South Bimini, Bahamas – Bimini Sands Resort & Marina on South Bimini in the Bahamas hosted The Woody Foundation’s Lionfish Bash for the fourth year in a row on August 15-17, 2014. The popular family …
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![](mailto:?subject=Follow Guy Harvey Outpost on Instagram!&body=Join GH Outpost on Instagram by following @GuyHarveyOutpost!
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![](mailto:?subject=Bimini Sands’ Annual Woody Foundation Lionfish Bash Removes 276 Invasive Lionfish&body=South Bimini, Bahamas – <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/destinations/bahamas/bimini-bahamas/bimini-sands-bimini.html">Bimini Sands Resort & Marina </a>on South Bimini in the Bahamas hosted <a href="http://www.woodyfoundation.org/event/4th-annual-lionfish-bash/">The Woody Foundation’s </a>Lionfish Bash for the fourth year in a row on August 15-17, 2014. The popular family spearfishing event led to the removal of 276 lionfish – a non-native, invasive species that is threatening native fish stocks in the Bahamas and Florida – from the waters around Bimini.
<img src="http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/uploads/15/biggestlionfishRickRodriguez_lores.jpg" alt="biggestlionfishRickRodriguez_lores.jpg" width="400" height="543" border="1" />Rick Rodriguez, Winner of the Largest Lionfish Trophy, 36.5 oz.
The Lionfish Bash is an annual event created to raise awareness about lionfish as well as to benefit The Woody Foundation, a Miami-based non-profit organization that raises funds to aid in the recovery of persons with spinal injuries. Foundation Board Member James “Woody” Beckham, whose severe spinal injury during a college rugby game in 2011 launched The Woody Foundation, attended the Lionfish Bash in person as he has done every year, inspiring all the participants.
The results of the 4th Annual Lionfish Bash:
Largest Lionfish: Rick Rodriguez, shown above, (36.5 oz.)
Smallest Lionfish: Cody Gunthner (0.061 oz.)
Top Junior Angler: Trace Colson (18.5 oz.)
Most Lionfish Caught, 1st Place: Team Spears & Beers (80)
Most Lionfish Caught, 2nd Place: Team Extra Expense (70).
The fun weekend event included a Captain’s Meeting at the Square Grouper tiki bar, a full day of spearfishing in the spectacular waters around Bimini, and an Awards Banquet at the resort’s waterfront Bimini Twist Restaurant. Most Lionfish Bash participants brought their own boats to the event, but <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/destinations/bahamas/bimini-bahamas/bimini-sands-dive.html">Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center’s </a>40-foot dive boat, the Dive God, took out a group who did not have their own vessels.
“The Lionfish Bash is one of the most fun and rewarding events we host each year,” said Bimini Sands President and CEO Frank Cooney. “We enjoy seeing Woody Beckham, his family and fellow board members from The Woody Foundation, and watching the fun as the Lionfish Bash participants helped to rid our beautiful coral reefs of these invasive fish.”
“Thanks again to the Cooney Family for hosting The Lionfish Bash,” said Woody Beckham. “Everyone thoroughly enjoys this unique adventure to Bimini. I can’t wait ’til next year’s event!” --- Louisa Beckett, Bahamas Weekly, Aug 26, 2014 https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/bimini-sands-annual-woody-foundation-lionfish-bash-removes-276-invasive-lionfish/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=The Most Wonderful Season of All to Visit St. Augustine&body=<img class=" size-medium wp-image-3089 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/staxmas.jpg?w=300" alt="StAXmas" width="300" height="180" />By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Help a dolphin paint a picture; get a stair-climbing workout like no other; eat great seafood; take a walk in the woods; light up the night; and tour one of the oldest standing structures in North America.
These are just some of the experiences awaiting you in St. Augustine -- one of America's oldest cities-- located on the northeast Florida coast. Beach, history, natural wonders, art, and lots of opportunities to eat and drink distinguish the First Coast from the rest of the Sunshine State.
