Key Largo: Part 3

08Sep11 we were supposed to do our last dives with Silent World, but happened to talk to another couple as we were checking out of our hotel. They stated that SW was diving the Spiegel Grove, another deep dive. Irritating, and pretty much the last straw for us. Liesl called the shop, and they were able to arrange for us to dive with another shop, Amy Slate's Amoray. We headed up to Amy's, got signed in, and boarded a catamaran style boat, which had plenty of room to sit from bow to stern. A nice set up, though I suspect it is quite crowded with snorkelers and divers during the high season. On this day, they had 3 snorkelers and 12 divers aboard, including, Amy Slate herself who is a very friendly lady who has been diving the area for a long time. The captain notified us that we would be heading to Molasses Reef. This is probably the most dove site in Key Largo. I'm not sure why as there was a lot of dead coral in the area.
Our first dive was on Permit Ledges. The visibility was fairly low, owing to algael blooms we later learning. There were quite a few parrots on site. This was also the first site on which we spotted squirrel fish. We spent a good deal of time just meandering through the coral fingers, until Liesl spotted a small turtle swimming by. She got a couple great shots of it too. A little later, I spotted another. He was so intent on whatever he was eating, he had no interest in us, as we hovered nearby, and even stayed there when we called over a group from another boat. For all the life, there was an awful lot of dead coral. As we returned, I had to surface a couple times to check the boat position. As we neared the boat, we found a group of divers hovering around the bottom, waiting out the resto f their tanks I think. We decided to do the same nearby, and started exploring. Liesl spotted a large squirrel fish back in a niche in the coral. What she didn't see was the big scorpion fish laying on the bottom beneath it. Soon after we were distracted by a large Atlantic spade fish. We noticed everyone else was now out of the water, so we headed back to the boat.

Only a few minutes away was the second site, the Well Wood. Scientists use the area for research. There are rods to measure coral growth, monitoring stations, and they use the site to transplant farm grown staghorn coral. Pretty neat stuff.
I lost my tank tapper when I stepped in, but Liesl saved it and we quickly descended the 15 feet to the bottom. There were a ton if jellies in the area, so we were happy we had brought the wet suits. There were chubs, blue chromis, lots of little fish, French, spanish and blue striped grunts. Liesl spied a goat fish digging in the sand.
Later in the dive, I got my first look at a midnight parrot fish. They are brilliant blue and black, quite striking! While watching them feed, we were startled by a couple of scrawled file fish, as they darted by. We started working our way back shortly after, and on our way back we spied a school of black margate hanging out in a swim through. nearing the boat, we milled about near the boat, took a couple of shots of the research equipment, then ascended.
That afternoon, we were to head north again, so we went to Mrs. Macs one last time, gorged ourselves on tasty food, and purchased a key lime pie for the road. We were heading to Riviera, FL for the night to stay near the Blue Heron Bridge, another dive site that we had originally wanted to dive, but the tides were not in our favor, and we wanted to get back home.