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Hey, I forgot to mention this earlier, but last week when I was diving Ginnie, I came upon two small (about the size of a 30/45 in the grocery store) gulf shrimp in Ginnie. This was about 15' past the park bench on the gold line.
I have seen a lot of different critters in caves that shouldn't be there, but I've never seen a gulf shrimp. Has anyone else? Certainly this isn't common.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Superlyte27
Saw some in the catacombs a few nights ago myself. Interesting for sure.
A month ago I saw a Sheepshead in Manatee Spring...he was a long way from the gulf in some very fresh water.
I know shrimp in the atlantic move back in to the rivers to breed this time of year. We use to go shrimping off the docks on the St. Johns.
Peter,
Glad to see you post this. I had seen a small shrimp near the Lips in the gallery on my last trip to Ginnie in mid-June. The one I had spotted was about 1 1/2" in length...and I remember thinking how odd it was to see a shrimp back in the cave.
Are you sure it was a gulf shrimp and not some form of cave shrimp? They exist, I've seen them in very remote FL sinkhole caves...
I'm not certain of the exact variety of shrimp. However, they did have the eyes of a "gulf-type" shrimp, rather than being a "blind" cave-dweller.
I'm certain it was Gulf Shrimp. I've bought, caught, eaten, sold, fished with and just about every other thing you could do with a Gulf Shrimp over the years.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuPrBuGmAn
Did you steal that line from the Bubba Gump movie?Quote:
Originally Posted by Superlyte27
No, lol.
A little off topic.
First of all I did see what I thought was a shrimp the evening of July 3rd between keyhole and park bench. So I guess I was not imagining it.
Now my question. How common are larger eel's in Ginnie around the gallery? I saw a eel a little over 2 feet about 30 feet or so from the lips on the way out on the same dive. This was a Vortex size eel. I have a good number of dives in Ginnie over the last 5 years and never seen a large mature eel.
Thought I may have been narced and seeing critters LOL
I saw a good 1.5+ foot white body with pale yellow spots eel at the bottom of little devil's before. Really cool looking. NO idea what it was, as I can't find anything when searching for it's description.Quote:
Originally Posted by navycaver
saw snakes cruising over the edge of devil's ear at night. Decided not to go down there as I didn't want snakes falling on my head LOL
If you dive any of the river caves along the Santa Fe you will see quite a few Grass Shrimp. They are usually rather small but can get into the popcorn shrimp size range. Normally you find them near cave openings. I would imagine they are what you saw. Eels are common in the river caves as well. Catch ginnie at off hours; it isn't uncommon to see them there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Superlyte27
In days gone by it wasn't unusual to see immature jacks and needlefish around the Eye and the Ear as well.
Jerry
Quote:
Originally Posted by corvettejoe
I almost always see shrimp inside Devil's. They are a freshwater species but are NOT troglobites. Gulf shrimp at Ginnie would be uncommon, but certainly not impossible.
Regarding snakes and eels, my dream is to lay naked in a den of writhing snakes or in a bath tub full of freshwater eels.
In the interim, I've had to settle for frolicking in jello or coleslaw with naked chicks. The problem with that is those little down feathers always go up my nose or get stuck in my throat.
I came face to face with a large 2-3 ft eel in Devil's Eye. It surprised me and I managed to snap a picture of it as it swam away.
'Had an eel encounter (about 18" long) exiting July Spring about a year ago. That is, the eel and I chose the same time to exit July. I hadn't seen it in the passage itself against that silvery sand, but I suspect that it squeezed in from the JS opening....