Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Salty Rambler]

To start, I'd stay in Marathon if you want to be near good off the beach snorkeling. Two nice Mom & Pop type motels are Blackfin and Sea Dell. They are owned by the same outfit and we stay at Blackfin when we can and the other if Blackfin is full. There are other chain hotels in Marathon as well.

If you are just snorkeling off the beach and not collecting, Bahia Honda State Park is great! And they have a charter boat that goes out to Loe Key twice a day. If you've never been to the big reef, it's certainly worth the trip! Off the ocean side beach is terrific and/or rent a kayak there and go snorkel out at Little Bahia Honda (less than 1/4 mile off shore).

The other easy place to go, whether you are collecting or not is the Horseshoe. It's always good and it's more protected from the prevailing winds and waves than Bahia Honda. If the winds and waves are light, the ocean side across the island from the Horseshoe can be well worth a visit, but it's more commonly kind of rougher there than any of the other places.

There are lots of maps and aerial photos with my doodling outlines of where the best areas are, in this thread.

We will be there the 2nd week in September (assuming the weather looks good). We are lucky enough to be close (and retired), so if the weather looks bad, we can cancel and reschedule.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to try an help.

Greatly appreciate the advice - and the motel recommendations!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Greatly appreciate the advice - and the motel recommendations!

After you go, I'd really like to hear about how the trip went and what you did.

 

[Holy handgrenade]

Im planning a trip to the keys around October too. Not sure where we are staying yet but i think its going to be around Marathon.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Im planning a trip to the keys around October too. Not sure where we are staying yet but i think its going to be around Marathon.

Are you planing on doing any collecting or at least snorkeling?

Blackfin and Sea Dell are nice, fairly clean, reasonably priced (for the Keys) motels. There are a few of the big chain motels as well. Make reservations as early as you can, they tend to fill up quickly (mostly people from Miami). And pay attention to their cancellation policy. If it's bad weather, or worse, a potential hurricane, you'll want to cancel and not have to pay. Blackfin and Sea Dell recently changed their policy. You have to cancel 72 hours before your stay.

 

[Holy handgrenade]

Are you planing on doing any collecting or at least snorkeling?

Blackfin and Sea Dell are nice, fairly clean, reasonably priced (for the Keys) motels. There are a few of the big chain motels as well. Make reservations as early as you can, they tend to fill up quickly (mostly people from Miami). And pay attention to their cancellation policy. If it's bad weather, or worse, a potential hurricane, you'll want to cancel and not have to pay. Blackfin and Sea Dell recently changed their policy. You have to cancel 72 hours before your stay.

Yes i am going to snorkel and collect anything thats worth keeping. Already have my fishing license so good to go there.
I have a few questions though. Do you know of any good spots to go to collect ricordea and zoas?
Also what was the name of that weather forecaster you said you use?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yes i am going to snorkel and collect anything thats worth keeping. Already have my fishing license so good to go there.
I have a few questions though. Do you know of any good spots to go to collect ricordea and zoas?
Also what was the name of that weather forecaster you said you use?

In all my snorkeling around the Middle Keys, I've never seen a ricordea! I know, that's sad isn't it?

It's very, VERY rare to find any zoas snorkeling off the beach or at the Horseshoe. We've found some zoas out at Little Money Key. But this May we only saw a very few. We didn't go over to Money Key, but there have always been a lot of zoas in near shore on the side of the island that faces away from the bridge. The bad news is, the only zoas you are likely to find are a few variations of green zoas. I have a rock full of them in my tank. But remember, you can only take 5 polyps of zoas per person per day. But in your tank they do spread and grow fairly fast.

We use https://spaghettimodels.com/ for the big picture, like the future of a hurricane. We use https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/33914 for 2 week out forecasts and even hourly forecasts while we are actually in the Keys. I even take my cell phone out in our Zodiac so I can look at weather radar. That way we can see the pop up thunderstorms and see which way they are headed.

Question for you. Will you have a boat while you are down there?

If not, it is possible to rent a kayak and put in at the boat ramp at the SW end of the Seven Mile Bridge and use it to get over to Little Money Key quite easily. We've even had kayaks visit us out at Money Key.

