The grinning Atlantic bottlenose dolphin floated quietly on her back in one of the pools at Marineland Dolphin Adventure as a little girl leaned over the wall to stroke her belly. But it wasn’t …
GHRI, Georgia Aquarium Partner for Stingray Census Study in Grand Cayman
16 Jul 20128:49 PM
The Guy Harvey Research Institute just finished conducting the annual census of the stingray population at Stingray City in Grand Cayman. The GHRI team, led by Guy Harvey and GHRI Director Dr. Mahmood Shivji, Dr. Brad Wetherbee of the University of Rhode Island, Edinburgh University student Louisa Gibson and Guy’s adult children, Jessica and Alex Harvey. Assisting the GHRI this year were three special guests from the Georgia Aquarium – veterinarians Tonya Clauss, Lisa Hoopes and Nicole Boucha, who were on hand to analyze blood samples to better assess the overall health of the rays. Thanks to all who participated – updates from the census will be available soon!
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![](mailto:?subject=GHRI, Georgia Aquarium Partner for Stingray Census Study in Grand Cayman&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/stingray-census2c-gcm-0812-0631.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1378 " title="Stingray City Census" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/stingray-census2c-gcm-0812-0631.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="329" /></a>Alex Harvey, Louisa Gibson and Dr. Brad Wetherbee secure a large ray in a pool in the cockpit of Guy’s Scout boat while Georgia Aquarium's Tonya Clauss prepares to take blood from the ray’s tail.
The <a title="GHRI web site" href="http://www.nova.edu/ocean/ghri/" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Research Institute</a> just finished conducting the annual census of the stingray population at <a title="About Stingray City" href="http://www.caymanislands.ky/activities/attractions/stingraycity.aspx" target="_blank">Stingray City</a> in <a title="About Grand Cayman" href="http://www.caymanislands.ky/aboutcayman/grandcayman.aspx" target="_blank">Grand Cayman</a>. The GHRI team, led by <a title="Guy Harvey Inc. web site" href="http://www.guyharvey.com" target="_blank">Guy Harvey</a> and GHRI Director <a title="About Dr. Mahmood Shivji" href="http://www.nova.edu/ocean/overview/faculty-staff-profiles/mahmood_shivji.html" target="_blank">Dr. Mahmood Shivji</a>, <a title="About Dr. Brad Wetherbee" href="http://www.uri.edu/cels/bio/wetherbee/p/frames.html" target="_blank">Dr. Brad Wetherbee</a> of the <a title="U. of Rhode Island web site" href="http://ww2.uri.edu/" target="_blank">University of Rhode Island</a>, <a title="U. of Edinburgh web site" href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/home" target="_blank">Edinburgh University</a> student Louisa Gibson and Guy's adult children, Jessica and Alex Harvey. Assisting the GHRI this year were three special guests from the <a title="GA web site" href="http://www.georgiaaquarium.org" target="_blank">Georgia Aquarium</a> - veterinarians Tonya Clauss, Lisa Hoopes and Nicole Boucha, who were on hand to analyze blood samples to better assess the overall health of the rays. Thanks to all who participated - updates from the census will be available soon! https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/ghri-georgia-aquarium-partner-for-stingray-census-study-in-grand-cayman/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Guy Harvey Outpost Coming to Tarpon Springs&body=[Tarpon Springs, FL.--] A school of small tarpon rolled maddeningly on the surface of the Spring Bayou in the center of the Gulf Coast Florida town named for these irascible gamefish. Captain Craig Lahr and I cast live pinfish on Styrofoam floats toward the happily-frolicking school whenever it surfaced, but our baits were ignored. Lahr tried a few casts with a Deceiver-style fly, hoping its soft presentation might do the trick. But that didn't work either.
Finally, we removed the floats and simply free-lined the pinfish in the direction the tarpon were moving. At first, nothing happened. But then my line started peeling furiously off the spinning reel, so I clicked the bail shut and quickly reeled up the slack and.....nothing -- except for a dead, crushed pinfish still on the circle hook.
But then, that's tarpon fishing wherever in the world you may pursue them.
