December 29, 2001: Boynton Beach, Florida

"Gulf Stream Ledges" - "Catacombs"

Diving in the Atlantic Ocean:

• Directions from Tampa: I usually head down HW60 to Yeehaw Junction, then take the Turnpike south. I get off of the Turnpike at Lake Worth Road.
• Conditions on the day of my visit: Partly Cloudy.
  
  
• Personal Notes: It took us a while to get started; one of the bad things about boating around the Boynton Beach area is that there is really only one pass to the ocean, and on this day the dredge pipe that was laying across it came loose and floated to the surface. So we spent pretty much from 9am to about 11:30am or so waiting for the dredging guys to show up and at least move the darn thing out of the way. We became the afternoon boat (well, one of them).
  
  The current was also kind of rough that day, and it was surprisingly warmer than originally expected (by me anyway).

Gulf Stream Ledges
1.9 MB A shot of a Graysby (look for the three darker dots on the back) and panning to a quick shot of a Redband Parrotfish (I think).
532 kB This is a Bar Jack. I think something was cleaning him before I disturbed them.
1.5 MB If the current hadn't been so bad, I might have tried to get closer to this Pederson Cleaner Shrimp.
3.3 MB Here's a shot of a school of Cottonwick.
4.0 MB I really didn't want to scare this Spotted Trunkfish too much ... heck, by being there I think I made him a little nervous. I tried using the lights to get a better shot of him but I don't think it worked all that well.
2.4 MB My sister made the hand signal for eel and I didn't quite understand, until I swam around the rock and came across this Green Moray Eel ... being cleaned no less.
Catacombs
3.0 MB My best guess is that this is a couple of Reef Butterfly Fish.
2.4 MB Some footage of a grouper that followed us around on our dive.
2.0 MB Queen Angels can sometimes be very skittish, even when they are quite large.
1.2 MB This I'm guessing is some kind of Porgy.
1.4 MB This Lobster is lucky we weren't diving near a hunter. For all we know, he became someone's dinner!
1.2 MB This small school of Bar Jack was probably at a cleaning station until we showed up and made everyone nervous.
2.1 MB I really like Honeycomb Cowfish, and find it surprising every time I see one.
2.1 MB I've learned that with Trumpetfish, getting shots of their head is more important than trying to fit the whole body in the frame.

Gulf Stream Ledges
When I first saw an angelfish, they weren't really that big. Here's a very large French Angelfish.
Another shot of that big French Angelfish.
Here's a (Queen?) Angelfish behind some Cottonwicks. This was a very large school ... look at the video above.
Here's a nice red Trumpetfish.
I didn't bother to ID this guy, though he's probably some kind of butterfly fish.
As much as this guy was zipping around, it's amazing that this shot came out as good as it did. Again, I got lazy and haven't ID'd this yet.
Catacombs
I hadn't seen Spadefish for a while; probably since the last time I dove Jacksonville Beach. Seeing these two was a bit of a shock, especially since they weren't moving a whole lot.
This is probably a Squirrelfish.
I got some decent video of this guy; this grouper (not sure what kind) actually seemed to be following my sister and I around.
I have this habit of taking pictures of pretty much anything my sister points at. This doughnut shaped rock formation didn't have anything hiding in it; it was just wierd looking.
Some Christmas Tree Worms. I have yet to get the kind of shot I want of these guys but then they are very easily startled.
Every time I see a cowfish, like this Honeycomb Cowfish, it's a big deal. Dunno why; I've seen a fair amount of them.
You'd think I'd have enough pictures of Lizardfish, but this guy was at least 18 inches long, biggest I've seen.
A Trumpetfish (well, his head) attempting to hide from me.