Artist Bobby Little’s Burning Marlin sculpture at Guy Harvey Outpost’s Bimini Beach Bash Bonfire & Tournament. Above, Duncan Brake’s photograph captures the marlin in full furry. The event …
Win a Bimini Big Game Club Getaway at the Miami Boat Show
25 Jan 20116:41 PM
Come see Team Bimini Big Game Club at the Miami Boat Show Feb 17 – 21 and register for a chance to win a 5-day/4-night BBGC getaway, which includes a complimentary stay in a luxury suite as well as free dockage! You can find us in booth #2209 in the Big Game Room (where else would we be?!?) and in booth #1979 in the Dive & Travel Room.
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![](mailto:?subject=Red Hot Blue Marlin with Guy Harvey Outpost&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/duncanbrakeburningmarlin.jpg"><img class="wp-image-2061" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/duncanbrakeburningmarlin.jpg?w=300" alt="All Lit Up!" width="469" height="308" /></a>
Artist Bobby Little’s Burning Marlin sculpture at <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/">Guy Harvey Outpost’s</a> Bimini Beach Bash Bonfire & Tournament. Above, Duncan Brake’s photograph captures the marlin in full furry. The event marked Guy Harvey Outpost’s return to Bimini after two years of growth around Florida, the Bahamas and Beyond. <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/destinations/bahamas/bimini-bahamas/bimini-sands-bimini.html">Bimini Sands Resort & Marina, a Guy Harvey Outpost Expedition Lodge</a> hosted the three day event.
Barefoot skydivers from Island Extreme Adventures kicked things off, landing on the beach in front of the Infinity Pool. There was scuba diving with the legendary Neal Watson, fabulous food and ace fishermen. Captain Bouncer Smith, recently honored at the IGFA as a “Legendary Captain,” and young Victor Bermudez the event’s Top Angler teamed up to take top honors in the fishing tournament.
Stay tuned for more photos and details or check the latest on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GuyHarveyOutpost">Outpost Facebook page</a>.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/red-hot-blue-marlin-with-guy-harvey-outpost/#more-2060" class="more-link">(more…)</a> https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/red-hot-blue-marlin-with-guy-harvey-outpost/){kind=link}
 at the <a href="https://business.facebook.com/events/235445656799071/" target="_blank">Blazing Mako Tournament and Festival</a> Father's Day weekend June 16-19 at the Islander, a Guy Harvey Outpost resort in Islamorada.
Here's an advance peek at several of the artists and their creations that you can browse in the tents of the "Conch-servation Village":
CHRIS NICOLAUS, Fort Lauderdale
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_20160213_102841-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-4001 size-large" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_20160213_102841-1-1024x768.jpg" alt="IMG_20160213_102841 (1)" width="1024" height="768" /></a>
Several years ago, Nicolaus began organizing trash clean-ups in the Everglades where he and his volunteers picked up more than 500 pounds of spent shell casings. His friends told Nicolaus to just scrap them, but he decided instead to turn them into marine life art.
"I've always been a fan of Guy Harvey and a fan of fishing," he said.
Despite no formal artistic training, Nicolaus forged ahead, sorting the shells by caliber, washing and drying them, gluing them to hand-cut wooden backings in the shapes of sailfish, orcas and other sea creatures, then painting them. Photos of his creations showed up on social media, and he has sold more than 20 for several hundred dollars each over the past few months. He puts the money back into his conservation program.
"I'm taking something that's destroying the Everglades and making something beautiful," he said.
He expects to display as many as 70 pieces at the Blazing Mako.
JOYCE NELSON, Miami
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/VINTAGE-PINK-CORAL-PEARLS-1.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-4000 size-full aligncenter" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/VINTAGE-PINK-CORAL-PEARLS-1.jpeg" alt="VINTAGE PINK CORAL & PEARLS (1)" width="433" height="289" /></a>
This Coconut Grove former advertising executive who taught fashion merchandising and design at the college level didn't originally set out to become an artist. But after taking jewelry-making and gemology classes beginning in 2000, she fell in love with precious stones and pearls and decided to make hand-crafted jewelry a full-time career.
Since 2005, Nelson's one-woman firm Cosmopolitan Jewels has been creating one-of-a-kind, head-turning necklaces, bracelets, and earrings suitable for dressing up or down. Prices range from about $75 to $4,500.
"It's versatile that way," Nelson said of her artistry. "You can wear it anytime and if you do, people will notice you. I can create anything-- just ask."
As lifelong anglers and boaters, Nelson and her husband Ron are excited about coming to Islamorada for the Blazing Mako.
DAVID WIRTH, Islamorada
A well-known and longtime contributor to the Keys art scene, Wirth produces a wide range of wildlife art-- some of it made from the wildlife itself. A lifelong fisherman and hunter, he is fond of saying that he hunts and fishes to make art and makes art to hunt and fish.
