[scubadude]

Been away for a while....Been diving alot
Well me and a couple of buddies went down to the KEYS for 4 days and did some diving/lobstering the seas where gentle but the Visibility (25'-45') was a little hindered because it was spawning season for the corals the lobster population seems to have declined quite a bit from what I have seen the past 3 yrs. I dove a various sections of the keys down near Cudjoe Key (backcountry aka gulf side), East & West Washerwoman, and some of Marathon and from what im seeing is that the females arent being taken care of like the law has meant them to be Of course I am only seeing a very small part of the ocean and makeing my judgements from this...But I have been doing alot of diving in the Ft. Lauderdale area 2 this season, Ft. Lauderdale area seems to me to be more abundant in lobster populations now than the keys and it used to be the other way around. Did a little spearfishing too and got some Hogsnapper (excellent eating) and they appear to be Very abundant on the reefs and reef edges. Lots of big green morays (some snowflakes too) on the swiss cheese reefs which might have alot to do with some of the lobster population going down to. It is still beautiful down there but I do see the quality starting to decline unfortunately! The one thing about the lobsters in the ocean is that they are like the underwater cockroach that scavenges and this is one of the things that we like and help keep our tanks clean thus the snails and hermit crabs we keep. I think the decline of the lobsters will help devistate our reefs, however if the law was abided by as far as the harvesting of lobsters then we undoubtedly would have a strong populations. As of now we are allowed 6 lobsters per person per day and the take of female bearing eggs is absolutely prohibited!

[thezookeeper]

Hi there Rocky! Welcome back! Glad you had a good time. Diving must be awesome. It's something I'd like to try one day. I'd go fishing more too...but all I ever seem to catch are rocks. Just like Charlie Brown at halloween! Anyway, talk to you soon!


Joanne

[Reinhold]

Are boats damaging the reefs? Is it pollution or the decline of filtering animals causing the water quality problems down there?

Up here, nitrogen and phosphorus are the main culprit in declining water quality and clarity, mainly from farming and livestock run-off into the rivers and streams, and eventually into the lakes.

[fishrule]

Scubadude, where are the live queen angels, and other fish you can put in your tank? 1 queen angel would of been worth 80.00 - 175.00 depending on size. Show me the live fish!

[Biomanjcs72]

I dove marathon about four or five years ago, you didn't dive Sombrero Reef? did you?

[ranaman]

Ah yes, the real problem in the keys, surfers cutting down mangroves. See http://www.miami.com/herald/content/...ocs/065929.htm
I think part of the problem in the keys is septic tanks, but this kind of nonsense doesn't help.
About queen angels small ones were never common like blues or grays. French and Queen angels are more insular than continental. They don't like water near large freshwater discharges. So they are much more common in the iislands. This holds true for such fish as royal grammas, spotted drums, and greenstriped gobies. Still you can find french and queen angels, I remember finding a queen about 6" long just turning to adult color off the sea wall of the channel 2 bridge. The fish was in about 3' of water when i saw it when it saw me it went down the wall and around it to the main channel heading for deep water along the seawall. You must understand the fish wasn't really swimming fast, we were both pretending that we weren't up to something. The fish took me to a pile of rocks looked up at me as if to say, this is where you run out of air. Since I was snorkling he was right. This went on for 4 more times, MY KINGDOM FOR A BARRIER NET!
I hope there are still places where you can collect marine tropicals in the keys. Nothing like the feeling of catching a french angel in a hand net.

[scubadude]

Joanne hello sunshine

Reinhold
Im not sure but i would bet both factors you mentioned are affecting the reefs down there. I saw a couple of brain corals that where flipped over makes me wonder if someon lobstering did it just cuz they couldnt get the lobsters from underneath it or if it was done by a boat anchor.....may have even been done by a storm for all I know

Fishrule
I pretty much ditto ranamans statement, and you are not allowed to take any angels that are bigger than 8" out. I had to go to about 60' on the E. side of keys to find a really diverse and beautiful place to dive...alot of the shallower areas are starting to get hit really heavy now! But I did see some nice angels....including her majesty the queen!

rana,
Man i have never heard of that.....Thanx for the link! I know that ANYWHERE in florida it is illegal to cut down a mangrove unless you have a permit and they are a backbone to our ecological system, I do think those surfers are definately doing the wrong thing but I think that is only part of the problem

[SCETT316]

Glad to see you back Rocky. Lobster looks apetizing......... Some melted butter on the side Hmmmmm. Send me one, pls.
Cya

[ScottC]

I just came back last night, myself.

The little woman and I went camping at Long Key. We lasted 10 hours. The bugs are way too think right now. We went 3 weeks ago for a week and it was just fine..totally acceptable levels. This time it was out of control. We packed up at 5 am and drove up to Sarasota. And to a hotel!!

When we went last time the diving was GREAT!! We hit Looe Key off of Marathon and did a bunch of snoprkeling off of Long Key. Queen Angels, Queen Triggers, Green Morays, HUGE BUGS!!, etc.

We'll go back in a little over a month from now.

Scott