wha diddle iddle i doh down here

The Underwaterboys

I now live in Melbourne, Florida, but in Vero Beach where I moved to in '82 from Indiana, there are several reefs just offshore that you can actually swim out to. The most accessible of these is the reef at Riomar. At low tide, one can wade out to the reef and stand on the rocks which jut above the waves. This is an extensive reef system that goes out as far as you'd want to swim and is chock full of Florida lobster. There are also a few wrecks off the coast of Vero. The most famous of these would be the Spanish treasure ship the Atocha. which is actually located quite a ways to the north of the city, but it is famous for the large amount of gold that Mel Fisher found around its remains. Less well-known to tourists, but well-known by Veroites are the WWII aircraft shipwreck just to the north of the city about 300 yards offshore, and the Breckinshire shipwreck from the late 1800's, 200 yards offshore of the historical Ocean Grill restaurant.

Every summer for just a few weeks out of the year, the rains will stop, the waves will flatten out and the sun will sit high overhead. It is during these precious few weeks that I pull my snorkeling gear out of my trunk and drive down to Riomar Beach in Vero and swim out as far as I dare in hopes of seeing something amazing. I am never disappointed. In the years that I have snorkeled around the Riomar reef, I have seen, been face-to-face with and followed sharks and green sea turtles over the rocks. I also have seen snapper and grouper, blue and gray angelfish, huge stingrays and weird looking guitarfish, schools of barracuda that just watch you with that wicked grin of theirs, then pivoting in unison as you swim past, not to be outflanked.

This year, for the first time, I decided to check out the shipwreck, which I knew was about 200 yards offshore of one of our two drainage pipes and was visible at low tide. My first time out, I picked the wrong pipe and was happily swimming around snapping pictures when a boater with his wife and kids and snorkel gear stopped me and asked me if I knew where the wreck was. We both were searching off the wrong landmark, so he decided to look around some more. About an hour later, he comes back in his boat and says that he found it and offered to take me over to the wreck, so I climbed aboard, and he kindly drove me over to the wreck. Since that time, I have made one other trip out to the wreck. During both those trips, I brought with me a disposable underwater camera. I took these pics. They are not the best quality, but I couldn't give a damn...all those times I saw things and wished I had a camera....well, now I finally have a sea turtle on film, and I am the happiest guy in the world because of it. Below is a sampling of some of my pics.

	The shipwreck boiler is barely visible in this pic. Notice how calm the ocean is compared to my hurricane pictures.		A blue angelfish that friends of mine say has been living around the boiler for years
This is a school of doctor fish I found while looking for the shipwreck.		A small gag grouper hanging out under a ledge covered in sea urchins.
	An unidentified nudibranch found on my way out to the shipwreck. I hadn't seen one of these since going to the Keys with a girl while in college at UM		One of several barracuda pics I have. This small guy is hardly a threat, but they still have a spooky way of watching you.
In the water, green sea turtles are quick and graceful. This one emerged from beneath the rocks and swam off, disappearing into the blue, but not before I was able to snap this pic.		A school of sergeant majors hanging out at the surface, right above the shipwreck boiler.
	a school of pork fish cruising the reef. These fish are very used to people and follow them everywhere.		Some coral growing on the side of the ship's boiler.
A damselfish with a dulcimer I once saw...		Little flowers were all over the shipwreck. I don't know what plant made them, but they were like underwater wildflowers.
	A tasty snapper. Usually, the farther out I swim, the more of these yummy fish I see.		Captured these two pork fish, swimming past a ledge.
These are the ribs of the shipwreck, seen as one approaches the boiler. This sergeant major was nice enough to pose for me in a perfect spot.		This poor sergeant fish took refuge from me in the ship's large smokestack.
	On this particular day, a school of jack were frenetically darting about the boiler, as they are known to do.		A pork fish, and I believe a snapper.
Another pork fish by a ledge.		A solitary cruiser

	The second day I was out at the shipwreck, I had a hard time photographing the blue angel. Everywhere I moved, it would turn to face me. I had to quickly outflank it to get its whole body into a pic.		A gray angelfish that I chased around the shipwreck.
At the deepest part of the shipwreck, a school of snook, many of them over in the 20 pound range, were swimming all around me. Because they were so deep, barely enough light made it to the camera to enable me to take these pictures.

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