By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost Travel Journalist scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com The week running up to the Fourth of July holiday of beach-going and barbecuing can mean only one thing–shark overload. …
Work Off Turkey Day on Big O Hike
17 Nov 201611:07 AM
Now here’s a novel way to pig out on Turkey Day with impunity: hike the Herbert Hoover dike around Lake Okeechobee.
The Loxahatchee chapter of the Florida Trail Association will conduct the popular Big O hike, now in its 25th year, from Nov. 20-25 on the elevated trail that surrounds the lake. You can join as many as 30 of your soon-to-be-closest friends in South Bay on Nov. 20 for the first leg of 12 miles to Pahokee or opt for the ‘wimp walk’ of only three miles.
For the rest of the week, you’ll be doing a series of day hikes totaling about 65 miles — not the entire 110-mile perimeter of the Big O since several sections are closed for dike repairs. No need to stuff a big backpack because you will be shuttled between your base camp at the KOA Campground in Okeechobee to and from entry and exit points each day; a day pack will do fine.
Post-hike social events will be held daily at the KOA, with a Thanksgiving Day feast served on Nov. 24.
Chapter president Roy Moore of Wellington will lead the hike.
“It’s a social thing–people doing day hikes together,” Moore said.
You’ll take in panoramic views of one of the largest lakes in the U.S. and probably spot some animals.
“You see a lot of wildlife around the northwest corner,” Moore said. “Coyotes, wild hogs, lots of birds.”
The guest list so far includes a nine-year-old girl and an 85-year-old man, among others.
To learn more and register, go HERE.
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![](mailto:?subject=Wounded Vets, SCUBAnauts Help Mote Marine Replant Coral in FL Keys&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/11800530_873480432730276_4381179584041674224_n.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2838 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/11800530_873480432730276_4381179584041674224_n.jpg?w=300" alt="11800530_873480432730276_4381179584041674224_n" width="300" height="249" /></a>Chris Corbin dropped about 20 feet to the ocean floor at Looe Key Reef off the Lower Florida Keys July 20 to perform an important task: planting small staghorn coral bundles as a volunteer for Mote Marine Laboratory's reef restoration project.
This was the 37-year-old retired U.S. Army Green Beret's fourth year as a volunteer citizen scientist working underwater alongside fellow combat vets and middle- and high-school students from SCUBAnauts International on a Mote project. But fastening the coral fragments with zip ties to nails driven into the bottom was proving challenging in the strong current-- especially since Corbin wears two heavy prostheses to replace both legs blown off at mid-calf.
"I just found it easier to drop my feet on a sandy spot and control my buoyancy with my breathing," Corbin said.
He planted four plots with five fragments each and still had air left in his tank.
"Every time it's awesome," he said. "It's kind of cool to see your work--'oh, that was last year and that was 2012'. It's always fun. If nothing else, I'm just playing in the ocean."
Corbin and about 50 other scuba divers and snorkelers from SCUBAnauts and the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge planted 250 corals along Looe Key that day-- adding to the 7,500 already placed by Mote scientists and volunteers on 50 sites along the Keys. The aim is to restore decades of manmade damage that has wiped out most of the branching corals in the Caribbean-- a huge loss to the marine ecosystem and the humans who depend on it.
"Humans have so screwed up the reefs that they will never recover on their own," Dr. Michael Crosby, Mote President and CEO, told the volunteers. "This is science-based restoration in partnership with all of you."
Scientists say the rewarding aspect of working with staghorn coral is that it grows fast and is the easiest to bring back. Fragments cultivated in Mote's coral nursery have grown large enough to spawn within two years of being replanted on the reef. Their average survival rate is 75 percent.
"It proves we're on the right track," said Erich Bartels, who oversees Mote's coral nursery project.
Tampa high school student Riley Gillis, 16, became a certified scuba diver last year just so she could help with the restoration work.
"The coral dive is actually my favorite dive I've ever done," Riley said. "It's awesome to be part of a team. I love looking around, the science, the working part of it. You're contributing to something."
For the wounded vets like Corbin, the work isn't just fun, but an opportunity to bond with fellow vets.
"No one understands a service member that's been injured like another service member that's been injured," Corbin said. "We're all trying to get back to a semblance of normalcy after injury."
