Martha and I left the apartment at 6:45 am and got to the beach early. Leo and Luis got to the beach at 7:30 am, just as they had promised. We got geared up and in the water by 8:03 am. We swam to the Three-tiered Reef in 20 minutes. I spotted two single Jacks and one group of two or three.
We descended at 8:29 am and I spotted the West end of the Jacks just moments after getting to the bottom. We split up: Leo and Luis went down the Northside of the Jacks while Martha and I went down the Southside of the Jacks.
There were many of the usual reef fish: Bluestriped, Smallmouth, Spanish and Caesar Grunts as well as the pair of French Grunts to the left settling some dispute.
There was no current to push you on or off the Jacks and lots of fish to look at and photograph. We saw small schools of smaller/younger Bar Jacks (right) and a number of older Yellow Jacks (below).
There were numerous Yellowtail and Gray Snappers
and several Juvenile Schoolmasters. (right).
We also spotted and I photographed a small school of Palometa (Trachinotus goodei). I have seen these fish before but had not had an opportunity to photograph them. These fish seemed quite at home on the Jacks and I got several shots.
Martha likes to hunt for shells and is often over the sand. This morning she found a very small Flounder in the sand about 20 feet South of the Jacks. She came and got me and my camera, but had some trouble locating the animal. We spent several minutes looking and she was successful in finding this 3 x 4 x 1/4 inch fish lying near the Eastern end of the Jacks. I took some pictures and we switched sides with Leo and Luis to swim back.
On the way back, we spent 5 minutes swimming with a larger school of Midnight Parrotfish (Scarus coelestinus).
We also spotted a lone Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) (below).
Our bottom time was 120 minutes; the maximum depth was 24.3 feet; my SAC was 15.77 psi/minute and my RMV was 0.41 ft3/minute.
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