20200729_Swiss Cheese Reef

Woke up early, checked my email and had some coffee. Took Mia for a walk then got Martha up. We left the apartment about 6:30 am and got to the beach by 6:45 am. Not a lot of cars in the parking lot, but a lot of small boats at anchor off the beach. We geared up and got in the water about 7:00 am. We swam out to the buoy line then descended at the pin at 7:18 am when I had  3140 psi. 

Spotted this little Blenny soon after descent. I have no idea what he is; I know only that I cannot find him in the Paul Humann and Ned Deloach books.

We swam East to the Wrap Around Ledge; up and over the rubble to the Rock Line; then North to the tire. At the tire we turned East again and headed across a large sand flat to the Crescent Moon Rock. From the Rock, we swam up on a stretch of coral and rubble where I got this shot of a Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus). At 30 minutes into the dive we were headed NE to the Giant Barrel Sponges on the way to the Staghorn Coral. 

Along the way, I spotted and photographed  this Spotted Moray Eel (Gymnothorax moringa). I tried to coax him out of the rocks, but he wasn't having any of it. 

Took this picture of a Cushion Sea Star (Oreaster reticulatus) on the sand flat just South of the Staghorn Coral.

Got this shot of a  Graysby (Cephalopholis cruentatus) slowly hunting on the Staghorn Coral. As you can see from the picture, the reef is made up of several layers of Staghorn Coral that have created a mound of living and dead coral.

From the Staghorn Coral, we swam East to the Sectioned Rock which is so named because as you look at its West face there are deep cracks marking the rock into four sections.   

The Sectioned Rock begins the Swiss Cheese Reef and protects a Giant Anemone (Condylactis gigantea)  

Martha over the Staghorn Coral.

Just as we left to the Staghorn Coral, I got this shot of a  Sand Diver (Synodus intermedius). We were about one hour into the dive and my gas was at 1950 psi.  

This is one of my favorite shots. It is two White Grunts (Haemulon plumierii) arguing. They push against each others mouths until one of them concedes. They don't bite and neither appears suffer any injury beyond the loss of pride. 

 

We continued North along the reef until we ran into some teenage divers hunting lobster from a small boat that was dragging its anchor across the rocky bottom. We were 90 minutes into the dive and I was down to 1300 psi so we turned the dive and swam around them about 40 feet to the East. We were dropping back onto the Swiss Cheese Reef at the Sectioned Rock and I got this shot of a Spotted Goatfish (Pseudupeneus maculatus) 

Got this shot of mostly White Grunts but also some Bluestriped Grunts and some French Grunts.  

We swam West to the Staghorn Coral then SW across some rubble to the Wrap Around Reef. We swam West to the beach and surfaced in 4 feet of water. Our Dive Time was 130 minutes at a maximum depth of 20.8 feet. My AC was 21.04 psi/minute; SAC was 14.46 psi/minute and RMV was .37 cubic feet per minute.  I had 405 psi left in my tank. 

 and surfaced at 2 hours and ten minutes. I still had 405 psi.