Already the world’s largest shark species, male whale sharks can swim around the ocean for up to 130 years, according to a recently published study by scientists at Nova Southeastern University‘s (NSU) …
Pups and Sups Dog Surfing Event Take 4! It’s East vs. West for Guinness Book of World Records at Pups and Sups in St Augustine Beach! Sure, California is known for its beaches and waves…, but so is …
Captain George Gozdz provides you lessons and tips on Largemouth Bass A to Z on Reel Time Florida Sportsman featuring Camp Mack, a Guy Harvey Lodge, Marina & RV Resort and Lake Kissimmee!
When folks say Central Florida, what comes to mind? Orlando, Disney, theme parks? There is another Central Florida and it makes a delightful discovery: the Lake Wales Ridge. Like a spine up the middle …
[Orange Beach, Ala.–]Scuba diving 90 feet deep on the sunken coastal freighter “The LuLu”, I was completely surrounded by a curtain of fish: shimmering minnows; fairly large amberjacks …
Break out the cracking devices, drawn butter and mustard sauce! Fresh stone crabs are on the menu and in the market in the Florida Keys– despite Hurricane Irma’s September onslaught. And …
Poling a Hell’s Bay skiff along the edge of the mangroves in Florida Bay’s Garfield Bight, Captain Benny Blanco was delighted with the large numbers of baby tarpon roiling the shallow waters. …
[Crystal River, FL.–] Hurricane Irma’s lashing winds and roiled waters have done nothing to degrade the fishing along Florida’s Nature Coast. Sure, the Gulf and inshore waters got murky, …
Exploring a shipwreck about 60 feet deep off Palm Beach County, Fla., my scuba diving buddies and I came upon a school of giant, mottled brown fish nearly the size of Mini Coopers. But instead of being …
Five green sea turtles that came ashore to nest on Broward County, Fl. beaches in the past couple months have reported safe to scientists with the Nova Southeastern University/ Broward County Sea Turtle …
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 <a href="https://cnso.nova.edu/ghri/index.html">Guy Harvey Research Institute</a> (GHRI) and collaborators from the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme.
The research on whale shark aging growth dynamics, published in the Marine and Freshwater Research Journal, was conducted in the Republic of Maldives using a unique approach.
According to Cameron Perry, the first author of the scientific paper, and at the time a graduate student at NSU’s GHRI, “What makes this a novel approach is that we took repeated noninvasive underwater measurements of live sharks over the course of a decade.
“Up to now, such aging and growth research has required obtaining vertebrae from dead whale sharks and counting growth rings, analogous to counting tree rings, to determine age. Our work shows that we can obtain age and growth information without relying on dead sharks captured in fisheries. That is a big deal.”
You can read the full study <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/MF/MF17393">ONLINE</a>.
According to the research study, “Comparing length-measurement methods and estimating growth parameters of free-swimming whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) near the South Ari Atoll, Maldives,” taking repeated measurement of the same sharks over many years was possible because many of these sharks came back to the same place every one to two years, and individuals could be recognized by their unique spot patterns. The researchers then modeled their measurement results and found that:
• male whale sharks can live as long as 130 years (that means some whale sharks swimming the world’s oceans today were born when Grover Cleveland was President of the United States);
• whale sharks may grow as large as 61.7 feet on average, which is longer and bigger than previously believed (nearly 17 feet longer than a school bus.)
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/WhaleSharks__2-Zozi-2017_02_16-20_46_24-UTC.jpg"><img class="wp-image-5122 size-medium" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/WhaleSharks__2-Zozi-2017_02_16-20_46_24-UTC-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" /></a>Photo by George Schellenger
“Growth and reproduction of whale sharks, which are endangered in many places, are poorly understood,” said Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., director of NSU’s GHRI. “When you couple this lack of knowledge with the fact that whale shark products such as fins, meat and oil are highly valuable – they are harvested in many countries – one can quickly see the urgency in learning as much as possible in order to help save these majestic creatures.”
Perry agreed.
“The more we learn about these animals, their growth dynamics, where they go, what areas may be their nurseries, it can lead to a better understanding of their life history, which is imperative to guide conservation efforts,” he said.
Primarily funded by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, NSU’s GHRI works on initiatives and studies to provide the necessary information to better understand, conserve, monitor and effectively manage shark populations.