Here's just a small sampling of what you can see and do in a couple of days:
<a href="http://www.marineland.net" target="_blank">MARINELAND DOLPHIN ADVENTURE</a>
I stumbled into this venerated attraction without reservations on an afternoon when the staff was setting up for a wedding. Wandering around, I came upon a large open tank where several dolphins were making jaw-clapping noises on the surface. I stopped to snap a photo and one of them came right up to me and grinned into the camera. Then I got yelled at by a volunteer who said I was in a restricted area.
Whatever. If you make advance reservations, you can touch and feed the animals; swim with them; and hold a canvas over the water while the dolphin paints a picture-- among other adventures. You can also check out the sea turtle and shark tanks holding clients from the University of Florida's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience headquartered right across the street.
I bet that wedding was a doozy.
<a href="http://www.blackflytherestaurant.com" target="_blank">BLACKFLY, THE RESTAURANT</a>
Hungry after my impromptu dolphin encounter, I visited Blackfly, the Restaurant on St. Augustine Beach, operated by Vaughn Cochran and partners and renowned for delicious sushi and other seafood.
Cochran-- an artist, former flats fishing guide, lodge operator and now owner of the top fly shop in nearby Jacksonville-- has helped create the region's only saltwater fly-fishing-themed eatery. Incorporating elements of prized recipes from the various lodges Cochran ran in the Caribbean and Central America, Blackfly specializes in local fish with creative touches.
I dined on local sheepshead in a tasty tomato-bacon beurre rouge sauce accompanied by mashed potatoes and bok choy. Yum. And even better, I got to go fly -fishing with Cochran and guide captain James Dumas the next day and we all caught and released redfish on the flats.
<a href="http://www.staugustinelighthouse.org" target="_blank">AUGUSTINE LIGHTHOUSE & MARITIME MUSEUM</a>
If you think your Stairmaster workout at the gym is tough, check out what the 19th century lighthouse keepers had to do to keep this beacon going and prevent ships from running aground: climbing 219 stairs carrying a 30-pound can of lard oil four times a day every day. Heck, I was winded walking to the top toting nothing heavier than my purse. But once there, you will be treated to panoramic views of the ocean and Old City.
If you don't feel like making the climb, you can tour the lighthouse keeper's home and boatbuilding shed, walk a nature trail, or take your kids to the shipyard-styled playground.
<a href="http://www.nps.gov/casa/" target="_blank">CASTILLO DE SAN MARCOS NATIONAL MONUMENT</a>
One of the oldest standing structures in North America, this Spanish fortress took 84 years to build, completed in 1756. It's spectacular to see from both St. Augustine Inlet and the Old City, and equally breathtaking to tour.
The fort is built of more than 400,000 blocks of coquina stone-- all cut and set entirely by hand-- and it still looks a lot like it did in the 18th century. You get to explore cannons and watch towers, and visit the ancient rooms where soldiers slept, ate and stored their ammo.
Though the fort changed hands many times over several centuries, it never fell in battle. Rather its transfer from country to country was accomplished through treaties and peace agreements.
Now it's a hugely popular historic site managed by the National Park Service.
<a href="http://myfwc.com/viewing/recreation/wmas/lead/Guana-River" target="_blank">GUANA RIVER WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA </a>
Located on A-1-A about halfway between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, this 9,800-acre region of forest, fresh- and saltwater ponds, and marshes is a haven for the outdoors enthusiast.
Visitors can fish from shore or wade in the redfish- and flounder-rich waters of Lake Ponte Vedra, hunt ducks from November through January, and go paddling, hiking, biking and horseback riding.
I took a short hike on one of the miles of trails that loop through the area, enjoying the quiet and shade of an oak hammock.
This hunting/recreation area abuts the 2,400-acre Guana Tolomato Matanzas Estuarine Research Reserve, designated in 1999. Take time to visit the reserve's Environmental Education Center located just before the entrance gate.
