Placida Harbor, Gasparilla Sound, Gasparilla Pass, and Coral Creek - February 2018

This is an article from my main website, ExploreFloridaWaters.com! Please check out the website for lots of fascinating facts about Florida's waterways!

We stayed in Placida for about a week. Like always, we launched our john boat at Placida Park.

The winds were usually pretty calm, and water clarity was fair. We arrived late in the day, but did manage to sneak in a quick sunset boat ride in Gasparilla Sound, around the trestle. While we were there, we saw several dolphins hunting over the mudflats between the trestle and Dog Island. We also had a great sunset view from Gasparilla Pass.

The next morning, we began a project at the dock. For the past few trips, we’ve been working on creating a stand for a fish aquarium, complete with a pump that will continually draw fresh seawater into the tank, allowing us to keep fish alive for longer periods of time. To complete this project, though, we would need a large piling, and when we saw that one had washed up on the west shore of Bird Key, we decided to go fetch it. After dragging the piling to the boat, which was pulled up to the muddy shore, we tied the piling to the back of the boat and began to drag it to our dock. On the way back to the dock, we ran into a group of dolphins. One dolphin was extremely curious about this piling “swimming” behind our boat. It swam up beside the piling, followed it, and blew bubbles underneath it.

Later, water clarity was looking fairly good, so we decided to do some diving by the docks in Placida Harbor. I went freediving, and, after rescuing a pair of pliers that our “neighbors” at the dock had accidentally dropped into the water, I began practicing making bubble rings underwater. Dad went spearfishing, and, after bringing back many large Sheepshead to the dock, reported that the Sheepshead were really running, and there were lots of big ones. While I was freediving, I began to hear the sounds of dolphins whistling and echolocating nearby. I came to the surface and saw one’s dorsal fin roll nearby. I watched, and suddenly, one of the dolphins leaped out of the water! It raced through the channel, flying towards Bird Key and leaping as it went. I then raced over to the dock to pull out my DSLR camera for some better photos. The dolphins stayed near our dock and put on quite the “performance.” I’ve written more about this experience in a separate article, “A Dolphin ‘Show’ by the Dock in Placida Harbor.”

I spent most of the rest of the day watching the dolphins from the dock. Like I mentioned before, the Sheepshead were really running, and the dolphins definitely took advantage of this. Later in the evening, one dolphin came right by our dock and began hunting, finally throwing its prize – a large Sheepshead – into the air. I was pretty surprised, as the dolphin had apparently caught the fish by the dock just south of ours, but I had just swam under that dock multiple times earlier in the day, and no Sheepshead were in sight.

Of course, when the sun was beginning to sink low over the horizon, we headed out to Gasparilla Pass to watch the sunset. Throughout that trip, we saw many incredible sunset views from the pass – the next time you visit the Placida area, be sure to take your boat out to the south tip off Little Gasparilla Island at the end of the day! Anyway, we began heading out toward the Gulf, and accidentally ran into one of the waves that was breaking over the sandbar. The wave came washing into our boat, and my DSLR camera got soaked! Yikes! Thankfully, we had a towel on board so that I could dry it off, and no damage was done to my camera.

sunset

Avoid those big waves over the sandbar!

On the way back to the dock, we saw a dolphin hunting by one of the docks at the north end of Gasparilla Island.

He was watching the man with the fish

On the morning of the next day, I watched one dolphin swimming near our dock for a little while. This dolphin, unfortunately, had learned the bad habit of begging for handouts from fishermen. The dolphin would swim around a fishing boat that was anchored a few docks north of ours, and when the man aboard the boat caught a fish, the dolphin began lifting its head above the surface and watching the man with the fish.

Throughout the day, as I worked near the dock, I kept an eye out for dolphins. Whenever I would see one surface near the dock, I would drop what I was doing and race over to catch some photos. Several different dolphins passed by our dock throughout the day.

Towards the end of the day, I saw several dolphins splashing and making quite a commotion near the south tip of Little Gasparilla Island. Unfortunately, I also watched as one lady on board a nearby fishing boat apparently attempted to touch the dolphins that were surfacing close to their anchored vessel. Touching, feeding, chasing, or in any way harassing wild dolphins is dangerous and against the law.

Fortunately, shortly after I saw this active group of cetaceans in the distance, we decided to go diving at the trestle on Gasparilla Sound, and stopped to watch the dolphins along the way. They appeared to be socializing, and I was able to photograph a lot of head and fluke lifting behaviors.

Our dive at the trestle was awesome. Just like at the dock on the previous day, the Sheepshead were running good, and entire schools of large Sheepshead could be seen swimming between the trestle pilings. During this dive, I got to see what the underwater world looks like just before sunset. It’s beautiful. I took some photos with my wonderful Nikon Coolpix AW130 waterproof point-and-shoot camera, but unfortunately, for the time being, I’ve lost the SD card they were posted to. I’ll share the photos in a separate post as soon as I find the SD card.

