Here are some of the locals you will meet during Guy Harvey Outpost’s guided people-to-people expedition to Cuba December 13-18: –The son of Fidel Castro’s official photographer; –the …
Playing Tag with Makos More Than Fun and Games
24 May 20166:57 PM
By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost Travel Journalist
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Just about everywhere Dr. Guy Harvey looked, a mako shark was darting around tearing at a bait tossed overboard from Captain Anthony Mendillo’s boat. Harvey and cinematographer George Schellenger were standing in an aluminum underwater cage off Isla Mujeres, Mexico shooting video footage only inches away from the gnashing teeth of the frenzied predators. You would think they might be a little frightened. But no.
“It was cool!” Harvey said later. “A fantastic opportunity to film mako sharks. Without the cage, you’ll get bitten. It’s an absolute necessity.”
The marine scientist/artist/conservationist didn’t stop at filming. He got back on board the boat, put out heavy-duty fishing rods baited with bonito chunks, and over several days, caught eight of the sharks and tagged them with satellite trackers. Thanks to a special davit Mendillo built, the sharks were kept in the water while they were being tagged to minimize stress on the animals. All swam away smartly after being released. You can follow their progress at the Guy Harvey Research Institute shark tracking web site. And you can make reservations to take your own mako shark cage dive HERE.
Sharks worldwide are in trouble from overfishing, but Harvey says the mako is especially vulnerable for several reasons: its meat is tasty; it is found in offshore waters where commercial fishers target swordfish; and it travels long distances to feed and mate through the waters of countries that don’t protect it. As one of the ocean’s top predators, the mako serves a vital ecological purpose, taking out the weak and sick of other species and keeping the marine environment in balance. Knowing when and where it travels helps fisheries managers devise strategies to conserve the species. Sadly, Harvey said, 15 of the more than 50 makos he and his colleagues have tagged over the past three years have been killed by commercial fishers.
To raise awareness of the plight of the mako and other sharks, Harvey is at SeaWorld Orlando this week painting a mural adjacent to the soon-to-be-opened Mako roller coaster. Park goers waiting in line will be able to watch the underwater video shot by Harvey and Schellenger off Mexico — narrated by Harvey himself.
Under a new partnership with Harvey, SeaWorld has agreed to sponsor the tagging of five more makos. The tags, which transmit data for up to three years, cost about $4,000 apiece. Harvey says having SeaWorld on board will broaden the audience for his message of mako conservation and share the costs.
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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=Cuba Un-canned: See It With the Locals&body=Here are some of the locals you will meet during <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/">Guy Harvey Outpost's</a> guided people-to-people expedition to Cuba December 13-18:
--The son of Fidel Castro's official photographer;
--the director of the Cuba's Masonic museum;
--a rural tobacco farmer;
--a mixologist who will teach you how to make the perfect Mojito.
And the locales you will visit will combine mainstream stops (Floridita --creator of the daiquiri-- and Museo de la Revolucion, stone walls with 1950s bullet holes) with way un-trodden destinations (Cueva El Palmarito --the largest cave system in Latin America, and a fishing cooperative in Cojimar, where Ernest Hemingway's captain spent most of his life).
Your hosts will be Justin White-- operator of <a href="https://www.docfordscubaexpeditions.com/">Doc Ford's Cuba Expeditions</a> and nephew of best-selling novelist Randy Wayne White--and Sports Illustrated photographer Ron Modra.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MG_1480.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4874" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MG_1480.jpg" alt="" width="2100" height="1400" /></a>
"The people we are going to meet are incredible-- interesting, intelligent, diverse age groups," White said. "You'll see the monumental places but the targeted people and events introduce you to real people living their daily lives. The most valuable experience you can have is to be with the people and ask them questions. There are no airs put on."
With new U.S.-to-Cuba travel restrictions set to take effect in mid-September, White is taking special care to stay on the right side of the law: staying only in private lodgings, taking meals in private restaurants; interacting one-on-one with Cuban people; and travelling in a 12-member group.
"We will abide by all the policies and restrictions put in place," White said. "We focus on people-to-people exchanges."
The six-day, five-night itinerary is packed with authentic experiences: poring over photo albums with Raul Corrales, whose father shot reams of images of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his friend author Ernest Hemingway; walking the docks at Cojimar, the small fishing village where Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" was set and where the author's captain Gregorio Fuentes lived to be 104; visiting Finca Vijia where Hemingway's boat, Pilar, still sits; touring a tobacco farm and coffee plantation; and hiking to a huge cave in the countryside. It also hits some of the typical tourist spots such as the Tropicana nightclub and Old Havana. And there will be multiple opportunities to ogle (and photograph) all the old cars, with Modra coaching on the finer points of capturing images.
