Cordova Dive Blog

Monday, 13 May 2019

Martha and I dive the Swiss Cheese Reef

Sailfin Blenny (Emblemaria pandionis)

We again left at 6:45 am to avoid getting stranded on the Causeway Bridge. We were at the beach at 6:55 am and geared up and ready to go by 7:15 am. I managed not to fall getting in the water this morning, so we were at the buoy and descending by 7:37 am.

Acorn Jellyfish

I set the Mark iv up to save both CR2 and JPG files to different cards, so I fed the jpg files into Picasa and they came out just fine. Trying to edit raw files with Canon's DPP4 is just frustrating on a good day and infuriating the rest of the time.

Striped Parrotfish (Scarus iserti)

Martha and I headed East over the blocks to the Wrap Around Ledge. Went East over the rubble and to the Rock line then North to the Tire Rock and East to the Crescent Moon Rock. Drifted Northeast with the current. Missed the Barrel Sponges, but found the Staghorn Coral where I got this picture of a Striped Parrotfish.

Graysby (Cephalopholis cruentatus)

and this picture of a Graysby and a couple of French Grunts.

From the Staghorn Coral, we went East to the Sectioned Rock where we turned North again to drift along the reef line.

White Grouper (Mycteroperca cidi)

Got to the Coral Head on top of the Shelf and turned West across some sand and smaller rocks.

As we swam West, I spotted this White Grouper and got this picture (left).

Blue Dartfish (Ptereleotris calliura)

Also got some shots of what Humann and DeLoach called Blue Gobys (Ptereleotris calliurus) in their 3rd Edition of Reef Fish Identification and now call Blue Dartfish (Ptereleotris calliura)(Humann & Deloach 4th ed.)

Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio)

 Also got these shots of a Red Grouper (left)

Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus)

and a Nassau Grouper. (right)



Turned South and worked against the current to get to the Staghorn Coral again. From there we headed back to the Wrap Around Ledge and buoy off Tower 4.



We killed a few minutes just past the buoy line to get the dive time to 2 hours then surfaced to swim in even though the lifeguards were not yet on duty. Climbed out without incident. Good dive, all in all.

Dive time was 121 minutes, maximum depth was 18.9 feet and the bottom temperature was 80.6 degrees. I calculated my RMV at .39 ft3/minute but the Suunto program calculated it at 0.35 ft3 /minute.

My pictures from this dive are available at the following link:  13 May 2019_Swiss Cheese Reef