It was a gorgeous morning for a dive with flat seas and a gentle current. We dove off of Fort Lauderdale’s Loggerhead Park and played in this brilliant soft coral jungle for more than an hour. The site itself is easy to access right off of 27th Street, but you have to get there early to find parking. The park itself is equipped with picnic tables that are perfect for setting up gear, as well as beautiful rainbow-colored Adirondack chairs that are great for bubble watchers —almost as if they knew that a group of #gaydivers was coming.
We were four divers: Christopher, Joe, Andre and Matt, and everyone found some special memory to take home with them. Unfortunately, the Park did not live up to its name and we did not see any loggerhead turtles. Who knows, maybe they saw us and laid low. We learned later that there is a big storm coming in this week, and you can see the reef get quiet when that kind of weather is moving in. One dive professional said they were expecting 6 foot seas by mid-week.
As with all of our favorite reef dives, there were the usual flashy angelfish and surgeonfish, but the true winners are the eagle eyes who catch all of the lurkers. Indeed, we saw one of the largest Spotted Scorpionfish, Scorpaena plumieri, that we’ve seen in a long time. These fish are very slow to move, depending on their excellent camouflage, but never forget that those spines are venomous and the unwary diver who doesn’t have good buoyancy will quickly learn why it’s important.
And then hiding up under a ledge in 10’ of water was a 2-foot Red Grouper, Epinephelus morio, who stopped into a cleaning station and probably thought he was getting away from the fishermen and spearfishermen out on the second reef. Lucky for him we only take photographs when we’re diving. These intelligent fish are known to watch divers as intently as the divers watch the grouper, and event sometimes will approach a diver who appears to be doing something interesting.
If you’re interested in learning more about cleaning stations, stay tuned to this website because it’s one of our future articles. Suffice it to say, that little cleaner wrasse was in no danger as it worked its way around and inside the grouper’s mouth.
All images are courtesy of Christopher Duncan and Copyright 2025 CDA Underwater Photography. All rights reserved worldwide.
#lgbtqscubaclub #gayscubaclub #divereport #coraljungle #fortlauderdalesoftcoral