Warm Thoughts on a Cold Day

What better day to write about the Florida Keys than a day when my home weather station keeps hitting minus 15 wind chill even at mid-afternoon. Usually the temperature in Layton is right around 90 at this time of the day when we are down there in the middle of June. The water temperature is usually in the low to mid 80s by then allowing even those who get cold very easily to be very comfortable for long stays in the water.
Water temperature is a crucial factor in the growth of the animals which build the reefs we love so much: the hard corals. These corals grow well in the Keys because the water temperature there stays from the mid 60's in winter to the mid 80's in summer. If the water rises to 90 degrees or dips down below 60, the coral can bleach and die within days.
This was exactly the case in January of 2010 when a serious cold spell caused the ocean temps to stay in the low to mid 50's around the Keys for at least a week.
One of our favorite dives is at a wonderful place called Indian Key. This spot is delightful for a number of reasons but one of the more special features has been the very large Starlet Coral mounds.

These coral heads are interesting animals in and of themselves but what makes them such an attraction at Indian Key is the array of animals that live on and around them: Neon Gobies sitting on the top. Christmas Tree worms sticking out all over. Slate-pencil urchins hiding underneath and even an occasional octopus is found hiding in the crevices.

Christmas Tree Worm

Neon Goby

However, the coral heads of Indian Key took a hard hit in January of 2010. By June of 2010, many of the formations were partially or completely bleached white from the freeze. By June of 2011, a number of the formations had disappeared completely. 

Slate-pencil Urchin

Encouragingly, a number of the larger formations that had survived were showing new areas of growth and many, many tiny new formations were littering the ground. The new growth in the larger formations gave us hope to search for perhaps our favorite resident of Indian Key's coral heads, the Green Moray. This eel loves to hide on the sandy bottom under the overhangs of of the coral heads and the snorkeler willing to dive down and search the holes and underneath these coral formations at Indian Key was almost always certain to find 3 or 4 of these interesting animals. A Green Moray can reach 6 feet long and appears to be one huge muscle. The eel is actually gray colored but is entirely covered by a bright green mucous. Often called a sea serpent, the Green Moray is actually a sleek fish with no scales. Not uncommonly, an investigating diver will come face to face with these unique fish which can be a bit unnerving because invariably their mouths are open revealing an impressive set of teeth. But morays are very non-aggressive animals and what often looks like a move to bite someone is just the moray sucking water into it's mouth which passes over it's gills and allows the fish to breath.

In 2010, for the first time in many years, we found no Green Morays at Indian Key and despite much looking in 2011, we again found none (although we had great looks at them on other dives).

However, one student who was constantly diving and looking carefully for morays did make an exciting discovery. He found an eel doing what they love to do: sticking his head out of a hole in the bottom of the Starlet Coral.

Only this was no Green Moray. This was the much more uncommon Goldentail Moray.

The Goldentail is not as massive a fish as the Green Moray. It grows to little more than 2 feet long. But what it lacks in size it more than makes up for with it's fine, golden markings and it's rarity. Yet another animal finding its home in the wonderful hard coral formations of Indian Key.

I could enjoy some 85 degree water at Indian Key right about now...