 

[Holy handgrenade]

In all my snorkeling around the Middle Keys, I've never seen a ricordea! I know, that's sad isn't it?

It's very, VERY rare to find any zoas snorkeling off the beach or at the Horseshoe. We've found some zoas out at Little Money Key. But this May we only saw a very few. We didn't go over to Money Key, but there have always been a lot of zoas in near shore on the side of the island that faces away from the bridge. The bad news is, the only zoas you are likely to find are a few variations of green zoas. I have a rock full of them in my tank. But remember, you can only take 5 polyps of zoas per person per day. But in your tank they do spread and grow fairly fast.

We use https://spaghettimodels.com/ for the big picture, like the future of a hurricane. We use https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/33914 for 2 week out forecasts and even hourly forecasts while we are actually in the Keys. I even take my cell phone out in our Zodiac so I can look at weather radar. That way we can see the pop up thunderstorms and see which way they are headed.

Question for you. Will you have a boat while you are down there?

If not, it is possible to rent a kayak and put in at the boat ramp at the SW end of the Seven Mile Bridge and use it to get over to Little Money Key quite easily. We've even had kayaks visit us out at Money Key.

Very cool, thank you for the great information!
Thats sad about the zoas, i have 3 different types of caribbean zoas, 2 deep water and a green shallow water with a yellow ring.
Do you know of any other place in the keys that have ricordea? Dont mind driving farther down south if time depends it.
And yes, i think im going to bring my kayak with us, that is if i can find that dang car rack

 

[Ron Reefman]

Very cool, thank you for the great information!
Thats sad about the zoas, i have 3 different types of caribbean zoas, 2 deep water and a green shallow water with a yellow ring.
Do you know of any other place in the keys that have ricordea? Dont mind driving farther down south if time depends it.
And yes, i think im going to bring my kayak with us, that is if i can find that dang car rack

If I knew of a place to find Ricordea, not only would I share it with you, I'd be there collecting as well! But I don't know about finding any. I think they may be more deep water inhabitants??

If you have a way to get out there, here is a map for Little Money Key. That's the southwest end of the Seven Mile Bridge and the boat ramp. Little Money is only about 1/4 mile from the ramp.

The area between the dark green holes (I've been told they are from WWII bombing practice) and the island is good. This photo was shortly after Irma and the dock is gone, but the pilings were still there. The dock has been rebuilt. The environment on either side of the dock and out off the end are all quite different from each other. Consider getting in close to shore on the left side of the dock as we look at it in this photo (the west side).



I'd love to hear what your experiences are after you go. Please!

 

[Holy handgrenade]

If I knew of a place to find Ricordea, not only would I share it with you, I'd be there collecting as well! But I don't know about finding any. I think they may be more deep water inhabitants??

If you have a way to get out there, here is a map for Little Money Key. That's the southwest end of the Seven Mile Bridge and the boat ramp. Little Money is only about 1/4 mile from the ramp.

The area between the dark green holes (I've been told they are from WWII bombing practice) and the island is good. This photo was shortly after Irma and the dock is gone, but the pilings were still there. The dock has been rebuilt. The environment on either side of the dock and out off the end are all quite different from each other. Consider getting in close to shore on the left side of the dock as we look at it in this photo (the west side).



I'd love to hear what your experiences are after you go. Please!

Wow thats beautiful!! Thank you so much for the great advice, i wil definitely put this to good use if i go. The family and i are still unsure where we want to stay. We are thinking of staying at key largo in maybe a resort. I might have to make the trip farther down to visit money key.

Are there any good places around key largo to snorkel?
Thank you for all the help so far, this is very exciting

 

[Ron Reefman]

Four days in the Key, 2 of them snorkeling, and now we're home. What a nice get away!

I collected lots of CUC (Clean Up Crew) for my aquarium. and for excitement we had a couple of semi-close encounters. We often snorkel a large refrigerator sized block of concrete that is in 3' of water and 50' off shore. I always find snails there for my CUC. Well, this time I had a hand on the block, holding me from the mild current while I collected a snail with the other hand. Then I looked down and not 12" from my hand is this Moray eel!



