Labor Day '99 Flower Gardens Trip Report
Text and images Copyright (C) 1999 David M. Read. All rights reserved.
A diver hovers over the reef at
East Bank
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The Labor Day trip has been a tradition for my wife and
myself since the Labor Day 1996 trip, where we saw whale sharks at West and East Banks,
and got engaged at Stetson Bank. But this year my wife couldn't dive, as she was/is
pregnant with our first child. I thought seriously of bailing on the trip
altogether, but when "my" dive shop, Tom's
Dive and Ski offered me a free trip as trip leader, I couldn't resist. There was
a twist, though: usually the Labor Day trip is a Saturday- Sunday- Monday affair.
This year the coral spawning was predicted for Friday the 4th of September, so the 5-day
coral spawning trip went from Wednesday through Sunday, and the Labor Day trip got moved
to Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. So this year I had to take time off from work, rather
than fitting the 3-day trip into the 3-day Labor Day weekend. Oh well. |
The conditions were, in a word, excellent. Unlike last year's rough ride and early
departure, the Gulf delivered calm seas (never more than 2.5 feet), great visibility
(basically always 80 feet or better), and warm waters (84F at the bottom). The only
down side was some stiff current from time to time, but on most dives the current was
manageable.
One of West Bank's many Christmas Tree worms.
In general, the marine life was plentiful. A whale shark did
show up at East Bank, although I didn't get to see it. Apparently it buzzed by the
boat on the surface at the beginning of the dive, while divers were still entering the
water. Only two divers got to see the whale shark from the water; the remaining
people saw it while they were standing on deck, waiting to enter. My buddy and I
entered no more than two minutes before it swam by, so it must have gone right over
my head during my initial descent. Bummer. But despite the disappointment of
missing the whale shark, there was plenty else to see. I saw three different nurse
sharks, at least a dozen silky sharks, a giant sea turtle, a rare sub-species of smooth
trunkfish, spotted morays, goldentail morays, lobsters, crabs, and fish galore. I
also observed all sorts of strange fish behavior (strange to me, at least).
Rinn Boats has Nitrox!
The M/V Fling, as usual, ran a great dive operation. The big news for
this year is that the Fling and Spree have nitrox onboard! They
pump 32% standard via a membrane system. It costs extra ($90 for the 3-day trip),
but the boon to your bottom time is worth the extra expense. Basically, I got almost
double my bottom time at the Gardens. Check out the dive log
details at the end of the trip report to see the times I was getting. Then
compare those to last year's Labor Day
dives to see the difference.
Dive Log Excerpts
| Dive #1: West Bank, Buoy #4 Early morning dive,
not much color to see. Saw a small trumpetfish, lots of big barracuda, and a school
of zillions of tiny silvery fish, along with another school of fish which looked like
juvenile blue chromis. Dive #2: West Bank, Buoy #4 Giant school
of chub under the boat was the highlight of this dive. Otherwise, not much
happening.
Dive #3: East Bank, Buoy #4 Played in the sand flats, and saw
two silkies.
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A school of bermuda chub always collects under the boat.
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An orange-spotted filefish poses for me.
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Dive #4: East Bank, Buoy #4 More sand flats: big french
angels, a huge blue angel, rock beauties, banded butterflyfish, two mated white-spotted
filefish, another tumpetfish (this one bright yellow), and a couple of ocean triggers.
At the end of the dive, I saw a large barracuda with the back end of a fish
(dinner?) sticking out of his mouth. |
Dive #5: East Bank, Buoy #4 Night dive! Nurse shark, adult spotted drum,
dog snapper, tons of barracuda, but the coolest part was finding a small
(~3") reef squid at the end of the dive, at about 50'.Dive #6: East Bank,
Buoy #3 Early morning dive again, not much happening. The best part
was a large turtle below me at the end of the dive. Also saw a grouper attack a big
school of the little silvery fish.
Dive #7: East Bank, Buoy #3 Great dive; it started with a
big pulsating jelly, then a nurse shark asleep in the sand, then another nurse shark much
later in the dive, and a couple of small silkies, and finally a spotted moray. very
cool.
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A sliky shark cruises the reef at East Bank.
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A cluster of spiny lobsters has moved onto the rig.
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Dive #8: Oil Rig HI-A376-B Dull, dull, dull.
Started pretty good, with 6 silkies swimming by below me, but the only memorable thing
after that was a cluster of lobsters on the platform, all piled atop one another.
Also saw some small gray triggerfish, not sure of the species. This rig must be
pretty new, as there isn't much growth on it. |
Dive #9: Stetson Bank, Buoy #1 Night dive! Stetson served
up its usual magic: deer cowries, urchins everywhere, a spotted moray, and tons of ghostly
pale filefish of an unknown species. They were super white, with a faint marbling
all over.
On dive #10, I saw the filefish again. I think they're white-spotted filefish,
because there was a "normally" colored whitespotted filefish with them, and the
marbling was very faintly visible on the "normal" one.
A rare Golden Smooth Trunkfish at Stetson Bank.
Stetson Bank is a great place to find moray eels.
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Dive #10: Stetson Bank, Buoy #1 Lots of surface
current convinced me to leave the camera on deck--and that was a mistake, The
current was slack on the bottom, and photo ops abounded. Rock beauties, queen
angels, deer cowrie, etc. I finally saw one of the rare golden smooth trunkfish I have
heard about. Very cool. There was also this tiny filefish, possibly a slender
filefish, wedged into the eye of the ladder line. Very brave little fellow. I
hope this means that slender filefish are moving into the region! Dive #11:
Stetson Bank, Buoy #1 Last reef dive of the trip, and it didn't
disappoint. Goldentail moray, spotted moray, juvenile queen angels--the golden
smooth trunkfish returned, and I had the camera! Also large french angels,
orangespotted filefish, etc. |
| Dive #12: Oil Rig GA-393-C Great dive on the rig.
Lots of Atlantic spadefish, and of course the blennies. I shot 32 frames of
blennies, including tesselatede blennies and seaweed blennies. Great fun. |
A tesselated blenny peeks out of its home in a
barnacle shell.
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August 2003
