The minnows always seem to return to the same areas every year
Come mid-summer every year in the Florida Keys, a unique but temporary frenzy of life occurs out on the reefs. Silverside minnows school by the thousands at various sites, shallow to deep, reefs as well as shipwrecks. Their presence draws in the whole food chain, and the minnows remain in these “bait balls” until they are gone (usually mid-August). The interesting part to me has always been that the minnows always seem to return to these same areas every year.
It is easy to get vertigo when you swim through a school of minnows. They can be so dense that all you can see in every direction is minnows. Since you are already weightless underwater, this can lead to a unique feeling. When shooting photos of the schooling minnows, you must have a quick shutter speed, which means you will also need light, either natural or mechanical. In this case, I used underwater camera strobes to get the proper lighting needed to capture this image.
Did you know? Silversides are commonly studied because of their sensitivity to extreme conditions such as low oxygen, temperature changes, and contaminants in water.
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