<a href="http://augustine.com/event/nights-lights" target="_blank">NIGHTS OF LIGHTS</a>
This truly is THE most wonderful time of the year to visit St. Augustine, especially after dark when the entire city-- buildings, homes, parks, monuments, street lamps and vehicles-- are strung with millions of tiny white lights to observe the holiday season. Named one of the top ten holiday lighting displays in the world by National Geographic, it stems from an old Spanish tradition of placing a single white candle in the window of each home. The light fest runs through Jan. 31.
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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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![](mailto:?subject=Guy Harvey Outpost Visits Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Land-Ocean Observatory&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/hboi.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2854 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/hboi.jpg?w=300" alt="HBOI" width="300" height="232" /></a>A group of marine scientists sits before a computer screen in an air-conditioned command center in Fort Pierce, watching intently as a robot plucks a sea sponge from deep on the ocean floor that just might hold the key to combating diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.
Elsewhere on the same FAU/Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute campus, two technicians are preparing a special ambulance to rescue a bottlenose dolphin snared in an illegal fishing net. And out on the adjacent Indian River Lagoon, a university official is demonstrating for the local news media the latest additions to the world's largest interactive land-ocean observatory monitoring water quality in the one of the nation's richest estuaries.
And the expansive reach of Harbor Branch-- which was established in 1971 and merged with Florida Atlantic University in 2007-- doesn't stop there.
The institute's engineers develop the technology that enable its research scientists such as Brian Lapointe and Stephanie Farrington to figure out why coral reefs are declining so rapidly throughout the Caribbean and Florida and why thick carpets of maize-colored sargassum weed recently have clogged local beaches.
On the outskirts of the campus working in small Quonset huts, aquaculture scientists come up with techniques for growing food fish such as cobia and pompano and ornamentals such as clownfish in captivity to help end overfishing for these commercially-important species.
Although Harbor Branch's focus is "Ocean Science for a Better World", its researchers, professors and students pursue holistic, ecosystem-based courses of study encompassing the environment some 45 miles inland to the fresh waters of Lake Okeechobee, the Kissimmee River and beyond.
Adhering to the adage that 'everything flows downstream', scientists look at the connectivity between land and ocean, freshwater and salt, seeking ways to keep the entire ecosystem in balance. For example, if too much fresh water is discharged from Lake Okeechobee east to the St. Lucie Estuary or west through the Caloosahatchee River to the Gulf of Mexico, sea grasses, shellfish, food fish, dolphins and manatees suffer. The land-ocean observatory network rolled out before the reporters and television cameras recently will enable resource managers to address those issues in real time.
Harbor Branch doesn't close itself off to the local community. Residents and visitors can stop by the Ocean Discovery Center open five days a week and they may attend free weekly ocean science lectures conducted from January through April.
Whether you're a bass aficionado battling lunkers in the Big O or a salt chaser bagging kingfish for the grill off Fort Pierce, you both have a lot in common. Check out www.fau.edu/hboi. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/guy-harvey-outpost-visits-harbor-branch-oceanographic-institute-land-ocean-observatory/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=St. Pete Beach and Key Largo Hosting September Lionfish Derbies&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/11894565_10153016510035966_3704420398588416464_o.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2879 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/11894565_10153016510035966_3704420398588416464_o.jpg?w=300" alt="11894565_10153016510035966_3704420398588416464_o" width="300" height="201" /></a>Opportunities to curb Florida's burgeoning populations of invasive lionfish (and learn more about our coral reef ecosystem) will be available in St. Pete Beach and Key Largo in September. And all ocean enthusiasts-- divers or not-- are invited to both events.
Guy Harvey Outpost, a TradeWinds Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach, will co-host a Lionfish Safari Sept. 12-13, along with Reef Monitoring, Inc. and the Fishing Rights Alliance. Then from Sept. 24-27, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) will conduct REEF Fest 2015 in Key Largo-- a lionfish and ocean education event.
At the Lionfish Safari, both divers and anglers will set out to capture as many of the exotic predators from the Indo-Pacific as possible on Sept. 12. Contestants will keep their catch on ice overnight, then present it at weigh-in ceremonies Sept. 13 at the Outpost for chances of winning cash prizes and the certainty of knowing they did something to benefit the Gulf coast marine environment. Everyone will get to eat some of the bounty, and there will be a photo contest, raffle, and prize give-aways. Tournament entry fee is $35 per person.
