20 Jan 2023
A cold snap rolled through Florida while we were in town (it got down into the 40s while I was in Disney) and while the air temperatures had warmed up by the time I got to the Keys (back in the 80s!), the water was still quite chilly- only in the mid-70s. At those temps I usually throw a second suit over my 5mil (either my own 3mil or I rent whatever the dive shop has) but I decided to try out my new suit to see how it would fare.
Cold. So cold.
Today’s first dive (Christmastree Cave – French Reef) was a whopping 75*
It always takes a couple dives to dial in my camera settings, so here’s a mediocre shot of a Striped parrotfish:
Graysby?
Hogfish:
Pederson cleaner shrimp! These guys are so pretty!
A grumpy little Blue chromis:
Butter hamlet! I saw one of these guys for the first time on my last Florida trip- I think they’re quite pretty:
SHARK!! a little reef shark- he wasn’t fond in us and kept his distance:
This stingray was rooting around in the sand:
One of the tiniest little juvenile wrasses I’ve ever seen!
He was maybe an inch long and absolutely adorable!
I don’t remember seeing anything like this before, but this is a Gorgonian hydroid:
There’s not much about them in my fish book so I’ll update this if any of my dive buddies can help.
Yellowhead jawfish!
And another!
This one looks like it’s waving!
Usually they’re pretty shy, and these guys did duck into their holes when we swam past, but they came back out and didn’t mind me taking pictures:
Glasseye snapper:
Schoolmaster snapper:
Dive #2 – French Reef
I don’t remember the exact site, but it was just as cold as the first 🙁
I spotted 3 of these little Pederson cleaner shrimp, but only this one was in a photographable position:
Rock Beauty:
Mahogany snapper:
Harlequin bass:
Gray angelfish:
Stoplight parrotfish (initial phase):
Scrawled filefish:
Scrawled cowfish:
Note to me: crank up the strobe or find a second- need more light!
Dive #3 – Snappers 2 (Molasses Reef)
I switched back to my old 5mil suit for this set of dives and actually felt marginally warmer, which didn’t really make sense until I checked the temperature and found it was 77*, which was slightly warmer than the morning dives.
Started this dive with a pair of little juvenile Longfin damselfish:
These guys are pretty, but don’t like to stay still!
Squirrelfish:
Pederson cleaner shrimp:
French grunt:
Lettuce sea slug:
I actually spotted quite a few of them, but most were hiding between fans and I couldn’t safely get to them:
Hogfish:
Clown wrasse:
This lettuce sea slug was more blue than most:
Spotted scorpionfish, spotted:
Crab:
Dusky? damselfish:
Juvenile spotted drum!!!
Isn’t he adorable!
Skittish, but cute:
Dive #4 – Permit Ledge (Molasses Reef)
Bluestriped grunts
Ooo! Barracudas!
Lobsters:
Porkfish, with various snapper friends:
Turtle:
This poor parrotfish has a remora stuck on his head!
I wonder if they tickle..
Spotfish butterflyfish:
A free-swimming Graysby:
Schoolmaster:
Foureye butterflyfish:
Nurse shark sleeping under a ledge:
Trumpetfish- I watched one of these guys stalk a little fish and totally chomp him down 🙁
I think this is a White grunt? but he’s the darkest one I’ve ever seen!
A blue Sergeant major guarding his nest:
A juvenile Yellowtail damselfish!
There were actually 3-4 of them living in this coral
(but they darted around so quickly it was hard to count them)
