Great suggestion. As another good option, here is the donation page for Gumbo Limbo, also a donor supported organization.
Info on their sea turtle rescue and rehab center: Sea Turtles - Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards
Blue Heron Bridge Trolls III
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Great suggestion. As another good option, here is the donation page for Gumbo Limbo, also a donor supported organization.
Info on their sea turtle rescue and rehab center: Sea Turtles - Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards
on the way !
While giving Tuesday is over. And yall are donating.
Consider Sea Turtle Oversight Protection who's main focus is hatchling rescue that disoriented to the lights in Broward. I've been doing volunteer rescue with them for over a decade.
Consider Sea Turtle Oversight Protection who's main focus is hatchling rescue that disoriented to the lights in Broward. I've been doing volunteer rescue with them for over a decade.
Went to the bridge for diving today. Arrived at 1150 for a 1340 high tide. Entered the eastside at 1215. Surface conditions were calm. Visibility was a hazy 25-30ft with blue color. Sea temp at 80f. Wandered around north of the bridge span until close to the tide turning, and then proceeded to south of the bridge span. While on the north side had a swim by about twenty large Barracuda, of the size you normally see in the ocean cruising around, not the small 18 inchers normally seen at BHB. There were a couple Spotted Eagle Rays swimming around in the vicinity on both the north and south sides. @Johnoly the turtle from yesterday did not have any tag that I observed. Respectively, Chain Pipefish, Dolly Varden Crab, Dysidea janiea (Sponge), Spotted Eagle Ray, and Barracuda Video.
I would know that as a box crab. I have occasionally found a flamed box crab in a stone crab trap that was set in the area. I don't see box crabs often. I have never seen this particular variety. Nice find.
Cudas in general, & particularly the Great Barracuda, are making a strong comeback in the area. I credit this to a change in the fishing regulations a few years ago. Palm Beach is one of a few counties that now have limits on size & number of cudas that a fisherman can take. In the past, many local fishermen considered them to be vermin that needed to be eliminated. As such, they were often slaughtered at every opportunity. A few people pushed back against that practice & got the rules changed locally.
I'm familiar with the opinions on both sides of the argument about protecting cudas. Some describe them as filthy, smelly, ciguatoxin carrying, dinner fish stealing, nuisance creatures. Others consider them to be a natural part of the eco system that needs to be maintained. It is much like the historical hunting of the wolf nearly to extinction, on purpose & for a reason. Some favored that. Others did not. I'm not going to wade into the politics of it any deeper than that. I will take note, that removing the fishing pressure did cause a strong increase in the local population in just a couple of years. I have also noticed a sharp decline in the snapper/grunt/porgy/small grouper populations in the areas where the cudas are now noticeably more numerous.
johndiver999
Contributor
If fisherman are intent on killing cuda (because they are a perceived nuisance) making laws that prohibit retaining more than one on the boat, will not do much to reduce mortality.
@PBcatfish, your comments always make me give further thought on the images of different species I post. I appreciate that, thank you.
I have never found a live Dolly Varden (Hepatus epheliticus) at Blue Heron Bridge, either dead like the one in the photo or just the carapace. According to inaturalist the box crabs, four species of which are recorded at BHB (I have never seen one anywhere but BHB), are genus Calappa, the most common being the Flame Streaked Box (Calappa flammea). For sure I would have thought the Dolly Varden was a box crab until just checking on this.
Interesting that groupers which are Piscivores are not loathed and disdained because humans can consume them without worry of ciguatera poisoning. I wonder if ciguatera poisoning wasn't an issue when consuming Barracudas, if some individuals would have a change of heart.
I have been diving on the reefs in Broward and Palm Beach County since I moved here in 1992. Without taking a deep dive into 3700 or so fish surveys I have done I couldn't make a claim one way or the other with regards to snapper/grunt/porgy/small grouper populations. I will say that on an anecdotal basis groupers are few and far between on the reefs, and that is going back thirty years. I see a few small Black Groupers at BHB, I see a few small Red Groupers (and I mean small 8 inches or less), this is usually the case on reefs as well. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen Nassau Groupers, Cubera Snapper, Yellowfin Groupers, and Tigers Groupers. Total speculation on my part, I think it has far more to do with humans overfishing popular species, than it has to do with predation by Barracudas, or other large piscivore species.
johndiver999
Contributor
Groupers and other fish are well documented as having ciguatera. For some of them it is more common in more tropical ecosystems, but it can still be present locally.`
CDC and others estimate that only 2-10% of Ciguatera cases are actually reported in the United States. In the US Virgin Islands, there are an estimated 300 cases per 10,000 or 3% of the population per year; a similar rate is found in the French West Indies.
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