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Underwater Seas & Oceans Gallery
These are pictures that we took during our many dives in oceans and seas around the world. For more pictures, check out our main library and raw photos.
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Dive Club Boat Dive
The Dayo Dive Club diving off the south florida, atlantic coast.
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Ocean
School of horse-eye jacks, Caranx latus, Jupiter Beach. These fish sometimes crowd around divers, apparently attracted to the exhaust bubbles!
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Oceans
Denise on the coral reef off Xcalet, Mexico July 2015. Photo by Brain McHugh
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Beach Diving
Advanced Open Water training from the beach at Ft Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida
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Blue Heron Bridge
This is a dive under and near the Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach, Florida
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Wreck Diving
Denise on a wreck in south Florida
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Small Wreck
Small underwater wreck at Blue Heron Bridge
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Batfish
Polka Dot Batfish Ogcocephalus radiatus at Blue Heron Bridge
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Gurnard
Sea Robin/Gurnard at Blue Heron Bridge
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Coral
The 3rd largest reef in the world is the Florida Reef stretching from the Dry Tortugas to Jupiter. Lots of colors when you have a strobe!
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Princess Anne
The remains of the SS Princess Anne out of West Palm Beach March 2015
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Queen Angelfish
Queen Angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris, West Palm Beach. They get their name from the unique "crown" on their heads. Queen angelfish are the most brightly colored and beautiful of all angelfishes.
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More Coral
The coral on the Florida reef is very beautiful
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Coral
We love taking pictures of the coral around Florida
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Starfish in Ireland
Spiny Starfish Marthasterias glacialis in a kelp bed off Ireland. Denise returns home to do regular dive trips here. This species is very common around Ireland
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Boat Diving
Getting dark during a boat dive in south Florida. We love night diving. So much different fish life at night!
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Starfish
Seven-Armed starfish Luidia ciliaris in a kelp bed off Ireland. This starfish lives anywhere from shallow shore to more than 500 feet deep! It has a high metabolic rate and a very unusual method of movement. It pushes itself up on its seven arms with its center vertically raised; a strange walking stance that helps the starfish get lift-off which aids in its ability to move quickly!
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Turtle Hospital
This picture was taken of a sea turtle in a tank while it recuperated after a boat injury. The Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a non-profit organization that promotes conservation of Florida's coastal ecosystems with a special focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. With a small donation you can walk around the turtle hospital to see current patients, then check out the aquarium afterwards. Depending on the time you visit you may see medications being given, feedings or even physical therapy sessions!
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Boat Dive
Staff Day off on a Boat Dive in south Florida
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Sea Urchin
Long-Spined Urchin Diadema antillarum, Vero Beach. A Caribbean wide epidemic began in Panama in 1983-1984, and spread eastward, wiping out more than 90% of populations in this region. The species is making a slow recovery.
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Hog Fish
Hogfish, Lachnolaimus maximus, Dry Tortugas, Key West. This is a juvenile hogfish (has a distinct mottled coloring)
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Parrotfish
The 90+ species of parrotfish get their name from their numerous teeth, which form a parrot like beak, which they use to rasp algae from coral reefs. Parrotfish are very brightly colored, and common residents on Florida’s reefs. Active only by day, at night they recede into small tight crevices in the reef, where they secrete a thick coat of mucous. They sleep in this cocoon, which protects them from parasites and masks their scent from nocturnal predators.
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Squirrel Fish
Longspine squirelfish, Halocentrus rufus. This is a nocturnal fish. When spotted during the day, they are usually drifting inconspicuously near the bottom in shaded areas.
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Wreck
Masts on a Florida wreck.
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Vanderberg Wreck
The satellite dish of the Vanderberg Wreck, off the coast of Key West, Florida
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Wreck and Coral
Coral growing on a wreck
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Queen Angelfish
Queen Angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris, West Palm Beach. They get their name from the unique "crown" on their heads. Queen angelfish are the most brightly colored and beautiful of all angelfishes.
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Green Moray Eel
Gymnothorax funebris, in crevice at Jupiter Beach. They have a cool ability to tie their own body into knots to gain leverage for tearing up prey! Adult green morays have very few natural enemies, mainly groupers, other morays and barracudas.
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Silky Shark
Carcharhinus falciformis, off West Palm Beach, so named for the smooth texture of its skin. This species is highly mobile and migratory and most often seen over the edge of the continental shelf down to a depth of 165 feet.
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American Crocodile
Crocodylus acutus, taken off Chinchorro Banks, Mexico. There is a population of ~ 300 American Crocodiles, Crocodylus acutus, that have made Chinchorro their home. Males can reach 16 feet, and females up to 12 feet! Like any other large crocodilian, the American crocodile is potentially dangerous to humans, but it is not a very aggressive species and attacks are rare. There is a small population (500-1500) of American Crocodiles living in South Florida, recovering from widespread hunting up until the 1970s.
