Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Rispa]

Got back from Perdido Key yesterday from a quick family trip as my daughter played in a beach volleyball tournament(Lost in finals). We didn't have a lot of time to walk the beach or snorkel etc...the jellyfish were out in full force this weekend and prevented us from really enjoying the surf. Wanted to share a funny story. Condo we were staying in overlooked the ocean. While sitting on the patio Fri morning having a cup of coffee, my daughter says that she sees a fish flopping around near the surf...look closer and she's right. We run down to the beach and there is a ray struggling to get back to the surf...I attempt to move it and I get shocked(like I stuck my hand in bucket with a defective pump...been there before). I look at the ray and can't believe it came from it, but I attempt to move it again and get shocked again(I know...you can't fix stupid)...so I use my foot and create a channel in the sand leading back to the water and am able to rescue the ray...off he swims. I looked up rays in FL and was surprised that there is a lesser electric ray that will send off low voltage shocks if it feels threatened...learn something new at the beach every day!!

That's one heck of a way to learn about rays. Very cool.

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, it's not a snorkeling photo... yet. But it is my introduction to another area in the Florida Keys that a lot less people ever get to and it's spectacular, IMHO.

Fort Jefferson from the boat P7090454R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

This is Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas about 70 miles west from Key West. I went there on the Yankee Freedom, a ferry that runs out and back almost every day. The problem I had is, I wanted to snorkel all day while we were there (which is only about 5 hours). But when we got there and I saw Fort Jefferson, I wanted to spend time wandering around and seeing the historic sites and beautiful vistas visible from the top of the fort! So I did both and decided I didn't get enough of either. We were scheduled to go back last October and we were going to stay for 2 nights. They allow rustic camping on the island and it's the only way to stay on the island unless you are there on your own live aboard boat. Our 11' Zodiac just isn't big enough! But Hurricane Irma put an end to that plan as we were scheduled the weekend after Irma and the entire place was closed down for repairs. Now we are considering scheduling again.

I have 3 goals in mind for going. First is to get as much snorkel time as I want. Second is to have all the time I want to explore the fort. Third is special. The Dry Tortugas are 70 miles west of Key West and there is very, very little man made light there. So on a night around the time of a new moon, the sky will be very dark and the spread of the Milky Way galaxy across the sky should be very special. The trick is, do I have enough photographic skill and the right camera to photograph it well? We'll see.

So has anybody else here been to Ft Jefferson? Care to share any experiences or critiques about it or the trip out and back?

 

[Rispa]

OK, it's not a snorkeling photo... yet. But it is my introduction to another area in the Florida Keys that a lot less people ever get to and it's spectacular, IMHO.

Fort Jefferson from the boat P7090454R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

This is Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas about 70 miles west from Key West. I went there on the Yankee Freedom, a ferry that runs out and back almost every day. The problem I had is, I wanted to snorkel all day while we were there (which is only about 5 hours). But when we got there and I saw Fort Jefferson, I wanted to spend time wandering around and seeing the historic sites and beautiful vistas visible from the top of the fort! So I did both and decided I didn't get enough of either. We were scheduled to go back last October and we were going to stay for 2 nights. They allow rustic camping on the island and it's the only way to stay on the island unless you are there on your own live aboard boat. Our 11' Zodiac just isn't big enough! But Hurricane Irma put an end to that plan as we were scheduled the weekend after Irma and the entire place was closed down for repairs. Now we are considering scheduling again.

I have 3 goals in mind for going. First is to get as much snorkel time as I want. Second is to have all the time I want to explore the fort. Third is special. The Dry Tortugas are 70 miles west of Key West and there is very, very little man made light there. So on a night around the time of a new moon, the sky will be very dark and the spread of the Milky Way galaxy across the sky should be very special. The trick is, do I have enough photographic skill and the right camera to photograph it well? We'll see.

So has anybody else here been to Ft Jefferson? Care to share any experiences or critiques about it or the trip out and back?

I was supposed to go for my 21st bday, but the prop plane that was supposed to take us was having some problem. Personally I'd love to go one day. For the milky way I think all you need to do is slow your shutter speed and have a stand. If you have a remote so much the better.

