Luis Joins Dean and I to Dive the Staghorn Coral Forest

Luis, Dean and I geared up and walked down to Tower 19 to get in the water.  We then swam out to the swim buoys and descended.  We were still over sand, but we soon came to reef and then more and more staghorn coral until we were at the old NOVA growth project.  The storms over the last few years have trashed much of the coral, but there is new growth all over.  We swam back and forth with no particular pattern in mind.  I was looking for Cowrie shells, but did not see any.  Looked like a Cowrie friendly area with all the dead coral.

 Got pictures of this Barred Hamlet,

this Harliquin Bass,

 This Hawksbill Sea Turtle,

 this Initial Phase Queen Parrotfish,

 this Pigfish,

and this Smallmouth Grunt.  



I did much better on my breathing on this dive:  dive time was 145 minutes and my RMV rate was .37 ft3/minute.  Luis took the flag to the beach.  We headed West by Northwest and surfaced South of Tower 20, then swam in on the surface.