Filed at March 1, 2010 under Florida Keys by Keys
The Monroe County Extension office offers free plant clinics by master gardeners who can help with plant and/or insect problems. Bring sick plants for diagnosis or insects for identification to:
• Key West, 1 to 4 p.m. Monday March 15, Extension office, second floor, Gato Building, 1100 Simonton St., suite 2-260;
• Key Largo, 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday March 17, Extension office, second floor, Murray E. Nelson Government & Cultural Center, 102050 Overseas Highway, suite 244;
• Big Pine Key, 9 a.m. to noon March 20, Big Pine Academy, 30220 Overseas Highway; and
• Marathon, 9 a.m. to noon, March 20, Marathon Garden Club, 5270 Overseas Highway.
For more information, call 305-292-4501, e-mail monroe@ifas.ufl.edu, or visit monroe.ifas.ufl.edu online
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Plants
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Filed at February 18, 2010 under Animals and Fish and Bonefish and Environment and On the Water and Fishing and Florida Keys by Keys
Contact: Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission FWC proposed draft rule amendments Thursday to provide more protection for bonefish, a premier saltwater game fish in Florida.”Bonefish are a tremendous Florida resource,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. “These proposed rules will strengthen our management approach to protect and preserve bonefish so that anglers can continue to enjoy fishing for this great Florida game fish.”The proposed rules would include all species of bonefish in the FWCs bonefish management rules to help ensure that all bonefish in Florida waters are protected, extend FWC bonefish regulations into adjacent federal waters to aid enforcement and enhance bonefish protection, and require that bonefish be landed in whole condition to help officers in the field identify bonefish and aid in enforcement of bag and size limits.
Since 1988, it has been illegal to commercially harvest and sell bonefish in Florida, and a daily recreational bag limit of one bonefish 18 inches or greater in fork length applies.However, there is a temporary harvest and possession prohibition on bonefish in Florida until April 1 as a precaution, because of possible impacts to fish populations that may have occurred from the recent prolonged cold weather in Florida. Anglers may still catch and release bonefish during the temporary closure, and the FWC encourages everyone to handle and release them carefully to help ensure their survival upon release.A final public hearing on these proposed bonefish rule amendments will take place during the FWCs April meeting in the Tallahassee area.
via FWC News – FWC proposes more protection for bonefish.
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Bonefish
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Filed at February 15, 2010 under Animals and Mammal and Manatee by Keys
Written by PP Rega
The unusually cold weather that struck Florida in January has killed at least 5 percent of West Indies manatees this year. That amounts to 280 in all.
What is the significance of this news?
* No more Manatee-ka-bobs
* McDonald’s can no longer sell “Big Manatee with Fries and a Coke.”
* Postponement of the Key West’s annual Manatee Look-a-Like contest.
* Manatee linguini is no longer on the menu in Tampa’s Cafe Roma restaurant.
* There’ll be fewer Manatees watching America Idol.
* The Manatee Olympic Association won’t be able to send its ski team to Vancouver
* Disneyland will have to cancel its Gay Manatee Convention
* The Miami violent crime rate will decrease due to fewer coke-head Manatees
* There’ll be fewer Manatees selling Girl Scout cookies in Fort Lauderdale
* There’ll be more room in the sea for Womanatees.
Printed from: http://www.thespoof.com/news/magazine/article_5889.htm
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Manatee
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Filed at February 10, 2010 under Florida Keys and Upper Keys and Islamorada by Keys
By ROBERT SILK Free Press Staff
ISLAMORADA — In the late 1970s, Sam Wampler was tasked with finding a home base for a new Boy Scouts of America program that provided adventures on the high seas for scouts from around the country.
Wampler, at the time the camping director for the Boy Scouts’ Miami region, found the spot he was looking for in 1980 on the site of a rundown hotel at the southwest tip of Lower Matecumbe.
Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand scouts later, Florida Sea Base has become a staple of the Boy Scouts of America and a key player in the economic life of Lower Matecumbe Key and surrounding islands.
“We are literally influencing families across this nation,” said Keith Douglass, the Sea Base facilities director.