OK, so Elaine took a few photos without getting too close, thus the not so great image. But for a few seconds, while the Moray was looking at my hand, my heart did race a bit. After the photos, I played with it a bit and it seems they are quite timid (unless seriously provoked). Every time I moved toward it, it went deeper into it's cave. I tried for better photos being up close, the the camera was zoomed out and it couldn't focus that close. So all my (I thought at the time) great close ups were terrible!

Then, just a few feet away from the Moray, there was a big (18"x12"), opening/cave under the block of concrete. It was too low to be able to put your head down and see inside. So I asked Elaine to turn the camera flash on and take a photo of what's inside. She did and then we moved on. I was still busy collecting and she was not impressed with my idea of the flash photo in the hole idea, so she didn't even look at it... then. But when we got back to our motel and were looking at the photos she took, we saw what was in the 'cave'! Yes, the flash went off right in the face of a 3' to 4' Nurse shark! The crazy thing is, it never moved and we never knew it was there!



I'll post up more about our snorkeling and my collecting later today or tomorrow. Elaine took lots of photos and I had a field day collecting (being careful not to exceed state regulations). After all, there were 2 of us and we could each collect 20 live organisms a day, over 2 days that's 80 critters!

We also had fun with our cameras taking sunset photos a the motel beach. I have a new Nikon P1000 which has a built-in, non-removable lens (like any point & shoot camera). But this lens goes from 24mm wide angle to 3000mm telephoto (the 3 zeros is not a typo!). In the photo below of the cute little houseboat anchored about 200 - 300 yards off shore, notice the VERY TINY spot on the horizon to the right of the boat. It's a warning marker about a barely submerged rock that is 1/4 mile off shore. We've snorkeled at that rock.



Well, this is that marker shot with the 3000mm telephoto!



I thought how funny this photo looks. That could be a sign stuck in the snow and ice of Antarctica. Yet we were in the sub-tropics of the Florida Keys! You can see in the wide shoot that up near the marker, the water is kind of light. It's reflecting the big white cloud from the background. So, I'm posting this to show off what the camera can do, and also because I was so amused at what the photo looks like!

Oh, and sunsets! First is Wednesday and then Thursday!





More photos and some stories to follow!

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Gotta luv them Morays!
West Coast Kin,

 

[Ron Reefman]

Gotta luv them Morays!
West Coast Kin,

Really nice photos!!! Just stunning!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've been bust setting up a new 40 breeder aio tank... as well as running an auto-x and watching college football!

So, we went down on a Tuesday and decided not to even get in the water for our usual test snorkel (mostly to check water temps for choice of dive skin or wet suit weight). But the water temp is in the upper 80's and there was no worry we would be comfortable in dive skins.

Wednesday we took the Zodiac out to Little Money Key, our usual favorite spot. Everything was pretty much what we expected. The only thing we didn't see was any green zoas. We used to see small patches spread around in the shallows, but not this visit. But then I have green zoas from there already, and didn't want more anyway. Elaine found a small coral skeleton with 3 brown palys on it. I don't have any, so for now they can take up some space in the new tank.

I wanted feather dusters, Rock Flower Anemones (I sold all but one of mine) and Cerith Snails. I got two nice feather dusters, one Cerith and no RFAs. I did get one nice small serpent star and some Astrea snails along with some other usual finds.

We did see a bit more stony corals than in the past. I saw quite a few Rose corals and a few colonies of the yellow sps coral. However, both are illegal to collect and I don't believe either is photosynthetic.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Really nice photos!!! Just stunning!

Thanks Ron. If you only knew how many pictures of fuzzy unidentifiable blobs I have for every halfway decent photo. :face-with-tears-of-joy: Most were taken predigital days when you didn't know until a week later what you had.
Here's a few more,
Light Bulb Tunicates,

Strawberry Anemones,

Garibaldi,

and what happens when you break open an urchin,

(Garibaldi and Senorita Wrasse feeding frenzy)

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks Ron. If you only knew how many pictures of fuzzy unidentifiable blobs I have for every halfway decent photo. :face-with-tears-of-joy: Most were taken predigital days when you didn't know until a week later what you had.

Those are also really nice! Where were you when you took those?