It's just as (or more) important for anglers to participate in the Safari as for scuba divers and snorkelers. A recent study by scientists at Nova Southeastern University suggests that local, intermittent diving derbies barely make a dent in reducing overall lionfish numbers and containing their spread. That's because participants tend to zero in on the largest lionfish while smaller fish escape and spread their larvae to far-away downstream locations. Nova's Dr. Matthew Johnston says what's needed is consistent removal of all sizes of the exotics wherever they live, deep or shallow. Anglers are urged to fish for them with hook-and-line, especially in waters too deep for divers to safely explore.
Captain Tim Kehoe, Senior Outfitter at TradeWinds, recently harvested what might have been a world-record lionfish while surf-fishing near the resort. Casting a live scaled sardine (pilchard) in knee-deep water, Kehoe landed a fat 20-inch specimen, but didn't weigh it or turn it over to the International Game Fish Association for certification. Still, that's one less voracious predator plundering Southwest Florida's native fish populations. If you would like to get involved, go to <a href="http://www.GuysLionfishSafari.com" target="_blank">www.GuysLionfishSafari.com</a> or call 727-259-7404.
Now, if you are not an experienced lionfish hunter and would like to learn more, REEF Fest in Key Largo is the place for you. REEF staff members will instruct you on locating them and safely avoiding their venomous spines, and will escort you on a lionfish hunt. This is no derby; it's for instructional purposes only. But REEF Fest is much more than a lionfish expo. The event features seminars on fish identification and behavior; coral restoration; reef ecology and many other topics. Scuba celebrities such as Neal Watson, Spencer Slate, and Marty Snyderman will conduct guided dives to local reefs and wrecks. Evening social events with food and music will cap each day. Many events are free, but pre-registration is required. Visit <a href="http://www.reef.org/REEFFest2015" target="_blank">www.reef.org/REEFFest2015</a>. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/st-pete-beach-and-key-largo-hosting-september-lionfish-derbies/){kind=link}
 to double black diamond (most difficult). Instead of a guide clipping your cables and demonstrating each element, you do everything yourself. If you have a problem or a question, just call out to a staffer for advice or --if you're really too scared to swing through the trees--someone will climb up and escort you down.
Even though I stuck to the green and yellow courses during my visit, I found the experience exhilarating and fun. I could understand why a 12-year-old from the neighborhood who the staff calls an unpaid intern visits here twice a week for his three-hour workout.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Treehoppers3-e1492097028812.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4675" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Treehoppers3-e1492097028812.jpg" alt="" width="3264" height="2448" /></a>
After airborne exercise, I headed back to Tarpon Springs-- stopping en route for a little refreshment at the Florida Estate Winery in Land O'Lakes, not far from TreeHoppers. It's a popular waypoint for many wannabe Tarzans and Janes.
For more information about TreeHoppers, visit <a href="http://www.treehoppers.com">www.treehoppers.com</a> or call 813-381-5400.
On the day after my swing through TreeHoppers, I visited a very different kind of park--Key Vista Nature Park in tiny Holiday near Tarpon Springs. This quiet, 100-acre reserve of mostly sand pine uplands is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico and Rocky Creek, inviting visitors to fish, swim, hike, and picnic. I walked most of its 1 1/2 miles of trails and climbed the observation tower for a scenic view of the lighthouse at Anclote Key Preserve State Park.
Key Vista is best known for bird watching; with more than 220 documented species, it's a must-stop on the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail.
Save for a nesting osprey cheeping in the pines, I saw few birds on my afternoon walk, but I did get to eavesdrop on an amorous gopher tortoise trying to get lucky with its partner in the scrub.
For more information on Key Vista Nature Park, call 727-938-2598. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/a-tale-of-two-parks-near-tarpon-springs/){kind=link}
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