Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Navymedic]

I'll be renting a room on the 19th and plan to head out to the area beaches Sunday the 20th. Just gonna see whats out there if anything and have a little adventure with the wife. Thanks for posting this, we haven't done much exploring of the gulf side of Florida yet

 

[soflmuddin]

I made it a point this past year to search for locations down the south east coast of florida for zoas and rock flower anemons. I have been collecting tropical fish here for 28 years and never bothered to look for these. Yeah they were there but never payed them no mind. Happy to say I found plenty. Just have to take the time to look.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I made it a point this past year to search for locations down the south east coast of florida for zoas and rock flower anemones. I have been collecting tropical fish here for 28 years and never bothered to look for these. Yeah they were there but never payed them no mind. Happy to say I found plenty. Just have to take the time to look.

You have me wanting to know, when you say the south east coast of Florida, where exactly are you talking about? Between which cities along the SE coast and are you talking about near shore shallows or scuba diving depths (20 to 50 ft) further offshore or reefs that are much further offshore?

Just to be fair and clear, I'm willing to show where I find rock flower anemones and zoas on a google earth map. I've already posted some and if anybody asked, I'd be happy to show them again.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'll be renting a room on the 19th and plan to head out to the area beaches Sunday the 20th. Just gonna see whats out there if anything and have a little adventure with the wife. Thanks for posting this, we haven't done much exploring of the gulf side of Florida yet

You mean Sunday the 20th of January? My wife and I snorkeled at Bahia Honda State Park in January about 5 or 6 years ago. The water was cold enough that we wore heavy wetsuits and could only stay in the water for an hour. The bottom of the ocean is a little like anywhere on land when the temps get cold. Everything looks for places to hide or hole up and stay warm. We were both surprised at how much less activity there was in the water and on the bottom. And if you are looking to do just beach exploration, the state park doesn't clean the beach so there is some chance you may find something interesting in the wet mounds of seaweed in the beach. And the water is very shallow (0 to 2 ft) out 50 to 100 feet off the beach depending on the tides.

Good luck, have fun and I'd really appreciate hearing about it after you guys go (where ever it is that you end up). Thanks.

 

[soflmuddin]

All snorkeling. Blue herron bridge, Miami's south beach, multiple places by bridges in the keys. I picked a new spot every weekend and spent a few hours exploring each.

 

[Ron Reefman]

A few posts back I promised some beach walk photos from the walk we did at Lovers Key with a couple I met here who were vacationing in SW Florida. There wasn't too much to see in the way of shells. But my wife got some interesting photos of other things.

As we were walking to the beach, over a foot bridge, we saw upside down jellyfish swimming around. Not a bad photo for being 25 feet above murky estuary water.

There was an osprey who had caught a fish and was enjoying a meal up in a tree. I think these guys have eyes that just look scary!


Most people won't know what an ibus looks like. There are several species and they all look like they belong in a Far Side cartoon!


Blue herons aren't uncommon, but they aren't common either. This guy was hunting tiny fish in the back bay estuary.


My favorites are these last two shots. From the beach with a 'normal' lens these pelicans gathered together on what's left of a sandbar that's disappearing to the incoming tide look a bit crowded. But use the telephoto and it's a much more interesting photo and it looks like they are right there in front of you!

 

[Ron Reefman]

The Lightning Whelks pictured on the screen back in post 214 have been washed, coated with mineral oil and allowed to dry. Then my wife put them in a new glass container I just happened to buy her for Christmas!

 

[Navymedic]

Excited, we will be in Cape Coral tomorrow, and might stay into Monday afternoon to view the Blood moon. Will have pics, not snorkeling but will hit the beaches for some fresh air...

 

[Ron Reefman]

Welcome to Cape Coral, I'll send you a PM. Seeing the blood moon may be a bit iffy as Sunday there is a cold front that will be clearing out and it may still be cloudy at midnight Sunday night. But we'll be out with cameras and will take photos if we get anything to see! And Monday morning should be at least an above average morning as far as shelling on Sanibel. Being the eternal optimist, I'm hoping to see a great eclipse and then be out on Sanibel beaches early Monday morning!

We'll be in Sarasota on Saturday getting a behind the scene tour of Mote Marine with our local club.

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, today (Jan 21st) was a pretty good shelling day. Yesterday's cold front gave us the west winds that help make bigger waves that wash stuff up on the beach (we very rarely get west winds here) and the full moon (yesterday's eclipse) also makes for stronger low tide.

