Started the day with a sunrise dive. The sun has been rising later and later so it was hiding behind the horizon until we made it to the bike rack at South Pointe to gear up.
To start the dive off, a giant group of bar jacks were looking for breakfast – they raced passed us back and forth three times checking us out to see if we were finding any good scraps they could scavenge. After we rode about 8 minutes along the jetty we decided to venture North towards the reef and were greeted by 3 spotted eagle rays! They slowly moved on and we spotted 2 more cruising for mollusks and then finally one last one doing a dance of ascending and descending 3 or so feet repeatedly (morning yoga routine?) – longer video of the rays after the full dive.
“A pelagic species commonly found in shallow inshore waters such as bays, estuaries, and coral reefs but may cross oceanic basins to depths of around 200 feet. Often seen swimming near the water surface, occasionally leaping completely out of the water. Frequently forming large schools during the non-breeding season.” – FTW
These beauties can get up to 10 feet across and grow to 17 feet long, snout to tail tip. It’s always exciting to see these graceful creatures on any dive and to see 6 in one dive is a special treat!
And here’s the shorter video of just the extended eagle rays including the dance.