This morning we hit the reef a bit later and the fish were very much awake. The way out along the jetty was pretty turned up, but after heading over to the reef the viz was top notch. We meandered around the reef today alternating between investigating and then scootering onto the next dense reef patch.

Lots of life. A few yellow sting rays, a grouper, lots of pork fish, a nice school of grey angelfish, and magnificent flyby from a large eagle ray. We found our favorite spot on the reef, “the boiler” – a long man made cylinder with cut outs for the fish to swim through

Water temperature was 87 (a bit down from it’s peak). I used the tank backpack sans BCD which was a nice improvement. 2lbs of weight but not needed. None next time!

We both wore leggings to try to avoid as many jellies as possible. The jellyfish were congregated near the beach and fortunately not out on the reef.

The last picture is the one species of hard coral we’ve found. Generally a soft coral dominated reef.

Friday morning sunrise dive on the South Beach reef. The Atlantic Ocean was about as flat as can be. No wind or waves. As soon as we set off we were greeted by a large school of Bar Jacks (just like the last dive). About 5 minutes further East we spotted a pair of Eagle Ray coming in from the East heading towards shore. We continued out for about 10 minutes. Right as we were preparing to turn North to the reef we came upon a cluster of Tarpon. Visibility wasn’t ideal – this made the tarpon look large and mysterious in the distance. The water temperature was the hottest we’ve seen this season. A balmy 88-89 F.

The lower visibility meant we didn’t find our “usual” section of the reef but instead explored some new areas. We found one of the Nova South Eastern University artificial reef rock piles. This made a fish hot spot.

This shows dozens of pork fish and one very cute Hog fish that comes right up to the camera.

One of our favorite fish, we spotted a porcupine fish.

Perhaps cutest of all, we found a yellow stingray camouflaging in with the bottom.

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.

Diving off of South Beach on July 15th.