If you <a href="https://guyharveyoutpost.com/expeditions/cuba/">book your expedition</a> by Aug. 31, you'll receive free airfare from Fort Lauderdale to Havana. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.guyharveyoutpost.com">www.guyharveyoutpost.com</a> or call the Outpost Travel Desk at 800-513-5257. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/cuba-un-canned-see-it-with-the-locals/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Organizers Not Giving Up on Rapa Nui Dive Site&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/11242681_10152750655661710_105051262564212438_o.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2857 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/11242681_10152750655661710_105051262564212438_o.jpg?w=300" alt="11242681_10152750655661710_105051262564212438_o" width="300" height="169" /></a>The upside down wreckage of the Rapa Nui Reef 67 feet deep off the Deerfield Beach Pier looks like the dark basement of a house crushed by an earthquake. But maybe not for long.
Plans are reportedly in the works to cut openings for divers to access the hull of the 150-foot-long barge that crushed 14 Easter Island-like statues affixed to it during the problem-plagued June sinking. Broward County recently deployed 500 tons of limestone boulders dubbed 'Mount Deerfield' just north of the site. And philanthropist Margaret Blume of Boca Raton and artist Dennis MacDonald of Pompano Beach are considering placing more statues, called moai, in a sculpture garden in the sand around the barge.
Right now, Rapa Nui-- the Polynesian name for Easter Island--isn't much of a dive. Swimming beneath the barge is dangerous because it's only being held up off the bottom by the brittle remains of the statues and their concrete base. One strong storm, and the rusty hulk will plop into the sand.
But this project was not a complete failure. The goal of creating new marine habitat is already happening. Algae coats the overturned hull, attracting bait fish and the grunts and gray snapper that eat them. A reliable observer reported two Goliath grouper swimming around the wreckage. And when I dived it with Jeff Torode, operator of South Florida Diving Headquarters, a feisty triggerfish-- backed by a posse of its buddies-- attacked his GoPro as he shot video.
With the planned enhancements, Rapa Nui could become as enjoyable for divers to visit as it is now for fish. Visitors could easily explore the underwater artwork and Mount Deerfield in a single drift dive. And there are other scenic reefs --both coral and manmade-- in the immediate vicinity that warrant making a day of it.
"I would like to improve it as a dive site," Blume, who put up $500,000 for the June deployment, said. "I really hope we will do something wonderful even on a small scale. You can't give up too easily." https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/organizers-not-giving-up-on-rapa-nui-dive-site/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Sword Fights in the Cayman Islands&body=About 12 years ago, Cayman Islands businessman Clarence Flowers-- an avid sport angler-- chartered Miami Beach captain Bouncer Smith for a South Florida swordfishing excursion. Smith shared his tactics and techniques with his customer and they caught a fish. Flowers told the captain about the nascent recreational swordfishery in his Caribbean home waters: a 600-pounder had actually beached itself in Grand Cayman Island's North Sound and recreational anglers were taking some hefty ones on hook-and-line. That fateful conversation led to the inaugural Cayman Swordfish Challenge in 2005.
The 11th Challenge just wrapped up last weekend with local angler Thom Guyton taking top honors for boating four swords--including the tournament's largest, a 108.2-pounder--and releasing one off Cayman Brac.
The contest also serves as an on-water laboratory for scientists seeking to learn as much as possible about this unsung, but robust recreational fishery.
"Better than ours-- especially the night fishing," Smith, a 50-year-veteran charter captain, said of Cayman Islands swordfishing. "The daytime I would say is on a par with here--maybe slightly better."
Fisheries scientist Travis Moore of Pompano Beach-based Gray FishTag Research was on the water for the two-day contest and implanted a 54-incher with a satellite tag before releasing it. The tag, anchored in the dorsal fin, will detach after a year and beam minute-to-minute data about the fish's movements to a satellite which downloads the data to Moore's computer. It is the ninth satellite tag to be implanted in Cayman Island swords by Moore and colleagues since 2011.
"What we're doing is to help develop this fishery for the Cayman Islands," Moore said. "The Cayman government may decide to use this data to regulate foreign fleets coming into their waters."
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SwordTag2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4666" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SwordTag2.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="960" /></a>
Right now, both Moore and Smith say, there 's really no directed commercial fishery for swords in the Cayman Islands; the effort is primarily recreational with a few fish kept to eat or sold to local restaurants. But as word of the bounty gets out, the powerful and tasty billfish potentially could face heavy exploitation and would require careful management. The islands' record is a 392-pounder caught in 2012.
Moore says preliminary satellite tracking data shows the Cayman Islands serve as a "rest stop" for the tasty pelagics that hang out here roughly from November through May, then head north as waters warm.
"They're feeding in a perpendicular pattern to the Cayman Trench before going north," he said.
