May 4, 2002: Boynton Beach, Florida

"Catacombs" - "Little Shark" - "Boynton Ledges" - "Finks"

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: Sunny.
  
  
• Personal Notes: We did two dives in the morning, and two dives in the afternoon, with my sister and I having our Cobra dive computers complaining about the amount of diving we had done throughout the day on the last dive. Also, my longest saltwater dive to date (tying my longest freshwater dive) is in this group of four; overall, we probably spent over four hours in the water this day.
  
  The first dive was one of the best I've ever had. We saw at least two nurse sharks, two stingrays, and a large free swimming green eel. I took 15 minutes of video on this dive alone ... and I usually average about five a dive.
  
  The second dive was really cool too; saw the first Jackknife Fish I had ever seen on it.
  
  Well, *all* of the dives were great but nothing really matches the great time we had on the first one. I didn't even take the camera on the fourth dive; and aside from the Jackknife Fish on dive 2 and the Arrow Crab on dive 3, I could have been without it for those dives (of course, if I hadn't had it, I would have been bummed).

Catacombs
15.2 MB I knew this day was going to be a good day for video when I figured out I had about five minutes of video on this Green Moray Eel alone ... when I usually average five minutes of video for the entire dive! Here's the first couple of minutes of the guy; the first part is a little blurry (sorry, lots of stuff floating in the water), but you can make out some cleaners on him. Then he starts free swimming!
5.7 MB I took a break from the eel (who wasn't doing much) to take a bit of footage of this *huge* Porcupine Fish. He was well over a foot long; probably close to sixteen inches or so!
17.2 MB Here we come across that Green Moray Eel again apparently tracking something down to eat ... but it looks like he gave up and moved on.
3.1 MB Finally! I get footage of a shark. Of course, it's really not much to see when you realize it's a Nurse Shark napping under a rock. But it's still a shark!
3.9 MB As small as these guys are (and as fast as I've seen them move), it's surprising that I'm able to get such good footage of them. I guess they are really confident of their ability to get away if I got too close. Anyway, this is a Harlequin Bass.
5.0 MB One of the coolest things we've seen yet are these Sand Tilefish. First ones my sister and I ever saw, it had us practically loosing our regulators as our jaws dropped open. The almost appeared to be an eel of some sort with the way they swam and manuvered. Even the video fails to do justice to just how cool it was to see these guys and watch them for a little while.
12.5 MB This Stingray was either looking for food or failing miserably to hide himself. In any event, he gave up (or got his meal and we just couldn't see it) and swam off. God I love seeing Stingrays!
3.6 MB Though not quite as brave as the Damselfish that practically attacked my camera, this is definitely one pissed off Sergeant Major fish.
8.3 MB The dive started with some excellent footage of the Green Moray Eel ... and it ends with some wonderful footage of this three to four foot Nurse Shark swimming about. We were planning to do four dives this day ... and we could have gone home happy after just this one!
Little Shark
5.8 MB Here's some footage of another very large Porcupine Fish.
4.8 MB Though not quite as exciting as the Sand Tilefish, this was the first Jackknife Fish my sister and I could recall seeing, and helped make the dive more satisfying.
3.3 MB Here's a couple of (mated?) Spotfin Butterflyfish.
2.9 MB Here's a Gray Angelfish in "Intermediate Phase," which is indicated by the white bar on his side.
2.7 MB This is some footage of a Lobster with some cool whip-like antennae.
2.4 MB This Nurse Shark was probably napping until it woke up, saw us, and swam off.
3.1 MB This is some really cool footage of a couple of large Whitespotted Filefish. One is in the "Orange Phase," and the other is in the "Whitespotted Phase."
Boynton Ledges
2.4 MB I never did get zoomed in enough to really figure out what these were. If you have an idea, please email me.
4.1 MB Here's a bit of video of what is most likely a Juvenile French Angelfish. The bright yellow stripes on these guys are usually the giveaway.
3.7 MB A short video of a Spotted Moray Eel poking his head out of his hole for a look-see.
3.5 MB A Turtle napping under a ledge. With some lighting assistance from a buddy, you can make it out quite clearly.
4.4 MB This Spotted Moray was out of his hole but wasn't really doing much swimming ... more like slithering, really.
4.3 MB This Green Moray Eel is hard to make out, but what's more interesting is his upside down Lobster neighbor!

Catacombs
A balloon fish trying to hide in some bowl coral.
A Spanish Grunt hanging out under a coral ledge.
After several attempts at shooting this Harlequin Bass, I gave up ... the camera kept locking on to the background. This is the best shot I have.
We saw a lot of cool stuff on this dive, including this Stingray.
Here's a good shot of the Stingray in "flight."
I'm guessing that this is a Red Grouper ... probably not quite big enough to shoot ... and he knows it, since he's out where a hunter could see him!
I have no clue what this is but it looks cool.
The profile of a Scorpion Fish. I took a little green out of this one and he shows up a little better.
A Scorpion Fish from above and a little behind. Again, I took a little green out of this and he shows up a little better. Notice the brilliant coloration on the underside of his fin.
I've probably been misidentifying Sand Divers like this one for Blue Striped Lizardfish. Oh well.
There's no mistaking this Spotted Spiny Lobster.
Little Shark
Lots of fish in this shot; most notable, a couple of Spadefish and a Gray Angelfish.
A better shot of the two Spadefish.
I could swear this is the first Jackknife Fish I've seen, much less taken a picture of. Both my sister and I were excited to catch a glimpse of one of these.
This is very close to the picture I've been wanting to take for a very long time, and on this dive it took three tries. This is a Christmas Tree Worm, almost head on (at least I think it's almost head on). The trees are his antennae.
You'd think this was a fairly normal fish, but then my sister and I hadn't quite seen anything like it. She made an attempt to ID it but I forgot what she decided it was. I can't quite find it in the book (at least nothing conclusive).
I should have been able to ID this guy pretty easily, but for the life of me I just can't find him in my book right now. This picture is significant in that instead of shrinking the original 1152x864 image to 640x480, I cropped this section out. The subject was kind of small and as you can probably tell, there were other things in the frame that I didn't want to focus on.
My first couple of visits to the Boynton area didn't see much Spadefish ... but more and more, I see them more often.
Boynton Ledges
This is actually a pretty good shot of a Spiny Lobster.
This is currently my Windows background at work. It's one of the best shots of an Arrow Crab I have; it's too bad you can't see his claws ... he's hiding them.
This is a Juvenile French Angelfish (I'm fairly certain). I took a little green out of this photo.
Pucker Up! This Smooth Trunkfish looks like he's making kissy faces.
This is a Spotted Moray.