Florida Sea Base won’t officially turn 30 until this summer. But on Monday the Lower Matecumbe institution was scheduled to hold its birthday party early to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.
Wampler passed away seven years ago, but wife Sharon remembers that first year, when she guesses 1,000 to 2,000 scouts visited the base.
According to local lore, during the summer of 1980 Sea Base staff had to fend off patrons of the old Toll Gate Inn, who were unaware that the former brothel and seedy watering hole had been converted into a place that could safely be called, well, more wholesome.
Over time those Tollgate customers disappeared entirely and Sea Base flourished. New dormitories were built, as well as an administrative building and conference center. In 1982 the scouts acquired the 105-acre Munson Island off Big Pine Key. Then in 2001 the scouts opened the Brinton Environmental Center on Summerland Key.
All are used in the various Sea Base adventures programs, which include multi-day sails, dive training, fishing excursions and primitive camping on Munson.
According to Sea Base officials, today more than 10,000 scouts a year descend upon the Lower Matecumbe locale, which is one of only three High Adventure bases run by the Boy Scouts of America.
Douglass says all those people mean big dollars to the local community. The scouts often visit local attractions like Theater of the Sea and the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum. If their families come for a visit they stay at local lodges. And Sea Base does a lot of its buying locally.
“We spent over $30,000 in bait alone just last year and that’s all local,” Douglass said.
Meanwhile, Sharon Wampler says she can’t believe how big the Sea Base program has grown over the past 30 years.
“Sam is up there just laughing at the whole thing, happy about it,” she said.
rsilk@keysnews.com
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Islamorada,
Seabase
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Filed at February 6, 2010 under Florida Keys by Keys
NOAA – 6 Feb 2010 10:00 EST
Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico…
Hurricane Whodat is predicted to make landfall on the South Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST).
This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the Brettigfarvren.
Predictive damage estimates are unavailable at this time, but they are expected to be significant. Livestock, in particular young horses, will be in severe danger of being decimated. All interests in and near the Miami area are advised to prepare for a storm surge of catastrophic proportions as Hurricane Whodat begins to arrive in approximately 2 days.
Hurricane Warnings extend from Key Largo North to Ft. Lauderdale. Hurricane Watch extends from Key West, through out the Florida Keys, to the Palm Beaches on the East Coast.
Residents of New Orleans, Louisiana and Indianapolis, Indiana should pay close attention to this EEE (Extremely Exciting Event).
Next advisory 07 Feb 2010 at 1500Z (10:00 AM EST).
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Filed at February 5, 2010 under On the Water and Fishing by Keys
1. You have a power worm dangling from you rear view mirror because you think it makes a good air freshener.
2. You wedding party has to tie tin cans to the back of your boat.
3. You call your boat “sweetheart” and your wife “skeeter.”
4. Your local tackle shop has your credit card number on file.
5. You keep a flippin stick by your favorite chair to change the tv channels with.
6. You get 40 to life because your teenager asked you to buy a jet ski.
7. You name your black lab “Mercury” and your cat “Evinrude”.
8. Bass Pro Shop has a private line just for you.
9. You honeymooned in Islamorada – ALONE.
10. You have your name painted on a parking space at the launch ramp.
11. You have a photo of your 40 lb. grouper on your desk at work instead of your family.
12. You consider viennies and crackers a complete meal.
13. You think MEGABYTES means a great day fishing.
14. You send your kid off to the first day of school with his shoes tied in a polomar knot.
15. Your wife wears green lipstick so you’ll kiss her more.
16. You think there are four seasons – Pre-spawn, Spawn, Post spawn and Hunting.
17. Your $30,000 boat’s trailer need’s tires so you “borrow” the one’s off your trailer house.
18. Your wife tells you she is feeling “frisky” but you don’t know what she means until she explains she wants to spawn.
19. You trade your wife’s van for a smaller vehicle so your boat will fit in the garage.
20. Your kids know it’s Saturday – because the boat is gone.
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Fishing,
Humor
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Filed at February 2, 2010 under On the Water and Fishing and Commercial Fishing and Animals and Fish and Lobster and Florida Keys and Lower Keys by Keys
By ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
Two Bay Point men were sentenced to a year in prison on charges that they conspired to poach lobster, a judge ruled Monday, closing the last chapter on two illegal lobster harvesting cases that snared eight people.
