Florida springs now a haven for fish

Jumping out of a boat into frigid water requires serious purpose, including if your boat is sinking fast. Mine wasn’t, in fact it was perfectly dry. But I wanted to see first-hand what species of fish might be using one of Florida’s numerous springs for shelter from last week’s harsh winter weather. These springs pour (or sometimes more weakly, ooze 72 degree water all year. This makes them a haven when an Arctic cold front slams into Florida, killing coastal fish when bay temperatures drop.

So I jumped overboard, sinking though murky green water, fairly gasping as the cold gripped tight, creeping into the thin wetsuit. Down, down…tarpon and snook shapes swirled around me, soon lost in the gloom. No use taking photos of them, the silt would only ruin pictures. Deeper still the water cleared, and there below swam thousands of gray snappers, called mangrove snapper in Florida. They were schooling tightly where warm water seeped up from the bottom; I could feel it (with relief) as I landed with a thump on a massive rock. I was wearing enough lead weights to pin me down, without floating away.

Below, even more clear water: This spring had a cave big enough for me to enter, but without a dive light it would be pitch black back in there. In the gloomy light I settled down on a handy rock, laying flat and still, and the snapper crept close. Frame up a shot, and fire the camera. They barely flinched when the big flash went off.

There was a problem: Since my last dive several years ago, my vision has changed…Whoops! Hard to read that air pressure gauge, very difficult. How much air pressure was left? And adjusting the range finder numbers on the camera was just as difficult, the numbers tiny. How far were those snapper from me, three feet or five? Those cheater glasses back home, which my friends leave scattered all over their homes, were off limits here. Combine darkness, cold and bad vision up close, and you’ve got an uncomfortable dive…

Still, I fired away, after coming this far…When that roll of film was exposed, I left the snapper and climbed uphill over big rocks, back to the surface. Up into a calm sunny day, with other divers standing nearby in waist-deep water, resting. Some were tourist divers from Brazil, so we traded stories about South America in the warming sun. In a hospitable setting—-far different from laying in a cold, dark flooded hole, gulping air from a tank, and squinting hard to get those numbers right.

I’ll try it again next week, but with a few modifications. Stay tuned.