About NSU’s Guy Harvey Research Institute: Established in 1999, the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) is a collaboration between the renowned marine artist, scientist and explorer, Dr. Guy Harvey, and Nova Southeastern University. The mission of NSU’s GHRI is to provide the scientific information necessary to understand, conserve, and effectively manage the world’s marine fishes and their ecosystems. The institute is one of only a handful of private organizations dedicated exclusively to the science-based conservation of marine fish populations and biodiversity. The research, education and outreach activities of NSU’s GHRI are supported by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, AFTCO Inc., extramural research grants, philanthropic donations by private businesses and individuals, and NSU. Please visit http://cnso.nova.edu/ghri for more information.
About the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation: The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation (GHOF) conducts scientific research and hosts educational programs aimed at conserving the marine environment. The GHOF also funds affiliated researchers working to better understand our ocean ecosystem and educators helping to foster the next era of marine conservationists. The GHOF will help ensure that future generations can enjoy and benefit from a properly balanced ocean ecosystem. Please visit www.GHOF.org for more information.
PHOTO CREDITS: Daniel Bruehlmann (Laser measurement); George Schellenger (Whale Shark opens mouth) https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/novel-approach-studies-whale-shark-ages-the-best-way-while-they-are-swimming/){kind=link}
 in Orange Beach, Alabama){kind=link}
 in Orange Beach, Alabama&body=[Orange Beach, Ala.--]Scuba diving 90 feet deep on the sunken coastal freighter "The LuLu", I was completely surrounded by a curtain of fish: shimmering minnows; fairly large amberjacks chasing them; gray, red and vermillion snapper; and convict-striped spadefish. The shifting schools covered much of the surface of the 271-foot ship. A few lurid-colored exotic lionfish lurked around various ambush points, but unfortunately none of us aboard the Down Under dive charterboat had brought a spear gun.
Too bad, because we could have carried our catch over to the popular restaurant SALT at SanRoc Cay Marina in Orange Beach where the dive boat docks. Chef Chris Sherrill and Chef Landon Benton would have prepared the lionfish in multiple creative dishes like they do with just about any other kind of fish their customers bring in. (More on that later.) Meanwhile, we simply enjoyed the swirl of colorful marine life populating the wreck.
"The LuLu" is the largest shipwreck in Alabama's vast array of artificial reefs, which include (but are not limited to): Army tanks, culvert pipes, bridge rubble, oil and gas platforms, big ships, small boats, and planes. Despite claiming only about 53 miles of coastline, Alabama boasts more than 14,000 manmade structures deployed in the Gulf from right off the beach to about 60 miles offshore, covering about 1,200 square nautical miles. In and around Mobile Bay lie another 30 smaller structures. The state plans to deploy another 600 reefs from the shore out to 70 feet deep, and it's almost ready to sink another big ship perhaps as early as this winter-- a 250-foot retired oceanographic survey vessel called the Fairfield New Venture--in about 125 feet of water.
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"We consider ourselves to have the largest and most productive artificial reef program in the country," said Craig Newton, a biologist who serves as Alabama's artificial reef chief.
For Newton, the artificial reef program is all about creating a diverse set of habitats for a wide range of marine animals-- as well as diving and fishing destinations for the state's residents and visitors.
"The more diverse you can make the artificial reef program, it's better able to withstand fishing pressure and produce large numbers of snappers each year," he said.
For example, Newton said, species like amberjack and snapper prefer larger, taller structures like ships and oil rigs while other species tend to favor smaller, shallower havens. And he plans to create "stepping stone" reefs to establish connectivity between near-shore and offshore regions. Some species such as gray snapper spend their early lives in inshore estuaries, then head to deep water to reproduce.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/LilaHarris4.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4947" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/LilaHarris4.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1399" /></a>
A big reason Alabama has so many man-made diving and fishing reefs off its shores is that in addition to its own deployments, it permits private individuals to sink their own -- just as long as they are properly inspected to ensure they don't pollute the waters or pose a safety hazard. While these serve as private honey holes whose locations are not published on Alabama's artificial reef website <a href="http://www.outdooralabama.com/artificial-reefs/">www.outdooralabama.com/artificial-reefs/</a>, anyone who stumbles across them may fish or dive them.
On my second dive of the day with Down Under, we visited the Captain Shirley Brown, a 128-foot ferro-cement ship that once served as a waterborne club before being sent to the bottom about 85 feet deep two years ago. On that dive, I saw more amberjack and snapper and even larger lionfish than on the LuLu, and my dive buddy Chandra Wright spent her safety stop 20 feet deep fending off a pesky remora that tried to stick to her wetsuit, then gave her a kiss on the cheek before swimming off.
