Saw something wild on a bridge inspection dive in Tampa Bay

We were doing a routine check on the Gandy Bridge last Tuesday, about 30 feet down. I'm cleaning off a support piling and my light catches this huge, perfect circle of mussels, like someone drew it with a compass. It was about three feet across, right at the mud line. Never seen growth pattern that neat before. You guys ever run into something underwater that made you stop and just stare?

3 comments

3 Comments

adams.linda21d ago

Wait, the Gandy? I thought that was a concrete bridge. Those pilings should be smooth, no way mussels are sticking to them like that. You sure you weren't at the old Skyway bridge pilings? Those are the rough ones covered in life. Still, a perfect circle is weird. Nature doesn't usually do straight lines.

hunt.quinn21d ago

Ugh, that's a solid point about the concrete. I totally get why a perfect circle would seem off down there. Makes you wonder what could leave a mark that clean.

derek99414d ago

Yeah, the Gandy pilings are like glass. But I saw it clear as day, a perfect ring of clean concrete with mussels everywhere else. Looked like someone took a giant cookie cutter to the growth.