Copyright: Jurgen Brauer, Augusta, Georgia, USA

My son, Leon, and I went with our dive club (the Emerald Sea Dive Club) to our 3rd annual West Palm Beach labor day dive trip. Our boat, the Sirena, was ably captained by Captain Dean whom  we knew from previous dive trips. The photograph hereunder captures the weather conditions nicely: very calm sea, sunny, water temperature between 84 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

West Palm Beach is drift diving. You simply jump off the boat, descend, and let the Gulf Stream carry you up north. The dive boat follows on top. On the first dive I took my wideangle lens along. Most wideangle pictures turned out bad because the Gulf Stream was filled with nutrient particles that reflect the camera's strobe lights. However, I did get a reasonable wideangle shot of some of our divers progressing into a coral finger.

Another wideangle shot, here of a barrel sponge. As the name implies, they are as big as barrels.

Transatlantic telecommunications cables run from West Palm to, in this case, the Bahamas. I took a photograph of the coral encrusted cable. The colors are marvelous.

A so-called Christmas Tree Worm. These are worms filter-feeding off nutrients brought by the current. When light conditions or water pressure changes, they instantly retract into calcareous tubes, their "homes." If divers are patient and approach slowly, so that the water pressure and light conditions (from the dive light) change slowly as well, then the worms can be studied and photographed without any problem.

The Spotted Moray Eel on the next photograph was huge. It looks as if it consists of two colors, the black and white front part and the big brownish back part.

Eels smell their food, and they are usually curious when approached slowly and with care. Here a diver "offers" some bare knuckles and the eel slowly stretched out his body to take a good sniff.

On the next picture, a giant Green Moray Eel. Underwater things look about 25 percent larger than on land (an effect of looking through air in the diver's mask, and then through water to the object). Still, this green moray's head must have been the size of a child's head, it's body perhaps four to five feet long.

A Butterflyfish whose species ID I could not find in Humann and DeLoach's famous Reef Fish Identification book.

On a night dive, a diver called me over to show me this Spotted Scorpionfish. The spines on the foredorsal (or front or first dorsal) fin are venemous and can inflict very painful stings. The fish relies completely on camouflage and does not move until molested.

The Gulf Stream current was ripping most of the time. This is very frustrating for the underwater photographer: whenever you want to photograph something, the current has already carried you away, never mind that the fish ALSO move! Hence one is thankful for the Longspine Squirrelfish. They come alive at night, so that during the day they sit thankfully still for photography.

A Spotted Trunkfish, a species I haven't photographed before.

And hereunder a humongous Porcupinefish. Ordinarily said to measure one to three feet in length, this one was on the order of four to five feet (I have three witnesses), hiding underneath a girder in the Amaryllis wreck. Indeed, we saw several enormously sized Porcupinefish on this dive outing.

We saw several schools of Atlantic Spadefish. Here is a wideangle shot to take in a whole group of them. I find them very graceful and beautifully serene. Note the light reflecting not only off the fish but also off nutrient particles (the "blotches" in the picture). Fishlife off West Palm Beach generally was abundant.

Diving with others can be helpful since more eyes see more. The Squid (probably Caribbean Reef Squid) were pointed out to me. I made my way over against the strong current while the Squid effortlessly swam away. They are intelligent creatures, not above checking out divers, communicating to each other by changing their body color in flashes. But to be checked-out, the diver needs to hold still and not appear threatening -- which I couldn't since I was swimming after them into the current. Again, note the nutrients.

Here is another, electronically amplified, shot of one of the pair of squid.

Now to the shark story. Generally, photographers lag behind the dive group. That was the case on a night dive. I looked to see where the group was and noticed that the divers suddently all spread out as if in panic. Next thing I saw was this "missile" coming right at me! I ducked my head, screwed up my eyes and made out ... four flippers: it was a Volkswagen-sized turtle that was almost literally shooting through us. In its hurry, it actually dislodged one diver's mask. No shark after all. But on another dive, I was swimming toward a reef ledge and out of nothing comes this Reef Shark, pictured hereunder. All I could do was to press the shutter button and hope for the picture to come out alright.

Son Leon taking a break at the 15-foot safety stop. Diving is glorious.

At the surface, Leon and West Palm Beach in the background. Diving beats getting broiled on the beach any day!

Some club members are avid lobster hunters. Personally, I don't care for hunting, topside or underwater, other than with my camera.

A lobster's big, dark, round eye. They have excellent eye sight and are very quick ...

... and a look at a lobster's underside.