At Wirth's Islamorada gallery, visitors might find rich wooden or bronze sculptures of fish with backgrounds of mangroves and sea fans; hardwood furniture with handles made from the antlers of a deer; Hawaiian-style circle hook jewelry; and a variety of creatures fashioned from stone.
Nearly all of the wood the artist uses comes from blown-down trees or remnants from cleared lots. He fashions wreaths from barbed wire discarded in farm fields. A deer skin becomes a throw rug (while the meat goes into his freezer). Works sell for an average of $2,500 to $3,500 apiece.
He won't have to travel far to attend the Blazing Mako.
"The Islander is a great location-- a nice, Keys-y place to do an art show," Wirth said. "We're all about supporting anything Guy does."
ALISON CLAIRE LaMONS, Lakeland.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/GULFSTREAMCHARTERS_REV_72DPI_WEB.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-4004 size-full" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/GULFSTREAMCHARTERS_REV_72DPI_WEB.jpg" alt="unknown title" width="432" height="288" /></a>
This seafaring, world-traveling, beach-loving, architectural drafting, married mother of three has longed to become an artist since her childhood in Fort Lauderdale. But LaMons didn't make art her full-time career until about three years ago and she occupies an unusual niche: watercolor portraits of vintage neon signs.
"I want to be the Guy Harvey of vintage neon signs!" she declared.
The hand-painted, original signs may depict anything from sport fishing boats to tropical flowers to blue marlin accented with shimmering neon that immediately catches the eye. Frames are fashioned from salvaged scrap metal.
"It's sexy and at the same time kitsch-y," LaMons said of her work. "I invent a sign to suit what I want to say."
LaMons' larger watercolors sell for upwards of $5,000, but she'll also bring a selection of prints and note cards to the Blazing Mako.
"I have great fun doing these art shows," she said.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/full-spectrum-of-original-artwork-on-display-at-the-blazing-mako/){kind=link}
 has pretty much done it all: set world records for depth and distance; tangoed with huge sharks; travelled the world; and appeared underwater in numerous television shows and movies. But there WAS one place on the globe that Guy Harvey Outpost's dive team leader had never taken the plunge: Cuba.
That is, until very recently.
Watson joined Guy Harvey Outpost Resorts president Mark Ellert; Guy Harvey Research Institute head Mahmood Shivji; and Scuba Radio founder Greg Holt on a four-day diving/fact-finding mission to the island nation under the 'people-to-people' program.
To say the Dive God was wowed by his visit would be a gross understatement.
"This place ROCKS!" Watson said. "This is the pinnacle. I have literally travelled around the world and you'd be hard-pressed to find any place as uniquely different from any other culture in the world as you find 45 minutes from South Florida. Unbelievable!"
Watson's enchantment began almost as soon as he deplaned in Havana: downtown streets filled with vintage American cars.
"It was like being in the world's biggest antique car show," he said.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Cuba.mules_.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-4014 size-full" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Cuba.mules_.jpg" alt="Cuba.mules" width="800" height="531" /></a>
And things only got better from there.
Accompanied by their Cuban American guide, the group rented a 1957 Pontiac, overnighted at a family-run bed and breakfast; sampled hand-rolled cigars at a tobacco farm; enjoyed dancing and listening to acoustic salsa music at various Havana night spots; sampled the signature daiquiris at La Floridita-- a favorite hangout of author Ernest Hemingway; and, oh yes, dived.
The group cruised west in the Pontiac for about six hours from Havana to a dive resort in the village of Maria La Gorda located on the western tip of the Pinar del Rio province. Watson was pleasantly surprised at the fleet of clean, modern dive boats; well-maintained rental and first-aid equipment and the capable, friendly and knowledgeable dive crew.
The group only had time for a one-tank dive -- an 80-foot-deep guided drift along mountainous coral heads and scenic caverns in a marine park established in 1984. It reminded Watson of his underwater explorations of Andros and the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas.
"Amazing," Watson said.
Shivji, a marine scientist who has logged hundreds of dives, also was impressed.
"The coral reefs are in really good shape compared to quite a few other places I've been diving," Shivji said.
The Guy Harvey Outpost team enjoyed the whirlwind visit so much that it organized another cultural/scientific/diving expedition to Cuba in June in conjunction with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation. The trip sold out in one hour. Stay tuned for more about future Guy Harvey Outpost expeditions to the island.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/the-dive-god-visits-cuba/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Mako: Your Ultimate Dive in Isla Mujeres&body=
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/makoIsla.mp4">https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/makoIsla.mp4</a>
You're standing in an underwater cage only about three feet below the ocean's surface, breathing from a hookah when, suddenly, a streamlined, 600-pound torpedo armed with lots of teeth comes shooting by. Then, without warning, it does a 180 and swims straight toward you. What do you do?
