Snorkeling

 

Google image of a Beau Gregory the
species of tropical fish that Charles
found while we were snorkeling 

If ever there was a year that I rooted for ninety five degree days it was this year. After spending the late winter and early spring in the pool, I was hoping to continue my swimming once the water warmed up. As we all know, the spring and summer was cool and wet. We had a total of four ninety degree days in Boston this year. When it wasn't rainy, most of the summer after the warm spell has still been cool. So needless to say, my wimpy ass did not go swimming as much as I hoped. I went a total of two times both at Onset Beach. 

    Mixed in with my want to go swimming was my need to go snorkeling. It's no secret I love snorkeling. I brought my fins to Onset on one of the days I swam but the visibility was terrible. That had been the extent of snorkeling this summer.

   My friend Charles and I decided last week to give it a go and snorkel on Monday. The weather didn't look awful in the long range forecast and the water temp was probably going to drop after peaking sometime this month. Nights in the fifties and sixties certainly were going to drop the water temp from what was around 74 degrees. 

   I woke up this morning to a cloudy sixty four degree morning. Not exactly what I was hoping for. None the less, plans are plans. So I met Charles at his house and we went to Ocean Drive in Newport where he knew of a good spot we might find tropicals. By the time we parked it had warmed to a balmy sixty seven degrees. We got our mask and snorkel on and walked down to the water. Putting our feet in the water was tough. There was no way that the water was as warm as it was when we went seining last week. However, we "cowboyed up" and went in. The water was cold. We both admitted later that we never would have went in if the other one wasn't there. Despite this, it was Charles that pushed me more than I pushed him because as he pointed out, it might be our last and only chance of the year.

 

Baby Black Sea Bass

 We went across a cove to where he knew snorkeling would be good. He had me lead in hopes I'd see fish. He has much more experience snorkeling in Rhode Island so the hope would be I'd see fish that he had already seen in the past. It didn't work out that way. He called me back to a spot I had already passed. He found a tropical fish called a Beau Gregory. This is a beautiful small damselfish that is electric blue on top and yellow on the bottom. He showed me the spot and I got a very good look at it until it dashed into cover. Besides the Beau Gregory I saw a couple small Black Sea Bass and a Cunner. 

   We snorkeled roughly two hours and my core got pretty chilled. My body was convulsing from the cold water but I sucked it up for a while. I could always see my car so I knew it was just a short swim back when the cold got to be too much. As you'd expect I wrapped a towel around me pretty dam fast.

   When we dried off we went back into the water again but only up to our thighs. We decided to go seining and did four passes along the cove. We had really good luck. We had plenty of Silversides. One pass had a Striped Sculpin, Winter Flounder, Scup, and more baby Black Sea Bass. I think the highlight for me was a baby Cunner that had all kinds of colors and a Striped Killifish. Not to be confused with Banded Killifish that I first saw at BioBlitz, Striped Killifish are a saltwater species.  

 

our mystery mojarra

   We got one species that we had never seen before. It was silver and had a curved dark lateral line. Charles knew it wasn't a herring and we knew it wasn't menhaden but that's all we knew. There were dozens of them in our seine. Definitely a schooling fish. We took a ton of photos both in and out of the water. I posted the photos on a Facebook group while he posted on Inaturalist. It seems to be a species of Mojarra. The majority seem to think it is a Tidewater or Spotfin Mojarra. Don't worry, I've never heard of these fish either! Either way, this is a great find. These fish live down in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. No doubt this school got caught up in the Gulf Stream and went for a ride.

   Today was definitely an adventure. The water was cold but the scenery was worth it. The different grasses and seaweeds were beautiful underwater. The Beau Gregory was absolutely gorgeous. Charles was not happy with our haul snorkeling. He said there used to be more places to see tropical fish in that cove. I do believe now that we know how rare our mojarra is in Rhode Island he is as excited as me how our day went. One more amazing adventure to write about during the Summer of 2023 

Striped Killifish in front
Black Sea Bass in  the middle

Striped Sea Robin

Striped Killifish

Cunner

Holding Tank

Baby Scup

Winter Flounder