Recreational anglers target them in ways similar to their South Florida counterparts: deep-dropping squid, small tunas, bonitos or belly strips in 1,600 to 1,800 feet of water in daytime and either drifting or slow-trolling baits with planers 100 to 300 feet deep at night. Smith says all three of the Cayman Islands-- Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman--are basically sea mounts surrounded by very deep waters where upwellings concentrate bait, and therefore swords could be found just about anywhere.
"You can fish so close to the islands that you can read the license plates on the cars," he said.
Moore relishes the opportunity to enjoy the sport and collect important information at the same time.
"The fishing there is really off the charts," he said. "Amazing." https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/sword-fights-in-the-cayman-islands/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Regular Lobster Season: It’s Not Just for Bugs Anymore&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ACE0110-e1502201546903.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4855" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ACE0110-e1502201546903.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="400" /></a>Scuba diving about 45 feet deep on a coral-dotted ledge off Pompano Beach, FL., my dive buddy and I were startled by a spreading cloud of sand in the near-distance. We kicked over to the source of the plume and were amazed and delighted to see a huge loggerhead sea turtle with its head stuck deep in the ledge. As we paused to watch, it fanned the water column frantically with its flippers, widening the cloud of sediment around it.
It was very obvious to us that the turtle was not trapped in the ledge; instead, it was bent on the same mission as we were that day: trying to pry stubborn spiny lobsters from their caves to eat for dinner.
The turtle thrashed around for another minute or so then withdrew its head from the ledge. Not at all happy to see us, it scowled. I gave it a little wave farewell and it swam off. No point in checking out the ledge any further. Either our reluctant new buddy had gulped whatever lay in there, or so terrified the inhabitants that they would never be pried out.
Now that Florida's regular lobster season is open through March 31, bug hunters can relax, take deep breaths, get over the manic surface warfare known as mini-season, and enjoy the full harvest experience-- such as encounters with other sea life.
The lengthy season allows for a slow, calm exploration of the reefs, solution holes, channels and grass flats where you may find the sought-after crustaceans-- or not. The recreational bag limit is six per person per day statewide, so there's no more frenzied two-day push to cram live wells and coolers full of more entrees than you'll probably eat in a month.
Instead, you can achieve a fuller appreciation of the many exhilarating sights and sounds (and other ancillary benefits) that will accompany your hunt.
Besides an excellent chance of encountering sea turtles, you are almost guaranteed to come upon lionfish-- those feisty, peppermint-striped exotics with the flaring mane from the Indo-Pacific. Lionfish love to lurk in coral caverns and beneath ledges-- the same habitat as lobsters. Unlike the bugs, lionfish are legal to spear and there are no bag or size limits. Be wary of their venomous spines; you can't carry them around in a standard mesh catch bag with your bugs. Your best bet is a container made of sturdy PVC such as the Zookeeper. And they are an excellent accompaniment to lobster on the grill or sauté pan.
Hogfish also are likely to be found milling around out in the open around the lobster grounds, and they can be fairly easy to nail with a pole spear or spear gun. But on Aug. 24, new regulations will take effect lowering the bag limit, increasing the size limit and shortening the harvest season. Know before you go by visiting <a href="http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/hogfish/">myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/hogfish/</a>.
Other creatures you are sure to find on your bug hunts are nurse sharks and triggerfish. Both like to eat lobster so they're never too far away. On many dives, I've seen nurse sharks slumbering in caves in the daytime-- probably after enjoying a fresh lobster meal. But unless you molest the shark by grabbing or poking it, it generally will leave you alone.
Not so, the triggerfish. If these pesky reef-dwellers grew as big as sharks, no one would venture into the ocean. Aggressive and territorial, they will try to bite through your catch bag to steal your bugs and they will even bite you to get you to leave their area. I know several divers (myself included) who always wear a neoprene hood or beanie while lobster hunting because triggerfish are known to go for the earlobe. Even swordplay with your tickler stick often fails to ward them off. If you find yourself thrusting around like a knight in "Game of Thrones" to defend your ground, then it's time to leave.
If you really want to eat lobsters and don't want to a) get wet or b) go to Publix, then perhaps you should try bully netting. That's the practice of idling around the shallows at night in a small boat equipped with underwater lights and carrying a long-handled net. Lobsters are known to depart their coral caves after dark to feed on smaller prey on adjacent grass flats in Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay. They are very easy to spot in two to four feet of water with proper lighting and you can just plop the net over them. It's often quicker and easier than underwater hunting. In a bully netting trip a couple years ago, our party of three bagged a limit of 18 in just two hours.
Florida's lobster regulations during regular season differ from those of mini-season, so be sure you are up-to-date-- especially in the Keys. Go to <a href="http://www.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lobster/">www.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lobster/</a> for the full rundown.
Now let's go fetch some Lobster Thermidor. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/regular-lobster-season-its-not-just-for-bugs-anymore/){kind=link}
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