Lobsters and Sharks!

Yesterday I went scouting/diving (lobster mini season starts in two days) with Matty, Chris and Orlando.   We went right off the coast of Key Biscayne, starting by the lighthouse and working our way north.   There was a rope tied to he back of the boat and one person would drive with the rest would hold on.. then when we saw something of interest we would let go and the person on the boat would pull the rope back in.  The boys were looking for some good lobster spots to come back to on Wednesday night.  I saw a milliondy little lobsters and conchs and Matt found a nurse shark hiding under a ledge, super sweet!  I'd never seen a nurse shark before.   They're very gentle and the one we saw was sleeping.  

Heres some info on Nurse sharks courtesy of National Geographic:

The origin of the name "nurse shark" is unclear. It may come from the sucking sound they make when hunting for prey in the sand, which vaguely resembles that of a nursing baby. Or it may derive from an archaic word, nusse, meaning cat shark. The most likely theory though is that the name comes from the Old English word for sea-floor shark: hurse.

Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet (4.3 meters)—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile.

They use their strong jaws to crush and eat shellfish and even coral, but prefer to dine on fish, shrimp, and squid. They are gray-brown and have distinctive tail fins that can be up to one-fourth their total length. Unlike most other sharks, nurses are smooth to the touch.

Nurse sharks are found in the warm, shallow waters of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans. They are abundant throughout their range and have no special conservation status, although the closeness of their habit to human activities is putting pressure on the species.

Hehee at one point there was also a little blue and purple striped fish following me around, no lie!  It was pretty awesome.  I named him flipper and he looked like this:

But thats not who he is.  Thats a freshwater fish.  Maybe my little fish was confused and decided to go on an ocean adventure?

Matt was so sweet, he kept showing me all these neat little things on the ocean floor. 

Then we made our way north up to South Beach and got caught in the rain... rain is cold in July when you're out on the boat!  Still fun though.

I wish I had my underwater camera, but my mom took it with her on her sailing trip!  Oh well!