nurse shark, annoyed with my camera:
Squirrelfish- this one was much paler than others I’ve seen:
Another Stoplight parrotfish- I like these guys: they’re big-ish and their red bellies make them easy to spot:
Smooth trunkfish!
Another trunkfish!
Hello there, school of Bluestriped grunts!
A Fourspot butterflyfish and a purple sea fan
and a pair of Bluestriped grunts:
The Sergeant majors were rather aggressive this trip- zooming in and out of caves and chasing other fish away- that purple on the wall behind this Sergeant major is a mass of eggs and my fish book tells me that the males display this blueish coloration while guarding the nest! How cool is that?!
I spotted this guy several times, but he’s rather shy and just pointing the camera toward him was enough to scare him off- I did get a better shot later in the week. A harlequin bass:
Red hind?
White grunt:
Yellow stingray!
Farewell, little guy!
