Snorkeling in the Florida Keys is an exciting and beautiful experience. I had never gone snorkeling before at all so I didn't really know what to expect. It can be a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang of breathing out of the snorkel and swimming with fins it's a piece of cake. Now when you're snorkeling for a class and need to pay attention to the species below it can get a little hard to see everything that sits at the bottom. Luckily, today we went to two sites (Spankys Reef and Shark Ledge) that were not too deep and where the water was pretty clear. There were some species that were easier to spot than others, but here are some tips on how to identify what's in the water below.
Fish
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| Taken from my not-so-high-quality camera |
Fish are the easiest things to spot while snorkeling. Their movements and coloration/patterns help them stand out among the reef corals and sponges. In the picture above, there are two bar-jacks. They can be identified by their bright blue bar that runs along the back of their body. My camera quality is not the best, but I was able to see them from the surface while snorkeling. It also helps to do a little bit of studying on the tropical marine fish before you get in the water. What helps to identify the fish even more are their body shapes, size, and if they are in schools or not. Sometimes the fish may be too small to see or even blend in with the reef below.
Corals and Sponges
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| Another picture from my underwater camera |
If the corals and sponges are large enough, they are easy to spot and identify from the snorkel surface. Common corals on the reef were brain corals, sea plumes, sea fans, and sea rods. A couple sponges that I was able to make out were the tube and barrel sponge. These specific corals and sponges were large, and could easily be seen at the surface. You would probably need to dive to get a closer look at the small, more intricate corals and sponges. In the center of the picture above you can see a branched coral that sticks out more than anything else. This coral can be identified as a sea rod.
Algae and Seagrass
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| Taken from google, this is too clear to be mine |
Seagrass can be spotted from the surface pretty easily if you're not too distracted by the fish and corals. The seagrass will typically be rooted either in between reefs or even scattered throughout the leaf. It looks just like grass on land, just bigger and stuck in the sand. Algae is a little harder to see though. Hopefully, if there are people diving on your trip, they can pull some up and show you once they return.
Larger animals such as sharks, turtles, and rays will be the easiest to spot if you're lucky enough to see them! They'll just swim right by and be on their merry way. Snorkeling is such a fun activity and it's even better when you know what species are living below!
If you want to learn some more snorkeling techniques, click here.
If you want to brush up on your reef identification, this is an excellent website.
Patty, I liked how you described what it was like from a snorkelers point of view. As a diver I saw all angles of the fish and corals but I was curios as to what they all looked like from a constant view of up above. Identifying different fish had to of been more difficult because everything that we studied was all side profiles.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very good post indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it in my lunch time. Will surely come and visit this blog more often. Thanks for sharing. best snorkeling destination
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