Blue Heron Bridge is located past Fort Lauderdale and is a beautiful little boat channel. Most people know it as just a fun little place to swim or fish, but some of us know it as the best place to find critters! Blue Heron is not your typical Florida reef dive; it is actually nothing like it. It is a very shallow dive, with the max depth at around 12 feet, and it is all sand with giant pillars from the bridge forming structure for critters to hide. When I was first told about this dive we talked about how there was an active boat channel right next to where we would be diving, and about how it is a muck dive and the current can sometimes pick up so the viability will go way down. So I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about the dive. Fortunately, I was in great hands and all the things we talked about were just for safety and to prepare us for what to do. After driving three hours to get to Blue Heron, we finally entered the water around 11. We had to time the dive right so we would be there for slack tide and the current didn’t wash us out to the boat channel. After going over our dive plan, we headed out. I was told that there were a lot of things dumped in the water like shopping carts or old sunken boats, and I questioned why people would want to make the three hour dive to stare at some trash, but after I got out there I began to understand. All the big structures that were thrown into the water provided habitat to tons of animals I had never seen before. When we began our dive we had talked about what we wanted to see the most and of course I knew exactly what mine was; a seahorse! I had never seen a seahorse before, and was beginning to think that they were a myth, but sure enough half way through our dive I hear someone tapping on their tank to get my attention. I quickly swim over and see a tiny pink seahorse holding on to a piece of algae with its tail. Needless to say I did my little underwater happy dance and had everyone laughing. Not only did we see this little guy but we also found another on our way back in! I am so excited to cross that off my critters to see bucket list (nerd alert). Some other critters that I was equally excited to see on my dive were two octopi, a few sea robins, and a flying gurnard. The dive was two hours long and while it wasn’t the prettiest dives I have been on, it offered a chance to see some amazing rare species and I hope to go back soon to find more.