 

[fishybizzness]

This is where I collect my nsw for water changes. I also go snorkeling here almost every week. There is a reef right off the beach. You can see where it starts by the change of color in the water. There are hundreds of juvenile fish such as grunts,angels, butterfly fish, tangs, surgeons etc all in about 5 feet of water.... I regularly see huge 6 ft tarpons as well as turtles. Some friends of ours own part of the island to the right and we go camping there every summer. During those trips I snorkel several times a day with my wife. It's truly a beautiful place and I am very blessed.

 

[Ron Reefman]

This is where I collect my nsw for water changes. I also go snorkeling here almost every week. There is a reef right off the beach. You can see where it starts by the change of color in the water. There are hundreds of juvenile fish such as grunts,angels, butterfly fish, tangs, surgeons etc all in about 5 feet of water.... I regularly see huge 6 ft tarpons as well as turtles. Some friends of ours own part of the island to the right and we go camping there every summer. During those trips I snorkel several times a day with my wife. It's truly a beautiful place and I am very blessed.

Well fishybizzness, don't leave us all hanging here! Where is it that you live!

It looks beautiful. I'm looking to add a trip... or maybe two or three trips, to my 'bucket list' which I'm now starting to work on. Maybe a visit to your corner of the world should be on that list.

 

[fishybizzness]

Virgin islands, St Thomas to be exact. We took a major hit last year with the hurricanes but we're coming back slowly but surely.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Virgin islands, St Thomas to be exact. We took a major hit last year with the hurricanes but we're coming back slowly but surely.

Oh! I definitely want to add you to my bucket list of places to visit.

I've been to the Bahamas 5 times, Jamaica twice and Belize once. I really want to visit more islands in the Caribbean. We were in the Florida Keys a couple of weeks ago and although they weren't ravaged as bad as some of the other islands to the east, the damage still is quite obvious. However, frome the snorkeling we've done, it appears the underwater damage has been much less severe.

 

[fishybizzness]

We had 2 cat 5 storms in 2 weeks. Irma and Maria. The devastation was extreme! I live about 5 minutes from the beach in the photo and snorkel there regularly. I got back in the water a few weeks after the storms when the water had cleared up and I didn't even recognize where I was. It was very disheartening. Immediatly following the storms, before cleanup began, we drove down to several beaches and all you could see was the coralheads all scattered on the shore. It is very nice to go snorkeling now and see so many juvenile fish in areas where there were almost none after the storms. Nature, when given a chance, rebuilds itself very quickly.

 

[Ron Reefman]

We snorkeled a couple of islands that are very small and less than a mile off shore on the Florida Bay side of the Keys (so somewhat protected by the bigger islands) and we were a bit surprised at how normal things looked. But this is 8+ months after Irma.

Now the windward side of the bigger islands like Spanish Harbor Key took a real beating, but we didn't snorkel there on the last trip. The end of this month we may get the chance if the weather is good. Here is a shot of the northeast end of Spanish Harbor Key (facing into Irma as it approached).

Here are a couple views from the month before Irma. Notice the empty shack built in the hill and how the grassy slope runs almost to the water high tide level. Also, out in front of the building there is no sign of a concrete septic tank.
P7170107 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P5200020 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

These where taken June of 2018 (7 to 8 months after Irma). The remains of the building are at the far end of the first photo. From were my wife is standing to the vertical wall of rock was all grassy slope covering rock which has all been washed out by Irma. And in the 2nd photo you can now see the entire concrete septic tank is exposed above ground. A good 2 to 3 feet of rock was eroded away.
DSCN8254 R2 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
DSCN8255 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

 

[fishybizzness]

We had sustained winds of about 185 mph, its a testament to the resilience of nature that anything survived! It has definitely taken awhile but it's nice to see how much is coming back.

 

[fishybizzness]

Another beach about 5 minutes from my house. Me and my wife just got back from taking a walk on this beach. It's down a rough dirt road so most days we are the only ones on the beach.