John Buckheim, 23, and Nick Demauro, 24, both apologized to federal Judge James Lawrence King, their friends, family and wildlife officers.
“I acknowledge and take full responsibility for what I did,” Buckheim said. “I was young and stupid and I’m not implying that I’m old or wise now, only that I’m heading in the right direction. … I’m sorry for this major mistake and you won’t find me in this position again.”
Demauro told the judge he had “taken everything for granted.”
Both men pleaded guilty in October to harvesting lobsters by diving on illegal artificial habitats, called casitas, primarily in the Content Keys area north of Big Pine Key, from July 2008 through October 2008, according to court documents.
The judge granted U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald’s request to delay their prison sentence 100 days so both men can continue their work removing as many as 600 casitas from Florida Keys waters. The judge ordered both to surrender to corrections officials on May 12.
The judge also allowed both men to resume legal commercial fishing immediately upon their release from prison, despite the prosecutor’s recommendation that both be prohibited during the two years of supervision that is to follow their release.
Miami defense attorneys Bruce Alter and Steven Potolsky urged the judge to consider the defendants’ ages, their clean criminal histories and their desire to make amends as mitigating factors at sentencing, but the prosecutor was unmoved, painting the men as astute fishermen who knew the risks involved.
“These were not youths who stumbled into this,” the prosecutor told the judge, describing taped conversations between the two men, and the hundreds of casitas they fished.
Buckheim and Demauro worked for David and Denise Dreifort of Cudjoe Key at one time. The latter were sentenced in July for spearheading a large lobster poaching ring that involved four other people, in a separate but related case. David Dreifort was sentenced to 2¬½ years in prison in July. His wife was sentenced to seven months in prison. Prosecutors found thousands of lobsters at one of their homes on Lookdown Lane last year.
Buckheim and Demauro began their own illegal operation after their stint with the Dreiforts, and they sold lobster to a Stock Island seafood company in 32 separate incidents for a total of $45,974, records say. The company has not been charged in the case, the prosecutor said.
Both men were warned by David Dreifort to cease their operation after he was indicted, but they continued, the prosecutor said. Federal agents began visual and electronic surveillance of Buckheim and Demauro during the larger investigation that involved the Dreiforts, reports say.
Both pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in which prosecutors dropped two charges that could have added at least 10 years to their sentences.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
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Filed at January 30, 2010 under Florida Keys and Resorts and Tourism and Vacations by Keys
Forget everything you thought you knew about resorts. These 10 escapes deliver thrilling activities, plush amenities, and sweeping views, from $119 a night.
Casa Marina Resort
The 311-room beachfront Casa Marina is in tropical, laid-back Key West, Fla., where Ernest Hemingway bummed around in the 1930s (The Old Man and the Sea is based on his experiences here).The historic resort, built in the 1920s, hosts the largest private beach on Key West, a sinewy strand of white sand over 1,000 feet long. Book a day of water sports—which range from snorkeling with dolphins at a nearby coral reef to jetting around on WaveRunners—or relax in a cabana by one of the two oceanfront pools. On-site Spa al Mare offers treatments like the full-body Sun Soother Water Lily Mask, which soothes sunburned or windburned skin with naturally hydrating water lily oil. The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum (admission $12) is a 10-minute walk—see the house & original furnishings from Paris, the $20,000 pool, and 60 cats, some with six toes on one paw, descendants of Hemingway’s beloved litter.
All-inclusive? No.
On the beach? Yes.
Price From $149.
via Best U.S.Budget Resorts.
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Key West,
Resorts,
Tourism,
Vacation
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Filed at January 25, 2010 under Florida Keys by Keys
When Hurricane Wilma blew the 158-foot Perini Navi sailing yacht into a federally protected nature preserve in the fall of 2005, she was held for 28 months by the clutches of the environment.
