No, not a car trunk or a piece of travel luggage – trunkfish. I finally had a chance to go diving last week after far too long out of the water.  There was the familiar pleasure of the boat ride through the mangroves seeing egrets, herons, and other birds and keeping watch when we came into open water in case a dolphin or two appeared on the way to Molasses Reef. I don’t usually see dolphins and while that day was no different, a couple of flying fish did make their leaps, no doubt eluding a larger fish.

Once we arrived, visibility was down and the infestation of jellyfish in the upper Keys had not completely abated, yet the underwater realm was as welcoming as always. It took more than half the dive to find the ray that I was certain would be around, and then a medium-sized nurse shark cruised past. I had kept an eye out for those since they are special treats for visitors, but I was interested in the many trunkfish that I was seeing. The one in this photo wasn’t from that particular dive because my husband didn’t have his camera with him, but it is a trunkfish from one of the other reefs around Key Largo. Anyway, I think I counted nearly a dozen trunkfish between the two dives we did, poking along the spur and groove reefs. These are some of the odd shaped fish that are always fun to watch. For those who aren’t familiar with them, they feed from the sand by blowing air into the sand and then chowing down on little critters they stir up. I also saw a few gray and French angelfish – some of my other favorites, although I missed the lovely queen angel that my husband found as I was looking in the other direction.

We were on an afternoon dive so instead of a lingering lunch that is our habit after morning dives, we enjoyed a cold beer while rinsing gear. Okay, I confess that I went and got beer for us and watched my husband rinse gear, but hey, he does it so much better than I do.