I was in the photography hobby back in the film days. It really limited my creativity because I couldn't afford the film, developing and printing expense. For a few years I had my own darkroom in my parents basement. But then I was only able to do B&W. I considered getting into color, but it was still expensive. Digital has made photography great fun.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Day two snorkeling was at The Horseshoe, on the Florida Bay (Gulf of Mexico) side of Spanish Harbor Key (just south of Bahia Honda State Park). We end up going there a lot because it means we don't have to use the Zodiac and we always see (and collect) things there.



As I said in my Day 1 post, I was looking for feather dusters, RFAs and Cerith snails. I only found one very small brown RFA and only 1 feather duster on a small rock. But I hit the jackpot when it came to Cerith snails. I got all the big ones I wanted and even more of the very, VERY tiny ones. I got 2 more small stars, a few chitons, a limpet, a cowrie, a couple more small clams and some macro algae.



I've had more trouble with urchins in my tanks picking up anything that isn't glued down! So even though I think they are very cool little animals, I wasn't going to collect any. Then I happened on a small rock boring urchin. They are kind of pretty in black & red and they don't move around like other urchins. So I collected one. It went into the new tank Sunday night with a rock that had several holes that were about the size I thought it might like to make it's home. Sure enough, it went into a hole last night and it's still in there this morning! I don't know of anybody who keeps a rock boring urchin in their tank!



Of course we see lots of things we don't collect because they don't do well in an aquarium. My biggest regret is that we really haven't been able to keep any of the very cool, colorful sponges we find. I also like the little upside down jellyfish, bigger mantis shrimp, spaghetti worms, mangrove tunicates and carnivorous mollusks.






I've never seen any Sargent Majors in the hobby. I see some very small juveniles where we snorkel and I keep wondering if I could catch one, could I keep it alive? Or is it a problem in a reef tank?


Next: some photos of what I collected .

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Where were you when you took those?

Deadman's reef, Laguna Beach, Ca.

Straight out in line with the rock wall on the north side of Crescent Bay until you line up the blue and red roofed houses with Seal Rock. Then drop. It's about 35 feet deep on the beach side, 80 feet deep on the far ocean side.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I always like to sort my collection out and photograph it before it goes into the holding tank. Everybody survived the motel stay of 1 or 2 nights and the 5 hour drive home (I have the equipment I need). Most spent a few days in a crowded 5g holding tank. Now about half have made it into the new 40g breeder aio tank and the other half, all Astrea and Cerith snails, are in the old 17g DT. Over the next few days they will all find their way into the 40g tank.

My 'reef room', with my wife's blessing.


The new 40g breeder aio tank and the old 17g DT.


The new feather duster group!

My new stars


It's just a small plain brown RFA... but I love anemones.


Three quite different looking chitons.


I hope I can provide enough algae for my new little cowrie.


A small rock boring urchin.


An assortment of Astrea snails

Some new Nerite snails. I'll appreciate that they will have a much harder time trying to climb out of the new tank with an upper rim. But even with the rimless tank, whenever I found a Nerite snail outside the tank, they always survived.


I got lucky and found a rocky patch with Cerith snails everywhere!


Now I have several tiny red feather dusters in the tank. They are so cute!


And finally, I always like to have a few clams as filter feeders... or a meal for any strong predator!

 

[Holy handgrenade]

@Ron Reefman do you think this hurricane will cause damage in the keys with storm surge? Doesnt look like its going to hit directly but i have no idea what the winds might do

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Ron Reefman do you think this hurricane will cause damage in the keys with storm surge? Doesnt look like its going to hit directly but i have no idea what the winds might do

It will certainly have some effect. The big reef will likely have some mild impact. The bigger damage, IMHO, will be the shallow patch reefs that we snorkel. Big waves and big tides in areas around shallow water near small islands will move stuff around.

We were just there a few weeks ago and things were looking pretty good in terms of the recovery from Irma 5 years ago. That was as bad as it could get in the Middle Keys (which is where we like to snorkel). Hurricane Ian will shake things up a bit, but I doubt it will have any big, long term effects.

BTW, below is the noon forecast for Ian. Our house is just above the gap between the '7' and the '9'. Ian will pass by less than 20 mile off shore. Wind gusts here are expected to be over 115mph, but the storm surge, far less predictable, is our biggest concern.