That evening at SALT, Sherrill prepared a delicious feast for Wright and me and our party including a charcuterie of meats and cheeses, quail gumbo, and crabmeat-stuffed grouper with fresh vegetable succotash. He told us to bring him lionfish the next time we dive, and said he could have created something from the remora if Wright had let it stick to her! He wasn't joking; he has whipped up culinary treasures from supposed 'trash' fish at other Alabama eateries. And I bet it would have tasted great.
(Photos courtesy of Lila Harris)
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If you plan a visit to the Orange Beach, Alabama area, a great place to stay is the Hilton Garden Inn, located on the beach. Visit <a href="http://HiltonGardenInnOrangeBeach.com">HiltonGardenInnOrangeBeach.com</a>. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/dive-dive-dive-and-fish-in-orange-beach-alabama/){kind=link}
; Captain Madison MacDonald (352-601-7392) and Captain Colin Guy (352-634-2901).
For the last few years, the Nature Coast has experienced something of a snook bonanza. This hard-fighting, line-sided speedster will make you work for it, but it is so much fun. Toney and MacDonald recommend casting a C.A.L. Shad jerkbait in glow/goldrush with a 1/8-ounce chartreuse jig head or a MirOLure Little John around the points of mangrove islands all the way up to the mouths of the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka rivers on the higher stages of the tide.
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Once you've checked off the snook, the red should be a gimme. In the fall, bull reds way over the slot limit of 18 to 27 inches make their way inshore from their Gulf spawning areas following schools of mullet. According to Guy, they can often be found on the spoil banks off Crystal River, in the moats of mangrove islands and around rocky reefs on the rising tide. Guy and Toney say the best bait is live pinfish or shrimp. But for purists who prefer artificials, a good bet is 1/4-oz. Eppinger gold spoon, or various soft plastics.
Sea trout are becoming a lot easier to locate than they were a month ago. The go-to bait just about everywhere on the Gulf coast is a live shrimp fished beneath a popping cork such as a Cajun Thunder or Flats Equalizer. (Purists may substitute a soft plastic for the live shrimp.) Toney and MacDonald are finding the spotted sportsters on the south side of the Homosassa channel and north of the Chassahowitzka River channel and also just west of the St. Martin's Keys.
You certainly don't have to be an expert to score a slam; all three guides are happy to teach novices how to cast and retrieve their baits. And besides the satisfaction of besting the big three, you can have your catch cooked at any of several excellent local restaurants. Some suggestions: Katch Twenty Two in Lecanto (352-746-6691) and West 82 Bar and Grill at the Plantation on Crystal River (<a href="www.plantationoncrystalriver.com">www.plantationoncrystalriver.com</a>), which is also a great place to stay during your fishing trip. Call ahead to make arrangements for preparing your catch.
Take a break from post-Irma recovery with a brief fishing excursion. You might be able to write it off as therapy. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/catch-an-inshore-slam-near-crystal-river/){kind=link}
. The state agency that manages fish and wildlife resources is considering opening a limited recreational harvest of Goliath grouper in state waters following a 27-year total closure. All federal waters (beyond nine miles in the Gulf and three miles in the Atlantic) would remain closed.
Goliath grouper have rebounded considerably from the late 1980s when the stock nearly collapsed from overfishing. Anglers and guides-- particularly on Florida's southwest coast-- have been complaining for years that the huge reef fish gobble nearly every fish they hook on some reefs and wrecks which, to them, means Goliaths have recovered enough to allow some harvest. Similar complaints have been registered by east coast anglers, but divers and dive operators in the region are adamant that the fish still need protection because they are more valuable as a tourist attraction than as food.
The FWC is seeking comment from the public on two options: leaving the current closure intact or issuing up to 100 recreational tags per year for four years through a random drawing that would allow an angler to take one fish per year in a 47-67-inch slot limit for a fee of up to $300. Anglers would not be allowed to harvest from spawning aggregations of Goliaths, which typically occur from July through mid-October, nor would any commercial take be allowed. The agency board is expected to make a decision at its December meeting in Gainesville.
But some scientists-- chiefly Dr. Chris Koenig, a retired Florida State University research scientist who's been studying Goliaths since the 1990s--have a big problem with option two.
