On Sunday we went scuba diving off of South Beach with my parents. We couldn’t fit all the dive gear in our bike trailer so we took the car to south point and walked the dive gear to the beach with Dave carrying the scooters and my dad’s gear in the trailer.
We started a little further North than we typically start when diving off of south beach, entering the beach between first and second street and making about a 30 degree approach to the south point jetty – parents in tow using the blacktip dive scooters.
One of the first sightings on our way to the reef was a lessor electric ray! I’ve only seen these once before and thought it was a guitar fish but using our fish identification book after the dive we noticed it was not. These rays have less angular noses and are able to produce an electric shock.
“Like the name suggests, this is one of the rays that can create an electric shock from 14 to 37 volts, from specialized organs that run along their bodies. These small rays have a circular pectoral disc, with a stout tail that as two small dorsal fins and a triangular caudal (tail) fin. They are are dark brown to reddish, with irregular rings on top, and pale underneath. These coastal dwellers prefer hiding in sand and mud or seagrass during the day, and foraging for crustaceans, marine worms, and other small prey at night.” – Florida Museum (click to learn more)
Overall was a very nice dive and even saw an eagle ray on our way in. Focused on not losing my parents on our first dive off of south beach together, I didn’t take too much footage but here’s a short video of what I was able to capture:
Looking forward to many more family dives off of South Beach.