So we got up at 5:30 and were at the beach by 7am (low tide was about 7:30). Elaine and I play a game every time we go to the beach. "so how many cars in the parking lot?" Well, too many times we go at sunrise or when it's really cold after a front. Elaine guessed 2 and I said 2 plus or minus 2 will certainly cover it. Wrong! We made car number 15. And one guy was coming back to his car from the beach. He had on a hat with a bright light on it and he was carrying a bag full of shells. So I asked him when he got to the beach and he said, "Two hours ago and there were already a couple of cars already there when he pulled in!" We left at 10 and there were only 7 cars in the lot. And it was a pretty good shelling day.

So just for fun, one of the better eclipse photos. We're at the eastern edge of the 'totality' range so the upper left edge of the moon never really got red. I think it's cool that a couple of stars even showed up in the photo below the moon. Normal moon photos are brighter so the exposure time is shorter and I never saw stars in them!



So the moon was still up when we got to the beach.



And the sun was just lighting up the eastern horizon. BTW, that's my wife near the water also taking a photo of the 'before' sunrise! And you can see at 7am there were already quite a few people out shelling.



There were lots of good shells on the beach. Even lots of live shells and sand dollars which are both illegal to collect on Sanibel and Captiva Islands. There were very few sponges and I didn't see any of the soft orange ones that make great nurseries for tiny crabs, shrimp and sea stars. So all I collected was a big clump of red macroalgae. It's currently soaking in some aquarium water and I haven't searched through it yet to see if anything came home by 'accident'. But it looked pretty clean when I picked it up.

We were doing our Bailey Matthews National Shell Museum 'Shell Ambassador' volunteer work and I talked to about 10 or 12 people who came up and asked me questions. And none of them lives in Florida! A few were snowbirds, but they can't live here more than half the year.

I'll post up some shell photos after we get them cleaned up.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It was in the low 40s this morning! It was 62 in the house. We almost never need to run the heat, but I did start it up this morning!
I can't wait for it to get warm again so we can go snorkeling!

 

[Cristy17]

Hey Ron! I am really enjoying catching up on your adventures! I am still very interested in joining you all in the any snorkeling adventures once the water warms up! I live in Bradenton and I think we had spoken a while back after we met at the Sarasota Frag Swap last year. Where are you again? I think 2 hours south of Bradenton? I wouldn’t mind meeting at Santibel Island for some shelling when yoi think it may be a good time to go! Those pictures you posted of all the live animals were great! I loved all the whelks and scallop shells you and your wife collected! What kind of starfish were those and how long were they? It was difficult to estimate from the picture. They looked really big.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Christy, I remember you. And I've heard that the event we met at in Sarasota is being scheduled again this year. Oh, and we live in Cape Coral which is between Ft Myers and Sanibel. Ft Myers is on the mainland, Cape Coral is a peninsula between the Caloosahatchee River to the east and south and the Intercoastal Waterway to the west and Sanibel is a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico.

Elaine and I are going crazy waiting for the weather to warm up so we can go snorkeling in the Keys again. We are probably looking at Mat for a first trip. The local club has a trip planed for June and I think I may be helping out a club in Ocala, FL put a trip together for July. Meanwhile we keep a close eye on the weather for a strong cold front so we can hopefully find some porcelain crabs and pistol shrimp. But at the very least we can have a good morning shelling.

You are welcome to come along, but it isn't easy. First, picking the day is totally dependant on when a cold front goes through so we can go the morning after. And you know how fickle the weather can be! And then if you really want to insure you get good shells, you need to be out on the beach before sunrise! We got out there just before sunrise last time and there were 15 cars in the parking lot and lots, lots more people from the condos that line the beach, already out shelling. We met one guy who was coming off the beach with a bag full of shells (and a light attached to his hat). That was at 7am, just before sunrise. I asked what time he had started and he told us he arrived at 5am and there were already people out shelling when he got there! Yikes!

I have a hard enough time convincing my wife to get up at 5:30am and get dressed warmly to go out shelling in the cold at 7am (the beaches on Sanibel are 30 minutes from our house). I'm not sure I can push her to get up and go shelling in the dark, but that's what I'm going to try for when the next cold front goes by. I look at the 2 week weather forecast almost every day to see if there is any strong westerly winds or big drop in temperature which indicates a cold front. As of this morning there does appear to be any going by for the next 2 weeks. That's bad for collecting and shelling, but great for noral warm Florida weather!