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Lemon Shark
Negaprion brevirostris, off Jupiter, Florida. They get their name from the yellowish tinge on their back which acts as great camouflage when resting on the seafloor. Their skin also has a mottled and pitted lemon feel to it. Lemons are one of the larger sharks and can grow to 10 feet in length. For many years, lemon sharks gathered in large numbers every year in Southeast Florida, especially in the Jupiter area. Their numbers in this area triple in the Winter months as they move from the north to escape the cold and join the resident populations on the outer reefs and wrecks offshore of Jupiter and North Palm Beach. A single aggregation of lemon sharks can number more than 100, but groups of 25 to 40 are most common. These aggregations make lemon sharks easy to locate and kill by fishermen. Over the last few decades, lemon shark populations were decimated with minimal effort. A recent study found that 7.5% of tagged adult lemon sharks from a Southeast Florida aggregation succumbed to fishing mortality in one season. At that rate, the entire lemon shark aggregation could be harvested in just a few years! Lemon sharks are also susceptible to over-harvesting as they are slow-growing and have a low reproductive potential (only producing 6 to 18 pups per litter every second or third year). Juvenile lemon sharks experience a mortality of 40-60 percent. FWC imposed a ban on fishing for lemon sharks in March 2010. Divers have still been seeing less & less lemon sharks in recent years in the Jupiter area, it's our hope that the populations will recover for future generations of divers to enjoy.
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Hawksbill Turtle
Eretmochelys imbriocota, Fort Lauderdale Beach. Hawksbill turtles are highly migratory, and are spotted in a wide range of habitats, from the open ocean to lagoons and even mangrove swamps in estuaries.
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Balloonfish
Diodon holocanthus, is the largest member of the porcupine family, with beautifully colored eyes. The similar looking balloonfish and porcupinefish can be distinguished by the following: porcupinefish have spots all over their body, including their fins; balloonfish do not have spots on their fins. Balloonfish also have long spines on their head.
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Scrawled Filefish
Aluterus scriptus, a master of disguise. Filefish can make their primary dorsal spine to stand erect. This serves to make the filefish look larger and more threatening to potential predators.
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Porkfish
Anisotremus virginicus, West Palm Beach. Porkfish are known to eat parasites off larger fish, this is beneficial (symbiotic) relationship for both fish.
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Goliath Grouper
Epinephelus itajara, commonly known as Jewfish. Goliath groupers are the largest grouper in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the two largest species of groupers in the world; they can exceed 6 feet in length, and can weigh in at 800 pounds! Most adults are in the 400 pound range.
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Parrotfish
A Parrotfish sleeping at night on the reef. Active only by day, at night they recede into small tight crevices in the reef, where they secrete a thick coat of mucous. They sleep in this cocoon, which protects them from parasites and masks their scent from nocturnal predators.
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Black Tip Reef Shark
Carcharhinus melanopterus, on the Caysal Banks, Bahamas. Blacktip reef sharks have extremely small home ranges and exhibit strong site fidelity, remaining within the same local area for up to several years at a time.
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Spiny Lobster
Panulirus argus, on hunt for food under cover of darkness, West Palm Beach. Lobsters grow slowly, and can live for more than 60 years! They move slowly by creeping around on the sea floor. However in times of danger, they are able to swim backwards quickly by curling and uncurling their tail, lobsters can reach speeds of 15 feet per second with this method
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Lemon Shark
Negaprion brevirostris, off Jupiter FL. Lemon sharks form loose aggregations based on size and sex and are often spotted congregating near docks and fishing piers during the night, returning to deep water during the day. They also gather to mate and return to specific breeding grounds every year.
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Sharks
Sharks investigating a fish box!
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Honeycomb Cowfish
Acanthostacion polygonia, on a reef out of West Palm Beach
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Goliath Grouper
Epinephelus itajara, Targeted by fishermen of all types during the last century, Goliath groupers became commercially extinct in the USA by the late 1980's. In 1990 a US federal fishing ban was introduced, and remains in effect today in an attempt to help the species bounce back. No harvesting of the Goliath Grouper is allowed, and the species is recognized as a "Critically Endangered" species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The species' population has been recovering since the ban; with the fish's slow growth rate, however, it will take some time for populations to return to their previous levels. In 1993, a similar ban was introduced in the Caribbean. Despite this, Goliath groupers have reached ecological extinction levels in this area. In west Africa, scientists suspect goliath groupers are completely extinct. Today, Florida is the only place in the world where goliath groupers can be found on a regular basis throughout the year, and in their offshore spawning aggregation sites in late summer (July-September). Most of the goliath spawning aggregations found to date are off of southwest Florida, but more recently, some have been found off Florida's central east coast.
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