Once we were done diving at the trestle, and had returned to the dock to clean the fish we had caught, I saw some splashing out in Placida Harbor. Turns out it was a group of dolphins getting energetic. They made a few small leaps and jumps out of the water, and thankfully, I was able to capture a few on camera. After a few minutes, the group of dolphins began to break up, and one of them surprised me by swimming right by my dock.

Surprise!

Other night time views of Placida Harbor

The next morning started out, of course, with some dolphin watching. We first headed over to Gasparilla Sound, and spotted a few dolphins in Gasparilla Pass along the way. This group, however, appeared to be bothered by our boat’s presence, so we left them alone and moved on. Not surprisingly, we also spotted several dolphins, including a mother and calf, in Gasparilla Sound, between the trestle and the Boca Grande Causeway bridge. On the way back to the dock, we came across a group of three dolphins slowly heading through the harbor. Two individuals surfaced very close to our boat several times!

We spent most of that day working, but I did come across various dockside dolphin sightings throughout the afternoon. One dolphin even swam right under the dock while I was standing there! Just like the previous day, we headed out to Gasparilla Pass in the boat to watch the sunset in the evening.

Another beautiful day dawned in Placida. Just like the previous days, in the morning we did a quick dolphin watch in Gasparilla Sound and Gasparilla Pass, then began our work for the day. We worked for several hours straight, and unfortunately, the jobs we were doing were not beside the dock, so I didn’t spot any dolphins throughout that time. However, around 3:00 in the afternoon, we found that we needed some supplies from town, and decided to take a break to go get them. We also decided to take the boat to Gasparilla Sound to look for dolphins as well.

Interestingly, as we were approaching the Boca Grande Causeway bridge, a somewhat large boat that was making a big wake approached, coming out of Gasparilla Sound, and dolphins were surfing in its wake! We only saw the dolphins surface in the wave twice, then they disappeared.

After driving under the bridge, I spotted a dolphin surface behind the trestle, in Gasparilla Sound. We drove past the trestle, and discovered that the trestle was packed with fishermen of many kinds (it was the weekend, so this was no surprise). There were both people casting with a rod and reel, and divers searching for fish underwater with spearguns. Swimming through all of these fishermen were several dolphins – two mother-calf pairs, and a handful of other individuals. These dolphins were staying close to the fishing boats, probably hoping that the people on board would offer them a handout.

At first, everything was very casual among the dolphins – slow, regular surfacing, hanging out around the boats. However, after a few minutes, one calf and an adult male began to interact with each other. They began rolling at the water’s surface, constantly lifting heads and flukes above the water. As they began to drift further into Gasparilla Sound, several other dolphins – one abandoning begging for handouts among the fishermen, and one swimming in from further in the sound, joined the action. After that, it wasn’t long before dolphins began rolling, splashing, and even leaping out of the water!

DOUBLE breach!

Once during this encounter, I witnessed one way how dolphins can be accidentally hit by boats. When dolphins get wrapped up in interactions with each other, whether it be play, socializing, mating, etc., they appear to often not pay much attention to boat traffic. Once, during this dolphin watch, two dolphins were interacting with each other, and at one point, they both came to the surface and began “logging” (floating at the surface with their backs and tops of their fins exposed) side by side. As they were doing this, a large yacht was churning through the channel, heading directly for the two dolphins. Within the last few seconds, the two dolphins appeared to “realize” that the yacht was headed for them, and they quickly (and I mean quickly and suddenly, almost as if they had been startled) dove beneath the surface. Literally about two seconds later, the big yacht smashed through the waves the dolphins had left when they dove.

This whole dolphin watching experience turned out to be an incredible one. After docking the boat and driving into town for those supplies, we got one more dolphin surprise – as we drove over the Gasparilla Road bridge over Coral Creek, I actually spotted a dolphin in Coral Creek. I believe I’ve seen a photo or two of dolphins in Coral Creek, but this was the first time I saw one there in real life.

We were gone for a while, and by the time we returned back to Placida, it was getting close to evening. The sun was getting ready to set, so we decided to take the boat out and watch the sunset from Gasparilla Pass once again. Like always, it was beautiful that evening in the pass. As we were returning to our dock, we came across an active dolphin that was continually tossing a fish in the air in Placida Harbor! The dolphins stayed in the harbor, not far from our dock, so even after we docked the boat, I continued to watch them hunting from the dock.

Photobomb! Look in the top right corner of this video when you watch it :)

The next morning began with a breathtaking sunrise over Placida Harbor, complete with dolphins by the dock! Imagine this – the sun is just beginning to peek over the trees clustered on Bird Key. In the reflection of the sun on the water, dolphins surface. Actually, you won’t have to imagine it, because thankfully, I was able to capture some photos!

