Snorkeling A Local Reef

This time of year the water in the Gulf calms down and becomes very clear and a beautiful blue/green color. Yesterday was a perfect day for snorkeling. The sun was bright, no wind or waves. So after having breakfast friends I grabbed my snorkel gear and headed to a small reef near their home. This reef is about 200 yards off the beach...it's not huge but plenty to see.

This is not my photograph...I Googled and found it. I don't have an underwater camera. BUT...other than the big fish, this is exactly what the reef looks like underwater. Big chunks of red coral that stand 4-5 feet off the bottom. Lots of little fish and minnows swimming in schools. And Medium sized fish of all kinds...stripped ones, silvery ones, yellow, blue and some spotted ones. At one point my buddy and I stopped swimming and stood on the coral to talk for a minute...when I put my mask back on and looked underwater my feet were surrounded by fish. The most unusual was some kind of a devil looking fish...and some puffer fish that were trying to camouflage and blend in with the rocks. Another surprise was how many starfish there were all over the reef.

Since I don't have pix of any of the fish I saw...here is a chart of "Fish of The Gulf Of Mexico". Look at most of the smaller fish in the bottom half of this chart...other than the eel and the rays, most of them were on that reef. Amazing!!