I thought removing stuff from a protected reef is a big no no..
You are absolutely right. Removing stuff from 'PROTECTED REEFS' is very illegal and will get you HUGE fines or jail time.
However, the Florida Keys are made up of hundreds of islands covering thousands of square miles and only a small portion, (my guess is less than 10%) is 'protected reef'. The rest of it is shallow flats that are just teeming with life. This is a shot off one tiny island not 1/4 mile off the Seven Mile Bridge in the Middle Keys. The bottom between me and the island is full of life, including sponges and corals. This is not protected reef. With a proper license (I have one) anybody can collect here within Florida law and within Florida Fish & Wildlife limits. The biggest limit is absolutely NO collecting of stony corals. Even zoas are limited to 5 polyps per day per person.
This is typical of the shallows around many of these islands. If you look closely you can see stony corals, zoas, palys, sponges, macro algae and if you turn over a rock or coral you'll find stars, cucumbers, crabs, snails, worms and much much more.
Here is a close up of just one small hunk of dead stony coral that is now covered with half a dozen different sponges. There is also a small urchin and an emerald crab near the bottom of the photo.
Here is a rock that is in less than 2 feet of water and not 20 feet off the beach of that same island. I can only take 5 of those polyps. And the day we were there, during a 4 hour period in the afternoon on a Saturday, the only other people we saw were a fisherman and a couple taking photos of birds up near the beach!
Occasionally in these areas we'll see some really nice stony corals like this one. But it is totally protected everywhere in Florida and If I were to take it and get caught it would be thousands in fines. And we have been checked by FWC rangers more than a few times, both in the water where we are collecting and at the boat ramp.
And sometimes we get lucky and get to play with some of the wildlife. Again, we were in less than 2 feet of water and not 50 feet off the beach when we spotted this octopus. This is the best photo we got because he had just moved and hadn't set his camouflage yet. In just the next second or two you could hardly see him as he would blend into the background so well (2nd pic).
Do you even see him? Look for the pea green eyes.
