I hope with my entries so far you are beginning to understand what an incredibly unique place the Dry Tortugas are. The uniqueness is not specific to just Fort Jefferson, or the snorkeling areas or even the Loggerhead lighthouse. Instead everything – absolutely everywhere – you look is special. And that includes the 9-10 foot of water which was beneath Tropical Breeze.
On at least 3 occasions during our stay we looked down along the sidedecks of the boat and saw a nurse shark below. Now before you panic, please understand that nurse sharks are the nice sharks of the sea. They are docile bottom feeding sharks not aggressive sharks. Seeing the nurse sharks was not a complete surprise. We’ve seen them before. But what was surprising was that each sighting was a 5-6 foot shark. Sharks we’ve seen previously had always been smaller.
But this entry isn’t really a shark story. Instead it is a goliath grouper story. I mentioned this fish in the previous entry but didn’t give you much background. You see the goliath grouper grows to be 600-700 pounds. They are BIG! Because of there size, they were widely fished up through the mid-1900’s. The fish were not caught to eat, however, as they are not a tasty fish. The fish were caught for the pleasure and the photograph of a BIG catch. The goliath grouper is now a protected species in the Florida Keys and while once so few in numbers they were almost never seen in the Florida reefs they are now making more frequent appearances.
For us the goliath grouper’s first appearance was one morning while Dave was scrubbing the propellers on the boat. I hopped in with my snorkeling gear and the underwater camera to try to get some photos. While the photos are not great you can definitely tell there is a fish in the water. And the fish was a good 5 foot long and 250+ pounds!! It was amazing to watch him. If I got a bit too close he just lumbered away a few feet. He was not really in a hurry or feeling intimidated by me – but then why should he feel intimated – he was considerably bigger than me!
Our new grouper friend made a second appearance early in the evening. This time Dave and I were both on the deck of Tropical Breeze and we tried to get some photos of him – though it seemed as if he wanted to play hide and seek!!!
The Admiral
4/1/09
On at least 3 occasions during our stay we looked down along the sidedecks of the boat and saw a nurse shark below. Now before you panic, please understand that nurse sharks are the nice sharks of the sea. They are docile bottom feeding sharks not aggressive sharks. Seeing the nurse sharks was not a complete surprise. We’ve seen them before. But what was surprising was that each sighting was a 5-6 foot shark. Sharks we’ve seen previously had always been smaller.
But this entry isn’t really a shark story. Instead it is a goliath grouper story. I mentioned this fish in the previous entry but didn’t give you much background. You see the goliath grouper grows to be 600-700 pounds. They are BIG! Because of there size, they were widely fished up through the mid-1900’s. The fish were not caught to eat, however, as they are not a tasty fish. The fish were caught for the pleasure and the photograph of a BIG catch. The goliath grouper is now a protected species in the Florida Keys and while once so few in numbers they were almost never seen in the Florida reefs they are now making more frequent appearances.
For us the goliath grouper’s first appearance was one morning while Dave was scrubbing the propellers on the boat. I hopped in with my snorkeling gear and the underwater camera to try to get some photos. While the photos are not great you can definitely tell there is a fish in the water. And the fish was a good 5 foot long and 250+ pounds!! It was amazing to watch him. If I got a bit too close he just lumbered away a few feet. He was not really in a hurry or feeling intimidated by me – but then why should he feel intimated – he was considerably bigger than me!
Our new grouper friend made a second appearance early in the evening. This time Dave and I were both on the deck of Tropical Breeze and we tried to get some photos of him – though it seemed as if he wanted to play hide and seek!!!
The Admiral
4/1/09
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