Green Moray Being Cleaned (Key Largo Reef)

Last year I allowed way too many things to interfere with diving. I made the decision to try and get out once every 4-6 weeks, and 2016 going into 2017 has been better. Since I actually work seven days a week, taking part of one day once a month (or so) isn’t what one would call unreasonable. Anyway, Mother Nature has not been kind to the charter boat people over the past several days, but it all came together nicely today. In fact, our first dive was at a site that is quite popular although not usually as interesting as numerous other spots. Today was the exception with better underwater visibility than past dives there and a cluster of groupers you don’t often see. You get one-to-three groupers cruising around on a reef most of the time. Today there were about a dozen, and a mix of types. Okay, there no Goliath was among them. Still, it was impressive. And of all the variety of parrot fish, the midnight parrot is my favorite with their dark blue coloration. About half a dozen of them came by. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo in my gallery to show how pretty they are. The other treat was a free-swimming green moray eel. Although he wasn’t as big as the one in this photo, he wasn’t much smaller. They are nocturnal and tuck into the rocks during the day, so when you find one out in the open for a while, they’re fun to watch. I think hubby got video of him – will have to see later.

The water temperature is increasing as it does this time of year and is at 75, which isn’t bad. Since I missed both Jan and Feb for diving, maybe things will work out where I can squeeze in one more day in March and be back on track for an annual total. We’ll see.