Gulfstream Park – Gulfstream, FL
Went snorkeling today at Gulfstream Park in Gulfstream, FL. Wasn’t necessarily the easiest place to get into on a Saturday afternoon, but worth the trip. The parking lot was full so I had to park up the road and walk along A1A back to the park. Fun Stuff! From what Ive been told, there are two areas to snorkel around. There are inner rock croppings near the beach and there are ledges further out. Both are visible from the beach and today since I timed it for high tide, the inside rocks were under water. I’ll go back again at low tide to see if they get exposed or if the surf covers them. The main beach area has lifeguards on site and for most of today the guarded area was closed due to shark sightings. I actually saw one from the beach, but still decided to hop in. Because of the rough surf and sharks, I decided not to swim out to the outer ledges and just hung out inside near the rocks close to shore. I saw a lot of fish, but it was really rough inside and hard to take pictures. Some of the highlights today included a couple of Yellow Stingrays, a Bluespotted Cornetfish, a lot of Parrotfish, some cool Crabs, a lot of Hermit Crabs and a dead Horseshoe Crab floating around in the surf. The Parrotfish seemed to be nesting. They were really schooling today and there seemed to be a lot of banter between what appeared to be male and female fish. Today wasn’t the best day to be out there, but I look forward to going back to Gulfstream Park on a calmer day. I also really want to check out the outer ledges.
Portuguese Man O War – Red Reef Park – Boca Raton
Went snorkeling today at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton, FL. It was a very choppy day and not very good for snorkeling. In fact, I actually had more success surfing today than I did snorkeling. In spite of it being so rough, I still managed to snorkel for a while and get some pics. I got some good macro shots of a couple of Blennies and some Hermit Crabs. The Stingrays were out, saw some nice Parrotfish and a couple of nice sized Porkfish. It was a day for Man O Wars also. I got stung at least 5 times today. I’m getting used to it at this point, but it’s still annoying. The main issue is that the pain increases over time before it fades away. I was able to get a few decent shots of one of them today. The neat thing to see is the fish that were hanging around the one I took photos of.