He invited fellow retired Green Beret Bobby Dove to join the mission. Dove, 28, who lost most of his right leg and right arm to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, didn't hesitate.
"Hell, yeah," he responded. "I have not gotten to plant coral. I'm very excited about it."
Following their stint as coral farmers, the vets and kids were treated to a barbecue at Mote's Summerland Key lab.
The mission was supported by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation; the Islander Resort: A Guy Harvey Outpost; "Protect Our Reefs" license plate; Harbor Graphics and Custom Apparel; Looe Key Dive Center; Strike Zone Charters; Underseas Inc., Rock Bottom Divers; Derby Lane; and Oceanic. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wounded-vets-scubanauts-help-mote-marine-replant-coral-in-fl-keys/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Diving with Goliaths off Jupiter&body=The wreck of the MG-111 barge and the nearby pillars of Warrior Reef to the north aren't very scenic as dive sites go-- just a smooshed hull and a few tall vertical posts sunk 60 feet deep in the sand off Jupiter, FL. But for the opportunity to visit with some really large marine creatures-- some of them the size of Mini Coopers --there's no better place to visit in Florida right now.
Beginning with the August new moon, and likely through early October, scores of huge Goliath grouper hang around these motley artificial reefs getting to know one another and perpetuating their endangered species. They station themselves up- and down-current and inside the structures, occasionally making booming noises that sound like submerged bass drums. If you refrain from chasing them and remain stationary on the bottom, they may approach closely enough for you to shoot some amazing photos and video.
On my recent dive, I quit counting the gigantic fish at 50. They were cautious around me, but not spooky. One hovered inside the MG-111 about four feet away from me, opening and closing its wide mouth as I watched. As if that weren't enough live entertainment, a five-foot Southern stingray glided by overhead. And at the Warrior Reef, a really large loggerhead turtle sat calmly in the sand while a small, tagged green turtle nibbled on sponges. All around them milled more Goliaths. To call it an epic dive is a vast understatement.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DSC1783.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-4258" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DSC1783-1024x598.jpg" alt="Credit Alan Cegan" width="1024" height="598" /></a>Credit Alan Cegan
Florida State University research scientist Dr. Chris Koenig and his colleagues have identified some 20 Goliath grouper spawning sites off Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coasts-- including the one I visited. Most of them are wrecks and rocky outcroppings extending from Fort Myers south to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf and from Jupiter south to Boynton Beach in the Atlantic. The Jupiter wrecks are the prime hot spots for viewing-- easily accessible located only a few miles offshore.
Spawning, Koenig says, takes place late at night during new moon phases from August through October. Goliaths travel from as far as 300 miles away to join these aggregations and most depart when spawning is over, leaving a few stragglers year round. Koenig and colleagues have collected millions of Goliath eggs in their nets around the reproduction sites and hope someday to rear them so fish can be stocked in areas where they are heavily depleted.
The seasonal Goliath dive tours are an important economic driver for local businesses whose owners are vehement advocates for the gentle, mottled-brown fish. Goliaths have been protected from all harvest in Florida since 1990 when they were nearly wiped out by overfishing. In recent years, their recovery has prompted some hook-and-line and spear fishers to urge managers to re-open the fishery, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
The most recent scientific stock assessment that might have led to a re-opening flunked peer review because it was inconclusive--lacking baseline information on Goliaths before they were hammered to near extinction in the 1970s and '80s. Another potential obstacle to resuming harvest is that larger animals show high levels of mercury-- a toxic heavy metal that can cause an array of health problems in humans who consume it. Koenig says Goliath mercury levels are so high that the fish themselves get sick and die of it. And, he says, the species is still threatened by poaching, recreational catch-and-release fishing, and bycatch in the bottom longline commercial shark fishery.
So, for right now, it seems the function of the Goliath grouper is to be the star of underwater safaris and video documentaries like the lions of the Serengeti. Take the plunge to see them before they split for the season. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/diving-with-goliaths-off-jupiter/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Happy 4th of July!&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/709.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1369" title=""Sail America" - Guy Harvey" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/709.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="676" /></a> https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/happy-4th-of-july/){kind=link}
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