300,000 pounds of live rock stolen in Florida

[FishyBiz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15215637#post15215637 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iFisch
Right. He mentioned 4-5 years. So I am just "assuming" he had dumped $100,000 worth of base rock into the ocean all at once, many years ago.

If he knows it takes 4-5 years to colonize, why make any trips out there? I mean a) you'd have to assume insurance can and should have been bought and b) you can "trust" the 'oceans', but obviously not. I hadn't known or heard of anyone "stealing" rock before. Nonetheless, I'd buy insurance for any real business "I" ran, but that's just me. Maybe he was doing it illegally or partially illegal? Hence why he decided to NOT buy any insurance. I don't know... I mean, why NOT buy insurance for your investment?

That's just like NOT buying ANY insurance on a $100,000 car... right?

Its not the same as buying a car.
Make a call to a couple insurance companies and tell them you want to put 600,000 pounds of rock out in the ocean and then take it back out in five years and sell it.
You may have a problem.....


Richard, can you tell us a little about the insurance side (if any is even available)?

 

[flyhigh123]

if i was doing the rock, i would buy waterproof GPS devices, put them in random rocks and as the batteries on the died, i would replace them... on the off chance it was stolen, you can track it and find out where its at...

i guess this guy didn't think it out or protect himself in anyway....

 

[liverock]

No-go

No-go

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15215877#post15215877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishyBiz
Its not the same as buying a car.
Make a call to a couple insurance companies and tell them you want to put 600,000 pounds of rock out in the ocean and then take it back out in five years and sell it.
You may have a problem.....


Richard, can you tell us a little about the insurance side (if any is even available)?

Insurance?

Was like when I went to the bank looking for $$$$ to develope a culture site back in 1988......bank said "WHAT"???

There is the door over there.....

Even Lloyds said "nope" on insuring it.

Problem is rock culture in the Keys is not a viable business venture.

This has been the conclusion of everybody who has tried it there.....too many storms, rock gets blasted back to it's pre immersion state, or gets buried in the sand, killing any life on the rock.

If I had it to do over again, those 173 boat loads of rock I placed in the Keys, would all be here on my site in the Gulf.

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

 

[FishyBiz]

:lol: Thanks Richard.

 

[iFisch]

Good stuff. Thanks for clearing it up.

I was simply implying my "assumptions", and it seems most of them were/are wrong. Live and learn. Appreciate you chiming in Richard.

 

[liverock]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15218884#post15218884 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by iFisch
Good stuff. Thanks for clearing it up.

I was simply implying my "assumptions", and it seems most of them were/are wrong. Live and learn. Appreciate you chiming in Richard.

You don't learn unless you ask!

There is more culture info on my www about developing the sites in the Gulf and in the Keys if you want to look. Under the "about" tab...and then under History and stories......the video there is a million years old now....did that waaaay back.....

The keys site has been very exasperating. The rock will develop nicely, even corals growing on it, and then a storm....and you are back to square one. Dig it up again, wait a year or so, and then try to harvest some before the next big blow.

And the cycle repeats. It is not an easy task to be a rock farmer there. Requires constant, daily attention to your farm to succeed.

We did have some real bad hurricane seasons 4-5 years ago, which compounded the production problem, and made a real mess of everybody's site there.

sea ya
Richard TBS:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[iFisch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15218976#post15218976 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by liverock
You don't learn unless you ask!

There is more culture info on my www about developing the sites in the Gulf and in the Keys if you want to look. Under the "about" tab...and then under History and stories......the video there is a million years old now....did that waaaay back.....

The keys site has been very exasperating. The rock will develop nicely, even corals growing on it, and then a storm....and you are back to square one. Dig it up again, wait a year or so, and then try to harvest some before the next big blow.

And the cycle repeats. It is not an easy task to be a rock farmer there. Requires constant, daily attention to your farm to succeed.

We did have some real bad hurricane seasons 4-5 years ago, which compounded the production problem, and made a real mess of everybody's site there.

sea ya
Richard TBS:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

I've seen your website a many times before Richard. Very nice rock.

 

[muddysr5]

sothis guy doesn't really know if the rock was 'stolen'...it could be that it is simply submerged??

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15225239#post15225239 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by muddysr5
sothis guy doesn't really know if the rock was 'stolen'...it could be that it is simply submerged??

Yup.

 

[muddysr5]

doohh! (as Homer Simpson would say! LOL!!!)

seriously...can you imagine the conversations that have taken place in the police station to follow????

I feel this guy's pain, but really, if he didn't go there to maintain/check on his 'crop' did he really expect it to stay put, and not submerge? I mean, the landscape in the ocean is not static...rolling waves....hurricanes...sand bed...

 

[unhpian]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15215946#post15215946 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flyhigh123
if i was doing the rock, i would buy waterproof GPS devices, put them in random rocks and as the batteries on the died, i would replace them... on the off chance it was stolen, you can track it and find out where its at...

i guess this guy didn't think it out or protect himself in anyway....

Two problems with this: One, GPS is a ONE-WAY communication method - signals are sent from satellites to handheld receivers - but satellites cannot receive anything. All GPS locaters/trackers work by receiving location info from the satellite, then transmitting that info via radio/cell frequencies - and requires that you be close enough to a tower for it to work. If you are are more than a few miles out to sea, you probably aren't going to get a reliable signal to shore. You CAN get satellite communication devices, however they are VERY expensive (in the thousands), and, leads me to point 2 - radio/GPS signals attenuate VERY quickly underwater, and cannot transmit/receive more than a few inches underwater - so, in order for a waterproof GPS unit to work inside of a rock at 20 ft deep, you would need to have an antenna floating at the surface.

 

[AWoodCT]

ouch!

 

[muddysr5]

shouldn't this orginal post be posted under the forum for "Irresponsible Reefkeeping?"

Sorry...I had to. I am still blown away by this article. Having parents or not to take care of, he had an investment and they had to have been one day of the 1.5 years he didn't check on it that he was able to go out to the aquafarm.

 

[unstopable]

man im so sorry for your loss.

"god is good, beer is great, and people are crazy".

 

[Rangereefer]

There was no loss it's still in the ocean....

Is it just me or does it seem to anyone else like this guy maybe thought that this was the perfect get rich quick scheme where he wouldn't have to do any work and mother nature would do it all for him? If I didn't come to work for a year and a half regardless of the reason I don't think my desk would still be there when I got back...

 

[iFisch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15295219#post15295219 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rangereefer
this guy maybe thought that this was the perfect get rich quick scheme where he wouldn't have to do any work and mother nature would do it all for him?

Who's going to pay him? There was no insurance on the rock, and I am almost certain you cannot get insurance.

 

[Rangereefer]

I'm not referring to Insurance.

I'm referring to the whole idea of aqua culturing rock in general. It seems like his idea was that he'd just get a Higgins boat load it with rock dump it over come back a few years later and profit. Maybe it could be like his retirement plan just harvest as needed.

I'm sure that wasn't his plan but when I first got into this hobby and heard rock goes for 7-10 bucks a lb that was my first thought but then even a land locked Minnesotan like myself knows how dynamic the lakebeds up here are. Not only due to currents and wave action but also just how easy stuff sinks into it. You'd have to figure over time 150 tons is going to sink pretty deep into whatever susbtrate you drop it on then it's only a matter of time before wave action covers it with lighter substrate again. Throw in the general lack of protection from Tropical storms and Hurricanes in the Keys and yer just kinda askin for trouble

 

[bellsly]

Man that sucks, if its true!

 

[fishgeek12]

OMG that is sooooo crazy!