If you are Dr. Guy Harvey--marine scientist, artist and conservationist--or cinematographer George Schellenger, or one of the many guests who've chartered the Keen M Blue Water fleet in Isla Mujeres, Mexico over the past decade, you thank your lucky stars for this opportunity to observe the shortfin mako shark up close.
"It was cool," Harvey said after a trip last year. "Most of them are really interactive. You have a fantastic opportunity to film mako sharks."
Then, after your dive, if you're not ready to say goodbye to the fastest sharks in the ocean, Keen M owner/operator Captain Anthony Mendillo will take you on a catch-and-release fishing excursion. Trolling with lures and natural baits will usually result in a hook-up, and if you keep alert, you can snap a photo or video clip of a mako breaching the surface.
"A lot of adrenaline," Mendillo noted.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/makocage.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4523" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/makocage.jpg" alt="makocage" width="960" height="539" /></a>
The mild Caribbean waters off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula are the prime destination for mako catching and diving between mid-March and early May. Harvey plans to be back there for about two weeks in April when he and Mendillo and scientists from the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University will try to implant some makos with satellite tags in their dorsal fins. These SPOT tags transmit the shark's location to a satellite whenever the fin pops above the surface. That movement data is then downloaded to computers at the institute near Fort Lauderdale where researchers post it online at the <a href="http://cnso.nova.edu/sharktracking/">GHRI shark tracking web site</a>. Mendillo built a special mobile platform on the stern of his boat so the sharks can be tagged in the water-- minimizing stress on the animals.
Harvey and colleagues Mahmood Shivji, Jeremy Vaudo, Michael Byrne, and Brad Wetherbee recently published a first-of-its-kind research study on 26 shortfin makos that they tagged and tracked for up to two years in the Western North Atlantic and the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The sharks-- tagged and released off Isla Mujeres and Ocean City, Md. -- travelled through the waters of 17 nations where at least seven were harvested by commercial fishers. The scientists warned that makos-- prized commercially for their meat and fins and recreationally for their fish-ability--may be at higher risk of being overfished than previous conventional tagging studies suggest.
Harvey and his colleagues recommended a "cautionary interpretation of past stock assessments" of the shortfin mako and the need for close cooperation among Western North Atlantic nations to devise "regionally and seasonally-specific management strategies"-- in other words, not taking a one-size-fits-all approach to conserving the species.
To book your adventure interacting with makos go to <a href="http://www.GHOExpeditions.com">www.GHOExpeditions.com</a> or call the Outpost Travel Desk at 800-513-5257. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/mako-your-ultimate-dive-in-isla-mujeres/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Speak Out for Your Florida Reefs&body=<img class=" size-medium wp-image-3368 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/6178.jpg?w=300" alt="6178" width="300" height="225" />
By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Anglers, divers, or anyone who enjoys the ocean off Southeast Florida needs to pay close attention and get involved in a new initiative proposed by a community group called <a href="http://www.OurFloridaReefs.org" target="_blank">Our Florida Reefs</a>.
This group of anglers, divers, scientists, local government officials, business owners, conservationists and others has been working for two years on 68 wide-ranging recommendations aimed at protecting the 105-mile coral reef tract extending south from St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County to just north of Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade County. This region of Southeast Florida was targeted because, unlike Biscayne National Park and the Keys, it has no management plan in place to balance use with protection of coral reefs.
Some of the community working group's recommendations for saving coral are non-controversial, such as installing mooring buoys and enhancing reef education in schools. But others have drawn considerable ire from user groups both online and at public meetings.
One of the proposals--N-59-- would ban spear fishing using scuba gear throughout the region --except for harvesting invasive lionfish--in order to eliminate the targeting of the largest and most fertile reef fish species. Another--S-97--would reduce the annual, two-day lobster mini-season bag limit statewide from 12 to six per day and would require lobster hunters to complete an educational program in order to receive a permit. Recommendation N-146 would establish a series of marine protected areas along the Southeast Florida coast that includes no-take zones; seasonal closures to protect spawning aggregations; no-anchoring areas; and coral restoration areas.
You-- the ocean user-- have until March 1 to review and comment on these proposals. Then they will be forwarded to local, state and federal agencies for action.
You can provide comments on the Our Florida Reefs website or at public meetings this month from noon to 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 16 at Holiday Park Social Center, 1150 G. Harold Martin Dr., Fort Lauderdale; Feb. 17 at Newman Alumni Center at University of Miami, 6200 San Amaro Dr., Coral Gables; and Feb.18 at Kovens Conference Center, FIU/Biscayne Bay Campus, 3000 NE 151 St., North Miami.
If this really is a community planning process and not being executed at the behest of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, then what you say counts. Speak up.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/speak-out-for-your-florida-reefs-2/){kind=link}
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