 

[Saintnovakai]

It's great fun. First you need to find a beach where sponges wash up. Around here in SW Florida that mostly happens after winter cold fronts, but can happen after stormy days. The sponges around here that are the best are soft orange ones that range from very small to almost football (American football) size. They are soft, have lots of fingers or branches and lots of 1/4" to 1" holes. We find them as close to the water's edge as possible in hope that they are still wet, or at least damp.
P1180100 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Start tearing it open and look carefully inside.
P1180160 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
P1180233 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Around here porcelain crabs from very tiny 1/4" to about 1 1/2" are very common and they survive collecting and transporting home very well. I use a 7g bucket with a screw top lid. I drilled a hole in the lid for an air hose and I attached some velcro to the lid and a battery operated air pump (bubbler). They are like $10 to $15 at bait shops and online.
P1180029 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

We find a lot less pistol shrimp than porcelain crabs, probably about a 10:1 or even 20:1 ratio. The pistol shrimp are at higher risk from being out of the water than the crabs and they don't do quite as well making it home. But the survival rate for me has been about 90%. Very rarely I'll find a peppermint shrimp. Here is a pic with a couple of porcelain crabs and a pistol shrimp (yellow) hanging on to a sea cucumber (collected illegally, but back then I didn't know it).
sea squirt and friends by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

We find tiny and small serpent and brittle stars in the sponges as well. They are even less likey to survive long in the sponge and I think because they are so compromised, their survival rate for me is about 40%. But I can't collect stars on Sanibel beaches as they are protected by local ordinances along with all mollusks, sea cucumbers, sand dollars and sea biscuits.

I've had days where hitting my collection limit (20 animals/day, state regulation applies to all of Florida) is easy. But I've also had days that I come home with an empty bucket! Oh, one more point. I fill my bucket with a couple gallons of saltwater from my tank at home. On rough and cold days (better collecting) it's hard to get even semi-clean water in the bucket from the surf. And by using tank water, I've started acclimating them to my water right from the start.

I've been doing this for about 5 or 6 years now. One of the fun things for me is; when I'm out collected on a cold or cool windy day, almost everybody else on the beach are vacationers from far away and they are looking for shells. So even though it's 50F, it's sunny after a cold front and they are out in shorts or bathing suits. To me, after 20 years in SW Florida, I consider 50F to be freezing cold! So I'm wearing the bottom half of a wet suit and blue jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt and a flannel shirt and sometimes even semi heavy coat!
P1180230 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

So these shell hunters are always coming over to me and ask what the heck am I doing! Dressed like it's about to snow, I stand out from pretty far away. And when they get closer, they see me tearing sponges apart and occasionally dropping something in a big bucket. I'm like 0.001% of the beach population on those days. And when I explain what I'm doing, and show them the crabs and shrimp (and maybe an anemone) they are shocked. They ask,"You're finding these in the water, right?" And I say,"Nope, here is a sponge that's washed up, let's look inside." When I find live animals inside they are almost alway blown away. They had no idea anything on the beach that belongs in the water would still be alive. I love it because I always wanted to be a teacher and be able to inspire my students. These vacationers are often hungry for more knowledge and shocked at what I can show them. Great FUN!

Hey Ron. I live in Jamaica and ive been trying to do a reef tank. There doesnt seem to be many reef safe stuff that ive seen but I was hoping if you vould tell me where you snorkelled and what you saw. I really would like to know if you saw any Rock flower anemones and where. Lots of Condies and Carpets but never seen a RFA.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hey Ron. I live in Jamaica and ive been trying to do a reef tank. There doesnt seem to be many reef safe stuff that ive seen but I was hoping if you vould tell me where you snorkelled and what you saw. I really would like to know if you saw any Rock flower anemones and where. Lots of Condies and Carpets but never seen a RFA.

I'm happy to try and help. BTW, I've been to Jamaica twice on vacations. Once to Montego Bay and then to Negril. Loved both places and would very much like to visit again with my current wife.