 

[Bracka345]

Morning Reefers, If anyone is ever down on Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands don’t hesitate to hit me up. I can recommend the best snorkeling spots and even arranger free island tours for you.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Morning Reefers, If anyone is ever down on Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands don’t hesitate to hit me up. I can recommend the best snorkeling spots and even arranger free island tours for you.

My wife and I might just take you up on that! So are you in Miami (what your avatar says) or in the Cayman Islands... or both!

 

[Bracka345]

My wife and I might just take you up on that! So are you in Miami (what your avatar says) or in the Cayman Islands... or both!

I live in the Cayman Islands but I visit Miami just about every other month. So Miami is like a second home for me lol

 

[fishybizzness]

Morning Reefers, If anyone is ever down on Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands don’t hesitate to hit me up. I can recommend the best snorkeling spots and even arranger free island tours for you.

My wife and I stopped in the Cayman islands on a cruise and visited the turtle farm. She works in our local aquarium and got a hookup for a personal behind the scenes tour of the facility which was pretty cool! We have been thinking about going back because it was our favorite stop and the people reminded us of home. I'll have to keep you in mind for some snorkeling suggestions when we go back! We are from the virgin islands zo we are not into the tourist spots, we're too spoiled for that!lol

 

[Bracka345]

My wife and I stopped in the Cayman islands on a cruise and visited the turtle farm. She works in our local aquarium and got a hookup for a personal behind the scenes tour of the facility which was pretty cool! We have been thinking about going back because it was our favorite stop and the people reminded us of home. I'll have to keep you in mind for some snorkeling suggestions when we go back! We are from the virgin islands zo we are not into the tourist spots, we're too spoiled for that!lol

Awesome. Only thing you would have to come to Cayman Brac where I live and not Grand Cayman.

 

[cpschult]

I made it a point this past year to search for locations down the south east coast of florida for zoas and rock flower anemons. I have been collecting tropical fish here for 28 years and never bothered to look for these. Yeah they were there but never payed them no mind. Happy to say I found plenty. Just have to take the time to look.

You have me wanting to know, when you say the south east coast of Florida, where exactly are you talking about? Between which cities along the SE coast and are you talking about near shore shallows or scuba diving depths (20 to 50 ft) further offshore or reefs that are much further offshore?

Just to be fair and clear, I'm willing to show where I find rock flower anemones and zoas on a google earth map. I've already posted some and if anybody asked, I'd be happy to show them again.

I need to get down there to collect some rock nems. My boys are a little young to enjoy it but maybe in a few years.

Is there anything in closer to mainland on the gulf side? I used to visit Matlatcha years ago with family, would love to get a flower nem for my reef tank!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I need to get down there to collect some rock nems. My boys are a little young to enjoy it but maybe in a few years.

Is there anything in closer to mainland on the gulf side? I used to visit Matlacha years ago with family, would love to get a flower nem for my reef tank!

There isn't much snorkeling along the Gulf Coast side of Florida in the Naples to Fort Myers/Cape Coral area. There may be better sites further north at Cayo Costa or some of the barrier islands even further north. But I've never had the opportunity to try and I don't know if you'd find any RFAs there. If anybody has snorkeled the Gulf Coast and knows of good snorkel sites, PLEASE let us know!

There are a number of 'off the beach' shallow snorkel sites in the Keys. Some of them do have RFAs and a few even allow collecting! Just southwest of Bahia Honda Key is Spanish Harbor Key. At the northeast end of the island, on either side there is some good shallow water, off the beach snorkeling. The Florida Bay side has an old quarry in the water and around the outside of it is very shallow and RFAs can be found there, along with a lot of other cool animals like serpent stars, sea cucumbers, clams, snails, coral banded shrimp, flame scallops, feather dusters, gorgonians and more. Inside the Horseshoe it's 40+ feet deep, but to either side of the Horseshoe for quite a distance is all 2 or 3 feet deep and has a variety of ecosystems. The outer end of the berm that makes the Horseshoe is really a go area, but the slightly darker strip of water that cuts across just outside the Horseshoe is a channel for boat traffic, so you do need to have a dive flag and be careful. But we go there very regularly. Over the road on the other side of the island is quite different and not quite as shallow. But it can be very interesting as well if the water is calm. This side of the island tends to get more wave action due to predominately southeasterly winds.