It was a beautiful day out on the southern reefs today aboard M/V Sirena. Clear skies, 2-3ft seas, water temperatures in the upper 70s, a mild north current, and 60+ ft. of visibility. The perfect ingredients for a day of Palm Beach diving fun!
We began our dives on Tear Drop. We cruised along the ledge to Ron’s Rock. Eels and tropical fish of all kind surrounded us. A hawksbill sea turte swam right past the whole group. Upon reaching Ron’s Rock, it appeared as though one particular sponge had spawned earlier. Perhaps a sign that we would soon be seeing a sponge spawning event any day now.
A second hawksbill sea turtle and a large female loggerhead sea turtle graced us with their presence as we continued our drift across Middle Earth and Flower Gardens.
On our second dive, we dropped in at Breaker’s reef. Making a quick pitstop on one particular spot on the reef I saw my fishy friends… A pair of black brotula who have been spending some time together. One looked a little chubby… Perhaps it is carrying eggs. These brotulas are the only livebearers in the Caribbean!
Continuing with the dive I was, as always, mesmerized by the amount of beauty this reef displays. Especially when you have clear blue water as a backdrop. One particular queen angel was so busy munching on sponges that it did not care that I hovered near by taking some photos of it. This is quite the rare moment as most angelfish tend to give you one quick flyby close enough for a photograph before spending the rest of the dive teasing you just outside the range of a decent photo. Such is the life of an underwater photographer! LOL!
Speaking of teasing… The resident lemon sharks made sure to give the group a flyby as well. Personally, I’m starting to feel a little insulted by these sharks… Labeled as man-eaters, these sharks will not come in with three feet of me in order to get their picture taken. Perhaps these “man-eaters” are trying to tell me something! LOL! Either way, it is always nice to see these friendly sharks on the reef.
The group encountered numerous turtles throughout the dive, including one who took a liking to one of our divers. You gotta be careful out there. It IS turtle mating season after all! Overall, we couldn’t possibly have asked for a better day of diving. Conditions were wonderful. Just another day of Palm Beach diving fun! We hope you will join us soon.