Now, at anchor in Key West Harbor, she is held in the clutches of an insurance dispute. And while the dispute plays out in court, Legacy will remain where she has been for more than four years; off the coast of Key West, Fla.
Owner Peter Halmos has an insurance policy on his yacht for $16 million. Costs to date have exceeded that amount, Halmos said. Once an insurance company pays out its claim, it typically declares the vessel a total loss, giving it the right to lay claim on her. Halmos disagrees.
Halmos, too, has been paying millions of dollars for Legacy’s recovery and restoration, he said.
In addition, Legacy underwent a refit prior to Wilma, and Halmos said he has proof that he instructed his insurance company to raise the coverage to $30 million. The coverage was not raised before the storm.
So Halmos is suing his insurance company, first to remove the clause specifying that it can take the yacht. It has been reported that the insurer stated it does not want the vessel, but Halmos said he wants to be sure, legally. Second, he wants the insurance policy to reflect the increased replacement value he had asked for.
Initially, the case was to have been heard in January, but it has been postponed to May.
Until then, S/Y Legacy will likely remain at anchor off Key West, still waiting for her day to sail again.
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Legacy
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Filed at January 16, 2010 under Animals and Fish and Bonefish and Florida Keys and Animals and Fish and Tarpon by Keys
FWC responds to widespread cold-weather saltwater fish kills
January 15, 2010
Contact: Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554
Executive Order 10-02 (Dead Fish)
Executive Order 10-03 (Snook, Tarpon, Bonefish)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has issued executive orders to protect Florida’s snook, bonefish and tarpon fisheries from further harm caused by the recent prolonged cold weather in the state, which has caused widespread saltwater fish kills. The FWC has received numerous reports from the public and is taking action to address the conservation needs of affected marine fisheries. The orders also will allow people to legally dispose of dead fish in the water and on the shore.
One of the executive orders temporarily extends closed fishing seasons for snook statewide until September. It also establishes temporary statewide closed seasons for bonefish and tarpon until April because of the prolonged natural cold weather event that caused significant, widespread mortality of saltwater fish in Florida. The other order temporarily suspends certain saltwater fishing regulations to allow people to collect and dispose of dead fish killed by the cold weather.
“A proactive, precautionary approach is warranted to preserve our valuable snook, bonefish and tarpon resources, which are among Florida’s premier game fish species,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. “Extending the snook closed season and temporarily closing bonefish and tarpon fishing will protect surviving snook that spawn in the spring and will give our research scientists time to evaluate the extent of damage that was done to snook, bonefish and tarpon stocks during the unusual cold-weather period we recently experienced in Florida.”
Snook season currently is closed in Florida under regular FWC rules, and there are also regular closed snook seasons that occur in the summer. However, the FWC executive order extends the statewide snook closed seasons continuously through Aug. 31 and provides that no person may harvest or possess snook in state and federal waters off Florida during this period unless the fishery is opened sooner or the closure is extended by subsequent order.
The order also establishes a temporary prohibition on the harvest and possession of bonefish and tarpon from state and federal waters off Florida through March 31, unless these fisheries are opened sooner or the closures are extended by subsequent order. The FWC executive order for the snook, bonefish and tarpon closed seasons takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16.
The other FWC executive order temporarily removes specific harvest regulations for all dead saltwater fish of any species that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather in Florida waters. It also modifies general methods of taking dead saltwater fish from Florida’s shoreline and from the water to allow the collection of saltwater fish by hand, cast net, dip net or seine.
All people taking dead saltwater fish under the provisions of this order may not sell, trade or consume such fish, and the dead fish must immediately be disposed of in compliance with local safety, health and sanitation requirements for such disposal.
In addition, all people taking dead fish under the provisions of this order are not required to possess a saltwater fishing license, and all fish taken under the provisions of this executive order shall be those that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather.
This FWC executive order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16 and will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1, unless it is repealed sooner or extended by subsequent order.
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Bonefish,
Snook,
Tarpon
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