COOL SEA CREATURE ENCOUNTERS!!! Afternoon Session

Hi Everyone, Welcome Back!!!

We”ve just finished up another wonderful week of afternoon Fun and Adventure on the Lake Worth lagoon and what an AWESOME week we had. Just like the morning session, we were lucky enough not to get rained out by tropical storm Debbie. Somehow or other we didn’t get rained on at all. Perfect! We spent our days snorkeling around Peanut Island, the Rock Garden, the Big Sandbar, Munyon Island and Blue Crab Beach for hours on end. We dipped up sargassum weed and found dozens of species of fish, shrimp and crabs. The sargassum frogfish were our favorites!We trolled plugs along the drop offs and caught big barracudas until the hooks broke off our lures and there wasn’t any paint left on them! We were catching barracudas by the boatloads and all of us taking turns reeling them in. It was just GREAT! On our fishing day we caught lane snappers, filefish, grunts, tomtates, porkfish, sergeant majors and more! What FUN days of fishing we had!!! Everybody caught fish!!! I think we caught them all!!!

Group photo with barracuda.

We did tons of fun things and had many cool sea creature encounters!!! Everytime we stopped by the Big Sandbar we found fighting conchs by the dozens and chased juvenile blue crabs around in the shallows. We watched mantis shrimp in their burrows and fighting conchs lay eggs. I think the most favorite discovery was a giant cushion starfish that was bright red. I know Jacob thought it was cool!!! We all did!!!

Jakob with a Cushion starfish.

Another afternoon we went seine netting the shallow grass beds around Munyon Island and found pipefish, juvenile barracudas, filefish, juvenile scorpion fish, yellowtail and lane snappers, grunts, mojarras, short nosed puffers, trunkfish and more! I know our favorite find was a long-spined burrfish that puffed up as if on cue. It was just GREAT and we all loved that!!! I know Crew sure did!!!

Crew with a long-spined burrfish.

Most afternoons we stopped by the Rock Garden and loved swimming with the hundreds of fish that call this area home. The water was perfect, and we watched barracudas, snook, doctorfish, angelfish, parrotfish and more swim just past our face masks. Jackie came up with a nice queen conch that was a lovely find!!! Awesome!!!

Jackie finds a queen conch.

We spent a little bit of time snorkeling along the north side of Peanut Island and around Munyon Island and chased sharp-nosed pufferfish with our nets. We worked together herding them into the shallows and scooping them up in our nets when we got the chance. It was a lot of fun and sometimes quite challenging!!! I know Gabi had fun when it was her turn to catch one!!! Way to go!!!

Gabi with a pufferfish.

As we spent our afternoons snorkeling and swimming about in the shallows, we would turn over rocks and to see what we could find. Occasionally under one of those rocks would be a giant swimming crab that would scurry about and be most difficult to catch!!! I know Rachael thought it was cool when it was her turn to catch a big one in the net! Way to go Rachael!!! Way not to get pinched too!!!

Rachael with a giant swimming crab

The strong east winds from tropical storm Debbie blue tons of sargassum weed inshore and along the shallow bar around Peanut Island. We spent about an hour scooping some up and shaking it out in our nets. We discovered all kinds of cool sea creatures from sargassum filefish, shrimp, crabs, pipefish, juvenile jacks and tripletails and more. The coolest discovery of all was finding large sargassum weed frogfish, a type of anglerfish that lives only in the sargassum weed and camouflages perfectly!!! We found them by the dozens and I know Josh thought they were awesome!!! We all did!!!

Josh with a sargassum frogfish.

Another afternoon while snorkeling around the Rock Garden we discovered a large sea cucumber filtering sand along the bottom. It was a nice find and we all took turns checking it out. It would slowly change its shape to fit your hand and I know Chase had fun letting it “fit” to his head!!! I think it fits just perfect!!! Cool hairdo Chase!!!

Chase finds a sea cucumber.

On our fishing day, we caught tons of fish non-stop!!! The very second you dropped your baited line down, something was eating it!!! We caught snappers, grunts and pinfish non stop, and occasionally, someone would catch a porkfish, sailors choice or sergeant major. The most common fish we caught were tomtates that seemed to be in by the thousands and I know Valeria seemed to be catching them by the dozens!!!

Valeria catches a nice tomtate.

Another day we snorkeled around Little Munyon Island and found variegated sea urchins and west indian sea eggs by the thousands!!! They were in the shallows feeding on sea grass and literally covered the bottom!!! While we were snorkeling about and searching for treasures, Douglas came up with a nice treasure of his own, a 9 armed starfish for us to see! Way to go Doug!!!

Douglas finds a 9 armed starfish.

Of all the places we go to snorkel, the kids seem to like the Rock Garden the best! They enjoy the crystal clear water, watching the hundreds of fish and turning rocks over in the shallows to see what they find. I can always tell when they discover something they love by the excitement in their voices when they yell, “AdventureMike, over here, over here!!!” On this day, Alex found a nice stone crab, and I could tell he was having FUN!!! It was another cool find!!!

Alex catches a stone crab.

Each time we had to go thru a no-speed zone, I would put out the fishing line and troll for barracudas to see what we could catch. We would use them in our crab traps and to bait our hooks. This week we seemed to catch barracudas by the dozens and the girls had FUN showing off their catch!!! Way to fish girls!!!

The girls catch barracuda.

The last hour of the week we stopped by the Big Sandbar to search the shallows and relax in the Hot Tub before loading up and heading back in. I could tell everybody had FUN when I heard, “Do we have to go back already?” I know I sure did!!! What a GREAT week, and what Cool Sea Creature Encounters we had!!! Wish you could have joined us!!! We had a ball!!!

Relaxing in the hot tub.

To check out the rest of the photos from this weeks session, please click on “Check out our FLICKR photostream” found a little bit down on this home page on the right side and go to “June 19 -22, 2012 PM session”. ENJOY!!!
See You All Soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

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