The M/V Sirena headed out this morning to dive the shallow reefs of Palm Beach atop 1-2ft seas and clear skies. We headed to Ron’s reef for the first dive. With a soothing 80 degree water temperature and no current, we slowly meandered throughout the reef enjoying the 40-45ft of visibility.
We encountered all sorts of marine life throughout the dive. Squid were hovering over the top of the reef. One particular crevice in the reef was home to a pair of red scarlet shrimps, a pair of pederson shrimps, a pair of arrow crabs, and a orange goby — to top it off. This little spot on the reef was definitely a hot spot for watching the unique cleaning behavior of these reef creatures.
Within seconds, we could see numerous tropical fish hover motionless next to this crevice and the shrimps quickly jumped onboard for a thorough cleaning of their host. Once the crowd was gone, I took advantage of the services and had a shrimp manicure done as well. It’s funny to see how these shrimps are not in the least finicky about who they clean.
Not far from the cleaning station, a large green moray stuck out of its crevice with a slew of cleaner shrimps devoting their full attention to him. One coral banded shrimp danced on the green moray’s head for a little while as it picked away at any bite size treats on the moray’s body.
One our second dive we headed north to Elevator Shaft on Breaker’s reef. This is one of my favorite parts of Breaker’s reef as it has an abundance of beautiful spots to photograph and numerous cleaning stations, too!
Along our slow drift north, we once again encountered a pair of squids. The squid’s inquisitiveness caught my attention and the group spent some time observing their behavior. Good thing we stayed, too! At one point the smaller of the squid swam alongside the larger squid and it’s body began to flash in colors. What could best be described as an internal strobe light appeared to be firing from inside the squid. No doubt, this was an attempt at mating.
On our way back home, atop 2-3ft seas, we enjoyed in some fishy conversations of the day’s dive and our adventures during our Palm Beach reef dives. We are very fortunate to have such an amazing place where you can enjoy marine life encounters from the very small to the very large all in one place. Not many places around the world can say that!
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Come join us on our Palm Beach reef dives and experience all the wonders of this unique underwater world. Call us at (561) 840-8750 to reserve your spot.
 If you would like to purchase any of the following photographs, please contact Laz at TheLivingSea.com.
