These Guy's Aren't So Great at Hide and Seek While Others Are

 Throughout our time in Florida it was clear that the fish we studied for our identification quizzes wasn't a waste of time. While spending our spring semester studying many of the common fish, coral and flora of the Florida Keys. This information was great to learn as it allowed myself and fellow students to actually identify and understand what we find while snorkeling and scuba diving while in the Keys. As many of us learned quickly some species were going to be harder to find than others while some were in numbers so large it was hard to miss them while in the water. Listed here are fish species that we found and had to learn to identify in class as well as others that were least common.

The first most common fish found while snorkeling was the Bermuda chub. The Bermuda chub was learned back at stockton and could be identified by having a football shaped body with the possibility of having white or yellow markings on the face. Learning this prior to our trip allowed myself and fellow classmates to notice that we were surrounded by Bermuda chubs. In addition we found that if we crush the sargassum under the water that schools of chub would swim around us.   

     

Secondly, Sergeant major fish which were also meant for us to learn and identify were present at our snorkeling sights. These fish can be identified by the five dark bars they have on their side. It is often common to see some yellow also near the back. While diving I learned that these guys were often found in smaller schools than the Bermuda chubs. These guys were also much lower in the water compared to the chubs that were swimming within a foot of us at times.

In addition there were species that we had to learn that were either not there or could only be found easily by divers. For example a nurse shark can be seen in the image below which was found by the divers in our group. Nurse sharks can be identified by the barbels near their mouths and having two dorsal fins far back. Another animal that was found that we did have to identify this past semester but did read about was lobsters. The image below is the lobsters that were found by the divers in our group.

 

Images provided by Dr. Z

If you would like to learn more about fish identification and want to learn for yourself what you are looking at next time you're snorkeling or diving click here to study.