Of course, we got right to work, but thankfully, unlike the previous day, this day’s work was near the dock, so I was able to check for dolphins every now and then. I even got to photograph a few dolphins who were hunting out in Placida Harbor, almost where it becomes Gasparilla Pass, while standing on the roof of one of the dockside houses. Also, a fishing boat drove up and anchored in front of our dock. Luckily for me, two dolphins had been following this boat, and when it anchored by our dock, I was able to get some up close photos of the dolphins. Unfortunately, the people on board the boat were constantly using all kinds of language that I didn’t really want to hear…

Throughout the day, as we worked, I spotted a few dolphins at the dock. Just like we’d done the rest of the week, in the afternoon, nearing evening, we set out to go diving at the trestle. This was another ordinary dive. I swam around the trestle pilings, looking at fish, and of course, I took a few photos of what the sunset colors look like underwater. Towards the end of our diving time, I spotted something floating at the water’s surface, just outside of the boat channel that runs between the trestle and the Boca Grande Causeway bridge. At first I thought it was a big garbage bag, but as I began to approach it, I saw it spout and roll over onto its

side, revealing a pectoral fin. This thing was a dolphin. Oddly, it was simply floating with the tide, and no other dolphins were around. Seeing this unusual behavior, I raced back to the boat and asked my partner if we could take the boat to go investigate what was up with this dolphin. We did, and found that something was definitely wrong. We watched the dolphin for about twenty minutes, but its behavior never changed – it would simply float at the water’s surface, and if it needed to dive, it would do so very awkwardly. Also, it appeared to have an odd shape to its peduncle. Finally, we decided that this needed attention, so we called and reported what we were observing to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

At one point, the worst possible thing happened – the dolphin began drifting into the boat channel, with oncoming traffic! A big pontoon boat was headed straight for the dolphin, and the people on board didn’t seem to notice that a lethargic, apparently injured dolphin was right in their path. We tried to wave them down, shouting that there was an injured dolphin in front of them, but either they didn’t see and hear us, or they didn’t care, because the boat kept on moving. Finally, there was only one thing left to do. We pulled our boat out in front of theirs, blocking them from running over the dolphin. Of course, the guy driving the boat was very upset at this. “Don’t you dare pull out in front of this boat!” He yelled. “There’s an injured dolphin,” we replied, pointing to it. “Hey, dolphins have been swimming in these waters for thousands of years!” The pontoon boat driver responded. “But this one’s injured,” we replied again. With that, the boat driver seemed to finally “give in,” and he drove around the floating dolphin.

Soon, the sun set, and it was quickly getting dark. As night began to fall over Gasparilla Sound, several other dolphins began to approach the injured one. At that point, our boat seemed to be getting in the way of the dolphins working this out among themselves, so we left and headed back for the dock. Dolphins have been known to help and protect other dolphins who are sick or injured, and we can only hope that this is what these newcomer dolphins were intending to do.

The next morning, I set out early on my paddleboard to look for the injured dolphin. It could have drifted anywhere during the night, and I didn’t really think I’d find it, but it was worth a try. I never did locate the injured dolphin again, but I did come across a group of dolphins in Gasparilla Sound.

This was our last day in Placida, but it was a good one. Throughout the day, we had many good dolphin encounters, both by boat and on the dock. Once, I watched an amazing display as one dolphin hunted not far from our dock, and would chase and toss fish out of the water.

In the evening, near sunset, we saw a wonderful “grand finale” in Gasparilla Pass. Like always, we took the boat into Gasparilla Pass to watch the sunset. Between the south tip of Little Gasparilla Island and Bird Key, we spotted a large group of dolphins hunting. Some were mulling around in the channel that runs along the south end of Little Gasparilla Island, and some were hunting over the Boca Grande Sandbar, at the south end of Bird Key. Suddenly, one of the dolphins that had been hanging out in the channel took off at full speed, porpoising as it surfaced and racing toward the sandbar. Over the sandbar, it splashed around, then made a backwards “half-breach” with a fish in its mouth. Later, we followed several dolphins further into Gasparilla Pass, and watched them surface until the sun sank below the horizon.

I don't know why, but this photo got a lot of attention on my Tumblr blog, flukes-in-florida

The next morning, we packed up our belongings and left Placida. Thankfully, though, we have plans to go again soon! I can’t wait!

Also, I never saw the injured dolphin again during that trip, but we did make a follow up call to Florida Fish and Wildlife, and they said that they had already been working on getting the necessary permits to perform a rescue on an injured dolphin in that area that matched the description of the dolphin we had seen. As I write, I haven’t heard anything new yet, but if I ever find any news on this dolphin, I’ll be sure to let you know!