As for what I find that I can put in my tank, the list is pretty long. Easy finds and easy to collect are mithrax crabs (green and red), turbo snails, cerith snails, blue leg hermit crabs, serpent and brittle stars, sea cucumbers, small clams and urchins. But be aware, urchins love to 'pick up' stuff in the tank like entire frag plugs and carry then around as camouflage. Several different anemones like rock flowers, curly-Q's and condys aren't hard to find (BTW condys are illegal to collect in Florida), but they can be difficult to collect. Anemones love to set their foot in holes in the rocks and it makes them quite difficult to collect without damaging them. I look for ones that aren't in holes, which is maybe 1 out of every 20. Then I can use the edge of my dive knife, or the edge of a clam shell to work at the edge of the foot. Take your time and be very gentle and it can be done. Some come lose pretty easy because they were moving anyway, and some can take several minutes to remove. RFA's that we find in the shallows while snorkeling tend to be much less colorful, but much better at photosynthesis and require less care than the ultra colorful ones that come from deeper water and need to be fed. Flame scallops and chitons are can be found, but they are less common and can be quite difficult to remove, especially chitons! And I love those little guys. They look so prehistoric and they do a good (but slow) job of cleaning rocks and glass. We see lots of juvenile tropical fish, but they require time, technique and proper equipment to collect so I don't even try. Most of the shrimp we see are small mantis shrimp and they are crazy fast and probably not something you would want in your tank anyway as they are serious predators. Occasionally we see coral banded shrimp and they aren't too hard to net, but unless you get a mated pair, they are just as likely to fight until you only have one. We collect pistol shrimp, occasionally peppermint shrimp and porcelain crabs out of sponges that wash up on the beach after a storm, but we never see them when we go snorkeling.

The two failures that drive me crazy are sponges and spaghetti worms. I've tried dozens of small sponges without success. I've tried different colors, different types, sun lovers and under rock lovers, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. And I'm very careful with them when I do try to collect one. I never do more than one, it never gets close to being out of the water, I keep it separated from any other things I collect, I run an airstone but keep the sponge away from the bubbles, I do two daily water changes until they get to my aquarium, I control the water temp and even provide water flow with a small pump. But the best I've done is to get one home and watch it waste away in my tanks. It's frustrating. I've tried a couple of big (4" to 8" long) spaghetti worms but they are extremely fragile. One survived in my quarantine tank for a couple of weeks and just before I was going to move it to my aquarium it died!

My wife just called me to breakfast, more on locations after I eat!

 

[Saintnovakai]

I'm happy to try and help. BTW, I've been to Jamaica twice on vacations. Once to Montego Bay and then to Negril. Loved both places and would very much like to visit again with my current wife.

As for what I find that I can put in my tank, the list is pretty long. Easy finds and easy to collect are mithrax crabs (green and red), turbo snails, cerith snails, blue leg hermit crabs, serpent and brittle stars, sea cucumbers, small clams and urchins. But be aware, urchins love to 'pick up' stuff in the tank like entire frag plugs and carry then around as camouflage. Several different anemones like rock flowers, curly-Q's and condys aren't hard to find (BTW condys are illegal to collect in Florida), but they can be difficult to collect. Anemones love to set their foot in holes in the rocks and it makes them quite difficult to collect without damaging them. I look for ones that aren't in holes, which is maybe 1 out of every 20. Then I can use the edge of my dive knife, or the edge of a clam shell to work at the edge of the foot. Take your time and be very gentle and it can be done. Some come lose pretty easy because they were moving anyway, and some can take several minutes to remove. RFA's that we find in the shallows while snorkeling tend to be much less colorful, but much better at photosynthesis and require less care than the ultra colorful ones that come from deeper water and need to be fed. Flame scallops and chitons are can be found, but they are less common and can be quite difficult to remove, especially chitons! And I love those little guys. They look so prehistoric and they do a good (but slow) job of cleaning rocks and glass. We see lots of juvenile tropical fish, but they require time, technique and proper equipment to collect so I don't even try. Most of the shrimp we see are small mantis shrimp and they are crazy fast and probably not something you would want in your tank anyway as they are serious predators. Occasionally we see coral banded shrimp and they aren't too hard to net, but unless you get a mated pair, they are just as likely to fight until you only have one. We collect pistol shrimp, occasionally peppermint shrimp and porcelain crabs out of sponges that wash up on the beach after a storm, but we never see them when we go snorkeling.

