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Marine Fishes and Inverts


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#1 Guest_trygon_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 03:24 PM

The following photos were taken Memorial Day weekend at the St. Andrews park jetty in Panama City Beach, Florida. Depths ranged from 10-70 feet, water temperature was 80f at the surface and 55-60f at depth, visibility was a typical 20'-30'.

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Black sea bass Centropristis striata

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Black sea bass; gut hooked note the dark monofilament coming out of his mouth

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Cocoa damselfish Stegastes variabilis juvenile moving into the intermediate phase

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Cocoa damselfish, adult tending his nest

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Sharpnose puffer Canthigaster rostrata

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Sharpnose puffer, side view

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Sheepshead Archosargus probatocephalus, note stout molariform teeth used for crushing mollusks and crustaceans

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Lined seahorse, I think, Hippocampus erectus, I'm basing that on the topknot on its head and that erectus the most common seahorse in the area

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Slippery dick wrasse Halicoeres bivittatus terminal male

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Mantis shrimp, Stomatopoda, a lysiosquillid in his burrow, the female is deep inside the burrow

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Mantis shrimp, this is a different animal than the one above; this guy is enlarging his burrow. The following sequence took me about 15 minutes to capture while lying very still on the bottom in about 30' of water. The water temperature was 60f or a little less, I was freezing.

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Now he is checking to make sure it is safe, a shadow drove him into his burrow once, to dump his load of sand which is noticable just behind his raptorial appendage. Notice how the raptorial appendage is reminiscent of the preying mantis appendages, hence mantis shrimp. Lysiosquillids are spearers as you can see and Gonodactyloids have club shaped raptorial appendages for breaking open mollusks and crustaceans.

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Expelling the sand. This is a blindingly fast maneuver, the sand cloud is to the left and the animal can just be made out backing down the burrow to the right.

This next section contains fish porn. You have been warned

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Belted sandfish Serranus subligarius these guygals are hermaphrodites and are spawning. Even if you have a playbook you can't tell these players apart.

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Sergeant majors Abudefduf saxatilis spawning. The spawn is the purplish mass on the rock. Notice the dark coloration of the spawners, normally they would be yellow with black stripes. Let me know if you need to see a photo.

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Sergeant major nest. This nest is close to hatching, the silver donuts are the embryos eyes and the dark purple dots are the yolk sacks.

I hope you all enjoyed these. If its not too boring I'll post more later.

#2 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 03:52 PM

That is stunning work. Thanks very much for sharing!

#3 Guest_Mysteryman_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 04:01 PM

It looks like the oil is finally gone? Everything was still covered in orange goo the last time I went.

#4 Guest_trygon_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 05:40 PM

Thanks, Derek. I hope you're enjoying the SC book.

"Orange goo", really? "Finally gone", really? It was never there. When were you there? I was there 2 or 3 times during the 2010 BP incident, when the gates were up just to the bay side of the jetties, and there was no oil and no "orange goo". There was a lot of suspended algae in the water because of the oil gates, but it was just the normal olive color. I guess I missed all the goo fun.

#5 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 06:44 PM

Really great photos, Bryce! I'm surprised it was so cold at depth.

I went there a few weeks ago for the first time since the oil spill and didn't notice any major changes. It's still an awesome place to snorkel with a great diversity of life. One of the main changes I noticed compared to 5-10 years ago was an increase in the number of corals and anemones.

#6 Guest_trygon_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 09:19 PM

Thanks, Isaac. Yes the corals have been coming on strong for the last 5+ years especially on the channel side down to about 20'-30' or so, then the colonies become a little more spread out and aren't as dense as the one pictured below, captured at around 10'. The little spiky, stringy things are serpent star arms.

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#7 Guest_velvetelvis_*

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 09:41 PM

Amazing pics. I'm glad to see that some marine habitats back home are still thriving.

Re the last pic--is that some species of Oculina? I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to native stony corals.

Edited by velvetelvis, 01 June 2013 - 09:41 PM.


#8 Guest_trygon_*

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Posted 02 June 2013 - 08:06 AM

Velvetelvis,
Yes, I think it's Oculina or maybe Cladocora.

#9 mattknepley

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Posted 02 June 2013 - 11:30 AM

"I hope you all enjoyed these. If its not too boring I'll post more later."

Truly wonderful stuff! Feel free to "bore" us any day!
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."




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