Fortunately, tarpon are by no means the only fish to chase in and around the eponymous Tarpon Springs.
"Snook, redfish, sheepshead, flounder, black drum, jack crevalle, ladyfish, sea trout, bass, bream, speckled perch," Lahr, a 20-year veteran Gulf Coast light-tackle guide, said as he ran out of fingers ticking them all off.
Lahr loves to fish the Anclote River, which flows for about 30 miles from a swamp in Pasco County west through Tarpon Springs to the Gulf of Mexico near the tiny town of Holiday. Depending on tide and rainfall, Lahr can maneuver his 21-foot bay boat some 15 miles upriver before the waters become too shallow to navigate. Kayaks and canoes can venture even further inland where the waters turn from salty to fresh. Nearby, there's Lake Tarpon where Florida's unofficial state-record largemouth bass weighing 19.6 pounds was caught by Riley Witt in 1961.
"When you get bad weather and it's cold, you can come in here and it will be warmer and there will be fish in here," Lahr said of the Anclote. "The river doesn't get rough."
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3381" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ts3.jpg" alt="TS3.jpg" width="3394" height="2247" />
Fishing was a tad slow the day we explored the area, owing to feeble tides and passage of a cold front. But we caught and released redfish and catfish using live shrimp and pinfish, spied a large school of snook around a marina dock that was apparently afflicted with lockjaw, and of course sparred unsuccessfully with the baby tarpon.
Besides the anticipation of fish, the Anclote presented a non-stop wildlife show-- ospreys cheeping from their brushy nests in the trees; flocks of pelicans gliding overhead; a great blue heron that shadowed us for a while and then managed to steal a pinfish from the live well; a herd of manatees that joined the tarpon at the Spring Bayou.
And all that was before we headed three miles offshore to picturesque Anclote Key Preserve State Park, which harbors colonies of nesting birds, pristine beaches and a historic lighthouse.
The Anclote's working waterfront known as the Sponge Docks flows right through the middle of Tarpon Springs. It is where commercial fishers and spongers tie up their boats; throngs of tourists browse dozens of gift and antique shops; and restaurants serve authentic Greek cuisine and fresh seafood. Plenty of gamefish lurk right under those busy docks, but enticing them to bite is another story.
In the winter of 2017, visitors and residents will have a new base camp from which to explore the region: the Guy Harvey Outpost RV Resort just north of Tarpon Springs in Pasco County. Developed in conjunction with Elite Resorts, the $15 million, 46-acre project will feature 340 brick-paved RV lots and the full slate of resort-style amenities located a stone's throw from the Anclote River and the Gulf of Mexico.
Yet one more good excuse for me to make a return trip and try to get one over on those uncooperative tarpon.
https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/guy-harvey-outpost-coming-to-tarpon-springs-2/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=New Title, Huge Turnout, Big Haul Expected in Lake O Bass Tournament&body=<img class=" wp-image-3232 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/lakeoblog.jpg?w=300" alt="LakeOblog" width="282" height="282" />by Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
The 2016 Costa FLW Series opens Jan. 14-16 with a fleet of 250 boats with 500 pro- and co-anglers anticipating big sacks of bass on Lake Okeechobee.
The kickoff of the former Rayovac series, renamed for new title sponsor Costa del Mar sunglasses, comes to south-central Florida just as unseasonably warm winter weather gives way to cooler, blustery conditions that could send hungry hawgs into overdrive.
"This place is going to go off like a bomb," predicted Fort Lauderdale competitor Anthony Hunt, a co-angler who doubles as a five-star chef. "The big spawn is probably going to happen in this tournament. I caught one over eight in practice, so I know there's a lot of fish moving up right now."
Last year's winner Val Osinski of Pompano Beach, who totaled 70 pounds, eight ounces over three days, agrees.
"The lake is fishing very well from north to south," Osinski, president of Gambler Lures, said. "It's already taking 25 to 28 pounds [per day] to win the local tournaments right now."
Osinski predicts a sack about as heavy as his last January will top the event. But weather, he says, will be the key factor in deciding where to go and what to do.
