We recently enjoyed a night dive at Blue Heron Bridge and spent almost the entire 3 hours in shallow water – three and a half feet or less. Heading in to the water a good 1/2 hour before other divers started, we checked our gear out and went only a few feet before finding our first subject. While divers came and went during the evening, we stuck to the shallows looking in the sand, short grass and scrub. We found a juvenile Short Bigeye with great orange color, a juvenile Bighead SeaRobin, battling Blue Legged Hermit crabs tumbling around, and a Polka-Dot Batfish which had great red lips. The batfish extended it’s lure while it was out hunting. The wide mouth was likely a threat posture towards us.
There were several Eunice worms extending out of their holes looking for food. We refer to them as bobbit worms although they do not have the large claws that are characteristic of Eunice aphroditois. They do have yellow bristle worm like barbs along the body. The front appendages look more like scalloped paddles. One of the worms was pulling pieces of algae over it’s hole which seems like unusual behavior. While I watched using a red light Sola, it looked like it was covering up part of its living entrance.