Diving

Upper Florida Keys Suggestions For Your Bucket List

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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

Underwater Resort – Would You Sleep With The Fishes

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Underwater tourism may be the next big thing in luxury travel. Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel, an idea conceptualized by extreme travel advocate and managing director of Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel Tony Webb, has just received a U.S. patent for its innovative design.  A single pod has its own entrance via surface-to-ocean elevator. (Courtesy Tony Webb, Planet … Read more

Best stops on the Overseas Highway – Key Largo

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Road trips don’t come more spectacular than the Overseas Highway. Sailing through tropical savanna over the Florida Straits, it links Miami on the mainland with the 180-kilometer-long Florida Keys island chain. Most visitors head straight to Key West, the southernmost city in the continental United States, but if they stopped along the way they’d find secluded … Read more

Enjoy Florida Keys Manatees From a Distance

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Everyone in the Florida Keys seems to have a story about an encounter with our fascinating sea life. Our visitors especially love to tell about seeing an endangered Florida manatee. While Florida’s manatees have been known to travel as far north as New Jersey and Massachusetts, they, like all good Floridians, return to warmer waters … Read more

Casitas – Building a Better Lobster Trap

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So-called casitas, an alternative to conventional traps, are used throughout Latin America. Although using them in the U.S. would offer environmental advantages, opposition by traditional fishers make it unlikely they will be legalized in anytime soon By Erik Vance Lifting a lobster casita is easier than it looks. The device is little more than an … Read more

Coral Bleaching Puts Coral Diversity at Risk

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There have been several recent reports about major events of coral bleaching. Coral reacts to the stress of warmer water by expelling zooxanthellae, the symbiotic photosynthetic algae responsible for nutrient cycling within the coral and the coral’s color. The coral provides algae with a protected environment and the compounds the algae need for photosynthesis (the … Read more

No Matter How it Got There – The Eagle is a Great Dive

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“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!” So announced American Astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, when he and fellow Astronaut Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to land on the moon. Six hours later, Armstrong stepped off the ladder of the lunar module saying his historically famous words, “That’s one small step … Read more

Giant Barrel Sponges Increasing on Florida Keys Reefs

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Between 2000 and 2012, the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta — which can grow to over a meter tall and wide — covered increasing territory on two reefs off Florida’s Key Largo. The number of sponges per square meter increased on both reefs, on one by an average of 122 percent, researchers report in an … Read more