Bugs Are Looking Thick This Year!

[CaptainEd]

Bug Recon dive off Haulover. They are stacked up thick this year! Juvenile turtles seem to be doing great too. Very cool! It's going to be tempting to exceed legal limits... please don't!



Honor is greater than limiting out!
Captain ED

[RiskTaker]

Capt Ed.,

Cool photos, pardon the dust. What are you using for U/W photo equipment?

Just curious, since digital imaging is mainstream these days.

I think I may need to hock the Nikonos, etc. and get diggy.
My x-wife's cousin has done many shots with a housing and a Canon G-2.
Certainly, there is better stuff out there. But the volume of photos is remarkable. So I am just trying to compare notes.

BTW - Honor is great! But what do mean by it being greater than limiting out?
For me, I think that everyman should be able to limit out, every now and then: providing that you are not destroying the balance.

Welcome back to the posting forums.

Last season the supply (Crawfish-Recreational info. only) was very good in the Southern keys. Another post on this forum, suggested the contrary for northern Keys, this pre-season. Thus, there is at least one mixed signal. Maybe, more posts will provide some reinforcement.

[Disco Lady]

Originally Posted by CaptainEd

Bug Recon dive off Haulover. They are stacked up thick this year! Juvenile turtles seem to be doing great too. Very cool! It's going to be tempting to exceed legal limits... please don't!



Honor is greater than limiting out!
Captain ED

Great report! Capt.love the pics! too.

DL,

[tales]

Did a little scouting earlier this week and it appears better than the past couple of years. Last year was my worst in 25 years. My "honey" holes were loaded with algae all last season. Still signs of some algae but there seems to be much more life back on the reef.

[CaptainEd]

I've been doing underwater photography for 20+ years and there have been many, many changes. One thing that hasn't changed is that no matter how good you are or how hard you try not to get you camera ruined with salt it happens. It's inevitable... So I go with a middle of the road digital camera 5-7MP and I use an Ikelite Underwater housing & strobe. That way if somehow the cam gets toasted I didn't lose 1,000 or more. The 5-7 middle of the road cams can take incredible pics. Here ("PE" area) if you're not shooting mostly macro even with high end equipment it's very difficult (unless you're in blue water) to get really clean crisp shots without a lot of particulate in the photos. If I had money to burn I'd use at least a Canon D40 with two high power strobes and the Ikelite housing. That setup ready to hit the water would be about 5 G's and the photos that setup is capable of producing is astounding.

But then again RT if my Aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle...

The bug reports are not necessarily conflicting. These Critters move around and often what's true this week wont be accurate the next. That's why it's good to network with the guys that go kicking around down there on a regular basis... I did a dive first light this morning in 60ft, different area and saw only one huge bug...who was sitting right out in the open. The regulations Gods were testing me...

[CaptainEd]

RT I meant by that it's better to follow the regs and be honorable than to let temptation lure you into filling the cooler with all you can snag... I probably should have worded it better but who listens to me anyway ; ) I found a ledge last week that had 25/30 nice bugs on it and they would have been so easy to take home... Remember when it was 24 per vessel? Anyway i think the current FL lobster regs are working...

[RiskTaker]

Thanks Capt. Ed, for the reply. Yeah, I'd like to get motivated again on the U/W photography activities. A good still shot, or a nice collection even, adds so much more ALLURE to the U/W domain. I've been diving these waters in Broward and the Keyes since the late 60's. We are lucky indeed to have it so close. But it is deteriorating so fast. Even in the late 70's, I still recall a few stands of elkhorn (not staghorn) coral just a bit north of Hillsboro Inlet. I haven't seen it since. (But then again the sewage outfall went on-line less than 2 miles (~NE 16 St.) if not 1 mile even, in the same time frame.)

If you follow any of the posts on the FS forum, some guys from Stuart area got busted in the Bahamas for doing the exact thing that you are condemning. Agreed: not a statement for you, but the general audience. Please do not take Crawfish beyond the limits, or out of season. Indeed, it is not Honorable to do otherwise. I also believe that the regulations in place are achieving decent management results. It is just the GD frickin Googans that plunder the resource that hurts so much! You hear stories all the time where some "Cubans" (but it could also be ANYMAN) caught with a 100 short tails out of season. (Commercial pressure hurts too, but it is typically within legal guidelines). There is too much pressure from all angles such that we won't see it again like the good ole days.

Bahamas bust reported: They had shorts, out-of-season, stolen by Hooka, and over the limit, besides being visitors to the Islands of the Bahamas. They will certainly be fined to the tune where they may not be so motivated to do it anymore.

Good luck limiting out as the season will be open once again, very soon.

I'm not sure what your Aunt, or possibly your uncle has to do with any of this but since you brought it up, you may as well check this out, for giggles: YouTube - I'm My Own Grandpa . Arrgh, I took the bait but I couldn't detect any hook in it.