The two failures that drive me crazy are sponges and spaghetti worms. I've tried dozens of small sponges without success. I've tried different colors, different types, sun lovers and under rock lovers, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. And I'm very careful with them when I do try to collect one. I never do more than one, it never gets close to being out of the water, I keep it separated from any other things I collect, I run an airstone but keep the sponge away from the bubbles, I do two daily water changes until they get to my aquarium, I control the water temp and even provide water flow with a small pump. But the best I've done is to get one home and watch it waste away in my tanks. It's frustrating. I've tried a couple of big (4" to 8" long) spaghetti worms but they are extremely fragile. One survived in my quarantine tank for a couple of weeks and just before I was going to move it to my aquarium it died!

My wife just called me to breakfast, more on locations after I eat!

Yes. When the Boss calls for breakfast theres no two ways about it.
Chitons I find on live rock in my tank....and I throw them back because they resemble something ive seen stuck on fish. Tossed one out just yesterday. Spaghetti worms just show up in my tank. At night its just stringy tentacles everywhere. Lol.
Id really like to find the RFAs. Ricordea is found in specific places and im wondering if RFAs are location specific like them.

Portland is where friends say you find the most stuff. Royal Grammas and all sorts of stuff. Gonna go there when I get a break. Reefing got me I to snorkelling so im still a dry foot. Taking my time though. Found a few Rose brains right at the shore in Port Royal so that was awesome. See you after your breakfast. ;Happy

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yes. When the Boss calls for breakfast theres no two ways about it.
Chitons I find on live rock in my tank....and I throw them back because they resemble something ive seen stuck on fish. Tossed one out just yesterday. Spaghetti worms just show up in my tank. At night its just stringy tentacles everywhere. Lol.
Id really like to find the RFAs. Ricordea is found in specific places and im wondering if RFAs are location specific like them.

Portland is where friends say you find the most stuff. Royal Grammas and all sorts of stuff. Gonna go there when I get a break. Reefing got me I to snorkelling so im still a dry foot. Taking my time though. Found a few Rose brains right at the shore in Port Royal so that was awesome. See you after your breakfast. ;Happy

The chitons you find on rocks are not the same kind of animal (parasite) you find on fish. The ones we find a lot of are tidal and like to be at the water /air level. I collected a couple and they literally climbed out of the tank! We don't see very many that stay down in the water. I have had lots of the very small spaghetti worms in the past. But my six line wrasse ate them all. And the spaghetti worm I really wanted is the big one with the translucent green/blue tentacles that are 2' or more in length. Probably too big for my current tank. BTW, my wrasse doesn't bother with the tiny white feather dusters in my tank. But I bought a big, uncommon (to me anyway) colorful one from Fishy Business Aquatics online store and the wrasse ate it after 2 days!

We find RFA's in shallow rocky or solid bottom flats. There are several off the beach shorelines in the Keys where snorkeling and collecting can be done easily. We use our Zodiac to get out to a tiny island (maybe 50' in diameter) about 3/4's of a mile off shore where the sides of the island drop off about 1' to 3' vertically and then a flat that extends out 10' to 30' all the way around the island. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand, RFA's tucked into the vertical wall and out onto the flat bottom close to the island. And 99% of them can retract into holes that make them nearly impossible to remore without a chisel and hammer (also illegal to use for collecting in Florida). We also have a bigger island, maybe 200' in diameter that is surrounded by VERY shallow water and the edge of the island is more like a beach (no rocky drop off). 60% of the way around the island is sand and the other 40% is broken up stony coral and small sponges and grass flats. There is at least a acre that is less than 2' deep and 2 or 3 acres that are less than 4' deep. Pick up a clump of coral (it's all broken finger coral and 50% dead and 50% alive) and you could find a wide variety of critters. These two photos are pretty typical of the bottom in the shallow 1' to 2' zone.