Koenig and others argue that no one really knows the status of the stocks because no scientific assessment was performed before the population crashed in the 1980s. The latest stock assessment, conducted by the FWC last year, flunked peer review for that reason.
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Koenig recommends that, if a limited recreational harvest is to be allowed, it should be for fish in the two-to-four-foot size range-- not the four-to-5 1/2-foot slot the FWC proposes. That's because the smaller-slot fish are caught mainly in inshore estuaries-- such as Everglades National Park--where anglers and guides report their catches and releases in creel surveys.
"You can get a reliable biological model that is highly conservative," Koenig said.
The larger fish that the state is recommending for harvest, he said, are so high in mercury-- a toxic heavy metal-- that they could potentially sicken those who eat them. And research by Koenig's FSU colleague Chris Malinowski indicates mercury build-up is actually killing the fish themselves.
"It's ridiculous what the state's doing," Koenig said. "You can't even eat them."
Koenig says the fish ought to be managed as tourist magnets.
"You can't see a fish like that anywhere else in the world, and you can dive on 50 to `100 of them off Palm Beach County," he said. "You can non-destructively exploit them."
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There are many opportunities to provide input on managing Goliath groupers in Florida. The FWC will hold workshops around the state throughout the month of October. For more information, visit <a href="myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/rulemaking/workshops/">myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/rulemaking/workshops/</a>. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/taking-goliath-grouper/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Tagged Sea Turtles Reporting Safe After Irma&body=Five green sea turtles that came ashore to nest on Broward County, Fl. beaches in the past couple months have reported safe to scientists with the Nova Southeastern University/ Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
Dr. Derek Burkholder-- a research scientist at NSU's Guy Harvey Research Institute who heads the program--and colleague Glenn Goodwin, a Nova PhD student, glued satellite tags to the animals' shells after they completed depositing their eggs and were returning to the ocean. The tags beam the turtles' locations every time they surface, which is downloaded to the scientists' computers. The study subjects have kept in touch ever since-- even in the thick of Irma's onslaught.
"Everybody sought out deeper water or at least moved away from where things were rough," Goodwin wrote in an email. "Afterward, everyone returned to their normal areas, except Therese who wandered around, then ended up near Key West."
The tags usually transmit for about a year-- time enough for the scientists to try to solve several mysteries that are key to conserving the threatened and endangered reptiles: where do green and loggerhead turtles come from to nest in South Florida; how frequently do they come here; and where do they go between nesting events. Genetic samples taken during tagging will show whether sea turtle populations along the U.S. east coast are linked.
"We don't know what this population does when it leaves here," Burkholder said. "This project is to learn where they end up: who's going where and who's playing with who."
That information is vital to sea turtle conservation, Burkholder said, because it informs management decisions at the state, regional and federal levels, such as whether the animals are nesting and travelling through areas with high fishing and boating pressure that might warrant additional regulations.
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"Giving them the protection they need when they need it and where they need it," Goodwin said.
In addition to the five with satellite tags, seven others were implanted with internal chips and wear external tags so that divers and anglers who encounter them can report their locations.
While the animals handled Irma just fine, their nests on Broward beaches did not; over half were swept away by winds and waves. Fortunately, it happened late in the nesting season rather than the mid-summer peak.
Broward County's Sea Turtle Conservation program has been in operation for 28 years -- focused primarily on monitoring and protecting nests from various threats and gauging hatching success. So far this season, surveyors have counted 3,337 nests--2,692 loggerheads; 634 greens and 11 leatherbacks on 24 miles of beach (excluding Mizell-Johnson State Park). It was a record year for greens; the previous mark was 500 in 2012. Nova Southeastern University and the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program are part of a network dedicated to sea turtle conservation that includes several volunteer organizations --Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (STOP), the South Florida Audubon Society, and Sea Turtle Awareness Rescue Stranding (STARS). The volunteers work tirelessly throughout the season to help protect sea turtle hatchlings by redirecting them away from disorienting coastal lighting back to the moon- and star-lit ocean.
The three-year tagging study is funded by a $45,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Broward County. But the program could use some help, since each tag costs upwards of $4,500. The first turtle to be tagged was named George Finley (even though it's a female) after the winner of Guy Harvey Outpost's May sweepstakes.
If you would like to sponsor a tag for next season, contact Burkholder at dburkholder@nova.edu or call 954-262-3673.
https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/tagged-sea-turtles-reporting-safe-after-irma/){kind=link}
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