7 divers and 7 crew set out for a three day tech diving trip to reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, including the East and West Flower Garden Bank, Bright Bank, and Stetson Bank. We had planned to dive on some deep water platforms also, but when the passengers arrived, they were completely ambivalent, so we decided early on to skip the platform. We arrived at EFG#1 for a morning dive, and I knew I wanted to make this one. Three of our divers from 2 different groups were students, so the run times were not going to be all that long. I got in to see mating creole wrasse, schools of small reef dwellers, and, at 162 feet, a medium sized manta appeared out of the gloom. He hung with Melanie and I for a while, but was really interested in Eric (no bubbles) and stayed with him for 5 minutes. There were marbled grouper on site, as well as big blacks, and a small dusky shark. Bottom temp was 78, surface temp 85, seas choppy and 2-3, vis spectacular at over 100 feet.

Tuesday we anchored at Bright Bank, and more spectacular diving was found. Profiles were run at 180/20, but there was more depth to be had if anyone wanted. I saw a cubera snapper bigger than me, monster blacks, 6 or 8 marbled grouper, a 100 lb dog snapper, and lots and lots of blasted coral and junk left behind by the “Treasure Hunters”. Open ocean dumping, I call it. At the end of the dive as I was un-fouling the anchor, a manta with a 12 foot wingspan showed up and hung out with Eric. At that point, I was out of bottom time and had to ascend. Melanie and Eric played with the Manta for quite a while before they joined me in ascending. During the day the seas really built, so we moved off to the west bank for the night dive. Packetsniffer got surprised by a nurse shark, although I am not sure who was the more surprised, Richard or the nurse shark. We left the West Bank for Stetson, but this tropical “special feature” had the waved kicked up over 8 feet, so we continued on to Freeport, skipping the last dive.

Capt Frank
M/V Spree
Freeport, Texas