P6160357R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Florida Keys by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

And some of the local critters:
urchins
P5240088 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sundial snails
P5230056 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sponges
P5230039 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

gorgonian corals and flamingo tongue snails
Flamingo Tongue R3 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

serpent and brittle stars
P6160429 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

yellow sea cucumber (sand sifter)
small yellow sea cucumber by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

queen conch (illegal to collect in Florida)
P5220030 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

feather dusters and more sponges
feather dusters P1010025 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

rose coral (again all stony corals, sps and lps are totally illegal in Florida). I don't think this little guy is photosynthetic and if Florida FWC caught you with it, you be paying a huge fine, probably $500 to $1000 or more. Jail time is even possible. And we've been checked by FWC more times than I can remember!
rose coral polyps retracted by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

finger coral and a dwarf reef octopus

octopus by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

BTW, I forgot to mention zoas, gorgonians and feather dusters. We are only allowed to take 5 polyps of soft coral per licence holder per day. So my wife and I can collect 10 polyps which is a nice mini colony. Gorgonian colonies are all over the place and in Florida we are allowed up to 8 colonies! One good size colony could be fregged down to a dozen small colonies suitable for a 2' deep aquarium. And feather duster can be even worse to collect than RFA's as the are always attached to big rocks and have their tube attached in deep holes!

 

[Saintnovakai]

The chitons you find on rocks are not the same kind of animal (parasite) you find on fish. The ones we find a lot of are tidal and like to be at the water /air level. I collected a couple and they literally climbed out of the tank! We don't see very many that stay down in the water. I have had lots of the very small spaghetti worms in the past. But my six line wrasse ate them all. And the spaghetti worm I really wanted is the big one with the translucent green/blue tentacles that are 2' or more in length. Probably too big for my current tank. BTW, my wrasse doesn't bother with the tiny white feather dusters in my tank. But I bought a big, uncommon (to me anyway) colorful one from Fishy Business Aquatics online store and the wrasse ate it after 2 days!

We find RFA's in shallow rocky or solid bottom flats. There are several off the beach shorelines in the Keys where snorkeling and collecting can be done easily. We use our Zodiac to get out to a tiny island (maybe 50' in diameter) about 3/4's of a mile off shore where the sides of the island drop off about 1' to 3' vertically and then a flat that extends out 10' to 30' all the way around the island. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand, RFA's tucked into the vertical wall and out onto the flat bottom close to the island. And 99% of them can retract into holes that make them nearly impossible to remore without a chisel and hammer (also illegal to use for collecting in Florida). We also have a bigger island, maybe 200' in diameter that is surrounded by VERY shallow water and the edge of the island is more like a beach (no rocky drop off). 60% of the way around the island is sand and the other 40% is broken up stony coral and small sponges and grass flats. There is at least a acre that is less than 2' deep and 2 or 3 acres that are less than 4' deep. Pick up a clump of coral (it's all broken finger coral and 50% dead and 50% alive) and you could find a wide variety of critters. These two photos are pretty typical of the bottom in the shallow 1' to 2' zone.

P6160357R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Florida Keys by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

And some of the local critters:
urchins
P5240088 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sundial snails
P5230056 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sponges
P5230039 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

gorgonian corals and flamingo tongue snails
Flamingo Tongue R3 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

serpent and brittle stars
P6160429 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

yellow sea cucumber (sand sifter)
small yellow sea cucumber by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

queen conch (illegal to collect in Florida)
P5220030 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

feather dusters and more sponges
feather dusters P1010025 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

rose coral (again all stony corals, sps and lps are totally illegal in Florida). I don't think this little guy is photosynthetic and if Florida FWC caught you with it, you be paying a huge fine, probably $500 to $1000 or more. Jail time is even possible. And we've been checked by FWC more times than I can remember!
rose coral polyps retracted by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

finger coral and a dwarf reef octopus

octopus by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

BTW, I forgot to mention zoas, gorgonians and feather dusters. We are only allowed to take 5 polyps of soft coral per licence holder per day. So my wife and I can collect 10 polyps which is a nice mini colony. Gorgonian colonies are all over the place and in Florida we are allowed up to 8 colonies! One good size colony could be fregged down to a dozen small colonies suitable for a 2' deep aquarium. And feather duster can be even worse to collect than RFA's as the are always attached to big rocks and have their tube attached in deep holes!