"I'm still wide open," he said. "I don't have a good feel. I'm not locked into anything."
Lake levels are deep for January at just under 15 feet, scattering fish which are in various stages from pre- to post-spawning. If a cold front brings strong northerly winds to the tournament, Osinski believes that finding clear water on the lake's north end could be the ticket. If that happens, he plans to use his brand's Why Not craw-style bait to flip the outer edges of grass lines for "lake fish"-- meaning groups of big bass heading from offshore to inshore to spawn.
But the defending champ also is prepared for changing weather which could send him to the lake's distant south end.
"I'm going to be on the go, trying to catch pre-spawn and post-spawn fish going either way," he said.
The top pro at the Okeechobee event will take home $60,000 plus a Ranger boat while the winning co-angler gets a Ranger boat plus $5,000. The tournament is one of three to be held in each of five divisions around the U.S. leading up to the Costa FLW Series Championship on Missouri's Table Rock Lake in November.
Daily weigh-ins--free and open to the public--will take place at 3 p.m. at Scott Driver Park in Okeechobee.
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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/new-title-huge-turnout-big-haul-expected-in-lake-o-bass-tournament/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Walking in Darwin’s Footsteps on Guy Harvey Outpost Galapagos Expedition&body=When you embark on Guy Harvey Outpost's Galapagos Islands photo expedition May 4-12, you will be the envy of scientists from all over the world. Visiting five different islands in this remote eastern Pacific chain about 600 miles off Ecuador, you will observe and capture images of species found nowhere else on earth such as the Galapagos sea lion; Galapagos tortoise; and the marine iguana.
The unique animals that inspired naturalist Charles Darwin to lay out his world-changing theory of evolution in "On the Origin of Species" in 1859 are still revealing themselves to science in 2017 and you could be there as these revelations unfold.
In 2015, scientists discovered a new species of giant tortoise on Santa Cruz Island. For more than 150 years, the long-lived land animals on the eastern and western portions of the island were believed to be the same species, but genetic studies found the two populations were distinct. The eastern population became the 15th known tortoise species in the Galapagos, four of which are extinct.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_1201.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4618" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_1201.jpg" alt="DSC_1201" width="5008" height="3032" /></a>
One prominent geneticist who is itching to conduct DNA research in the islands is Dr. Mahmood Shivji, head of the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University near Fort Lauderdale. Shivji visited there several months ago on a trip with Guy Harvey Outpost President Mark Ellert and the company's Ecuadorean development partners. The scientist discussed possible avenues of research with officials of the Galapagos National Park.
"We hope to study movement patterns and migrations of a variety of animals-- sea lions, land tortoises, boobies, frigate birds, white marlin--in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Service and scientists from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in the Galapagos," Shivji said.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_8051.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4620" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_8051.jpg" alt="DSC_8051" width="5008" height="3336" /></a>
There are lots of procedures to undergo for anyone wishing to conduct scientific research in the Galapagos; proposals must undergo several levels of government review before any permits are issued. And park officials expect scientists publishing their findings to share them with the park.
Shivji, who has made some breakthrough genetic discoveries surrounding sharks and billfish, can hardly wait.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_7083.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4619" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DSC_7083.jpg" alt="DSC_7083" width="2100" height="1095" /></a>
"DNA contains an amazing amount of information on the current and past status of species and populations. There's still lots of discoveries to be made," Shivji said. "In addition to generating basic knowledge of how animals evolve, that information also is essential in helping the Galapagos National Park inform their policies for conserving these amazing iconic species in this unique place."
So it's possible that as you hike and snorkel around these islands taking photographs with your guide, Sports Illustrated veteran Ron Modra, you could be capturing images of a bird, reptile or mammal destined to up-end modern science.
To book your Galapagos expedition, go to <a href="http://www.GHOGalapagos.com">www.GHOGalapagos.com</a> or call our reservations desk at 800-513-5257.
PHOTO CREDITS: Ron Modra https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/walking-in-darwins-footsteps-on-guy-harvey-outpost-galapagos-expedition/){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}
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