Spring Time Florida Keys American Crocodile Mating Season

As with most crocodilians, the Florida Keys American Crocodile courtship and mating are stimulated by increasing ambient water and air temperatures. Reproductive behaviors peak when body temperatures reach levels necessary to sustain hormonal activity and gametogenesis. In South Florida, temperatures sufficient to allow initiation of American Crocodile courtship behavior are reached by late February through … Read more

Snook Season in Gulf Waters and Florida Keys

The recreational harvest season for one of Florida’s premier fish, snook, is open March and April and again September thru November in Florida’s Gulf of Mexico state and adjacent federal waters, including Everglades National Park and Monroe County.  In the Gulf, anglers may keep one snook per day that is not less than 28 inches or more than … Read more

Florida’s American Crocodile: Biology and History of a Threatened Species

A comprehensive book, written by a longtime Sanibel resident, which sheds light on the Florida American crocodile, has hit the shelves a month early.Author Charles LeBuff will sign copies of his book Florida’s Crocodile: Biology and History of a Threatened Species from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, at MacIntosh Books and Paper, … Read more

Upper Florida Keys Suggestions For Your Bucket List

Do you know how many parks there are in the Upper Florida Keys? Me neither. Between the City Parks: Islamorada’s Founders Park and Anne’s Beach, Monroe County Parks: Harry Harris, Florida State Parks: John Pennekamp and Lignumvitae and the National Parks-Refuges-Sanctuaries: Everglades, Crocodile Lake and the all encompassing Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, you are … Read more

Feds Set Boat Fees for Everglades National Park

A mandatory education class for boaters using Florida Bay waters within Everglades National Park will be free but a mandatory boat permit will cost. Those proposals to protect the bay’s shallow waters are written into the national park’s new management plan but no start dates have been announced. Everglades staff briefed the advisory council members … Read more

Everglades ‘Ranger Dave Fowler’ reflects on life on bay

Ranger Dave Fowler, who retired this past May as Everglades National Park’s Key Largo district ranger, has done some out-of-the-ordinary things during his 25-plus-year career on Florida Bay. There was the time he drove through a waterspout in a boat, just to see what would happen. “I would not recommend doing that,” he said, recalling … Read more

My Change of Pace? Fishing in the Florida Keys

Last month I took a busman’s holiday – a holiday or vacation during which one does something similar to what one does at work. I went fishing in the Florida Keys, and as usual, I fished with captains Rick Rodriquez and John Gargan in Islamorada, Fla. “The Sport Fishing Capital of the World” lived up … Read more

Only Licensed ‘Removal Agents’ to Hunt Pythons in Everglades

Python Challenge hunters planning to prowl the pinelands, mangroves and sloughs of Everglades National Park this winter should think again. Any pythons rounded up inside the national park’s boundaries must be taken alive by a specially authorized “python removal agent,” a National Park Service regional director said in a Sept. 25 letter. Apparently that applies to … Read more

Guides Helped Guide New Everglades Park Management Plan

Advice from Florida Bay guides and anglers, shared on trips to remote waters, helped shape Everglades National Park’s new management plan. The extensive plan, released Friday after more than a dozen years in the making, outlines new pole-or-troll zones for boaters in the park and lays the groundwork for mandatory boating education and boat fees for … Read more

Everglades Park Plan Calls for No-Motor Zones

Nearly 200 square miles of Florida Bay waters could be managed as no-motor or idle zones under Everglades National Park’s new management plan released Friday. Park staff intends to designate 102,838 acres of shallow water — about 160.7 square miles — as “poll or troll zones” where use of outboard motors would not be allowed. Another … Read more

Environmental group challenges 2016 Python Challenge

A national environmental group has challenged the 2016 Python Challenge. From Jan. 16 through Feb. 14, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will hold its second competition to remove pythons from public lands in South Florida; this year, hunting grounds have been expanded to include parts of Everglades National Park. Public Employees for Environmental … Read more