Awesome stuff Ron. Where do you see RFAs in Jamaica? I have a dive light that I modified to royal blue using ebay leds. Its goid for identifying ultras and other fluorescent stuff. We have a lot of actinostella flosculifera anemones that live in the sand. Many fluoresce whike others dont. Only anemone outside of condies and carpets ive seen so far here.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Awesome stuff Ron. Where do you see RFAs in Jamaica? I have a dive light that I modified to royal blue using ebay leds. Its goid for identifying ultras and other fluorescent stuff. We have a lot of actinostella flosculifera anemones that live in the sand. Many fluoresce whike others dont. Only anemone outside of condies and carpets ive seen so far here.

When I was snorkeling in Jamaica was so long ago that even if I saw a RFA, I wouldn't have know what it was! That was back in the late 70's and I didn't move to Florida, start snorkeling seriously and start in the marine aquarium hobby until the early 2000's. I probably collected my first RFA in the shallows around the Florida Keys in 2005 or 06. I didn't know there were colorful RFA's until the Reef-A-Palooza in Orlando, FL in 2014.

If you find any RFA's there, please let us know. And I'd appreciate any info on good snorkel spots (even if they are just to look at and not collect) in Jamaica. That's the idea behind this entire thread, share info on snorkel spots and collecting techniques, rules and laws. I'm not interested in scuba diving info as where are already lots of website for scuba. Finding good snorkeling info can be very difficult. Especially off the beach snorkeling!

 

[Dystinction]

@Ron Reefman , you weren't vacationing in Texas were you???
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8dd174...8932c4b68/ss_she-said-she-didn’t-know-it.html

In all seriousness....some people!

BTW, I enjoy this thread, and live vicariously through everyone's adventures.

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Ron Reefman , you weren't vacationing in Texas were you???
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8dd17419-8aa3-3593-b550-0928932c4b68/ss_she-said-she-didn’t-know-it.html

In all seriousness....some people!

BTW, I enjoy this thread, and live vicariously through everyone's adventures.

Ha! No, I live in SW Florida about 5 hours from the Middle Keys (which is were we snorkel the most). And I'm glad you enjoy the thread. I just want to share info about snorkeling and collecting because this kind of info is hard to find anywhere.

Thanks so much for posting this current story! I can't emphasize enough the risks you run if you don't know the law for whatever area you are collecting in.

For those who don't read it, a Texas lady collected 40 LIVE Queen Conch while on vacation in Key West. She got 15 days in jail, 6 months on probation, and paid a $500 fine and $268 in court costs. And she ends up with nothing as FWC took them all and put most of them back in the water as they were still alive.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Back in post #82 I brought up Ft Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas (70 miles west of Key West). We are considering a camping trip out there sometime this fall before the water temps get too cool to snorkel. But just to peak a little interest here are some more pics from our trip a couple of years ago.

There is a nice sandy beach and obviously not too many people as the boat doesn't bring that many. The water was crystal clear. This shot is just a little way out into the water and looking along one wall of the fort. BTW, the water is shallow a long way out from the fort and there are nice coral heads in shallow water (less than 4 feet deep).

fort from snorkel view P7090096 (2)R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

These are piling from a old 'coaling pier' when boats would deliver coal to the fort which they burned for energy. The water here is about 10' deep and there are all kinds of corals and sponges growing on them. This is just around a corner of concrete wall between the beach and the dock for the ferry (see the photo in post #82). The seaplane landing in the distance flies in and out twice a day.

P7090165R2 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


From the end of the pilings is the dock the ferry uses. The ferry arrives about mid morning, offers a nice lunch service, nice restrooms, A/C and showers!

P7090200 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr


This is very typical of the coral heads that are all around the fort. One of the reasons we want to spend the night is to do a night snorkel around the outside of the mote that wraps around the fort and is covered in underwater life.

P5070132R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr