For those of you that make trips to the beach for critters...

I would love to join you, either ride out with you ro follow by jet ski, sometimes the current is too strong to leave my jet ski unattended, so maybe I could tie off to your boat. i would hate to miss a chance to go out to monster hole!
Ps, we dont dive, just yet!
 
These are all great ideas and it is good to see people getting together to do reef-related things. All I ask is that everyone stay within the laws...they are there for a reason. I may not believe in a lot of the laws we have in place, but this is one that needs our upmost respect. They are, after all, put into effect for us. Noone gains from taking more than we should...I mean Florida has very relaxed laws on environmental issues for the most part, which means the laws passed are the bare minimum to have any viable reef left in 10 years.

Again, I have no problem with people legally collecting and I think that it is one of the great benefits of living where we do. All I ask is to leave a little bit for our children and children's children. I think it would be very sad if my kid's (hopefuly a little ways away for me...) only view of the reef is in my house or a museum. I would also love to go out for a day trip sometime. Weekends are the only times that work for me. Keep me updated.
 
cschweitzer,

I agree whole-heartedly, and I am a stickler for the rules, both for myself and everyone on my boat. If anyone needs infromation regarding the state fo Florida rules, here is a good reference...

http://myfwc.com/marine/recreational/recharvestmls.htm

The laws are very liberable in what you can collect, too much so in my opinion. I typically do more looking than collecting, but it's always a fun trip whether you bring something back or not. That's why I started my tank, to recreate a little piece of that environment I see while diving.

I collected that Seargent Major with a hand net. It took me about 45 minute to get that one (at the time) tiny guy out of a school of ~20 in less than 10" of water. That was about the time I gave up on the idea of trying to collect wild fish (that and the blue crab incident).

I do go down to the area quite a bit though, and I have a boat, so I am more than willing to offer a ride to a group that wants to see what they can find on a collecting trip.

For brazengrrl, Seth, and anyone else interested...

I'm really up for any kind of trip. I'm free most weekends, and usually try to get over there at least once a month to run the boat. I have not dove on monster hole, the boat traffic on weekends is usually too crazy for me to feel safe diving that close to the mouth of the inlet.
 
I think we already covered the licencing stuff earlier, and yeah need to be on the right side of the law. And EVERYONE with us would need to have it. Jbas, sounds like you would be willing to be our tour guide. I think we should start off with stuff/places that dont require much more than snorkle gear and a beach since most of us dont have boats and such. I would love to see both the ocean and intercoastal side on the same trip if possible.
 
algae

algae

Sorry Orb,

I am not well versed enough to identify the various types.

I know we see a lot of Sargassum from time to time, but I don't know if that's something you'd want.

During the right times of year, there will be long sargassm weed lines off the East coast.
 
I would totally be into checking something like that out with the I snorkel but can't dive group ;p

Consider our saltwater recreational liscenses purchased hehe :)

Oh PS- I called sports authority and they also sell liscenses
 
im in either way - i have all licenses (scuba and saltwater fishing) and if we go just to snorkel or walk around my girl is in too :-D i dont mind putting some money in for gas and if its not to far i could even bring my boat if there are too many people going - i have a 16 ft sea ray jet boat
 
With so much interest i wonder if something can be talked about at the next meeting? I know thats a whole month away but unless someone is willing to lead the trip I doubt any real plans are going to occur.
 
Man I dont want to wait that long. lol Lets just all get together and meet at someones house or a restraunt. Its seems like there is only 5 or 6 groups or familys that want to go. Its a day trip, it wont be hard to plan.
 
Check out these cool satellite photos of Sebastian inlet I picked up from google. I think the second one shows the tidepool area mentioned. Ironically I told my mom about this and she's like oh yeah before you were born\when you were little I used to go clamming out there! Small world!

I am so ready to go anytime! - where is a restaurant thats cool thats out near there? I'm not familiar with the area.

sebinlet1ca3.jpg


sebinlet2fn1.jpg




Also a friend of mine is from Jupiter and mentioned that if you go down south more there's a neat place called Bathtub Reef that may be another good spot to check out.. I was reading up on it a bit here:
http://www.southflorida.com/attractions/sfl-snorkel722,0,7951808.story?coll=sfe-attractions-utility
 
Well I was thinking about a restaurant in Orlando area. Maybe 1 night durning the week and then go the that weekend or the following weekend. Something along those lines. That way everyone can meet everyone figure out what boats are going, who all is going stuff like that.
 
lusenut,

I'm in for a mid-week meeting. This weekend and next weekend are out for me (SuperBowl and Travel Plans), but I can go either the weekend of Feb 17th or 24th.

christtie,

There aren't really any restaraunts near Sebastian. It's definately a pack your lunch type of trip.

I dove down in Jupiter the weekend before last with the Jupiter Dive Center. We were in 60-80 feet, and I saw hundreds of zoa colonies in all sorts of color varieties. It's much more interesting now that I know a little bit more about what's down there. I used to spend more time looking for the bigger creatures than appreciating the coral variety. It's more scenic down there than diving Sebastian, but Sebastian is great place for finding critters.

- Jeff
 
Im am just looking to snorkel right now. I need to get certified again in diving. But thats later this year sometime. I just want to get a group of people to go somewhere for a day trip and snorkel. We can meet here in Orlando 1 night durning the week and see when we can all get together for a weekend trip. I am open for any night except tuesday night. Im in a bowling league and its not over for another 15 or 16 weeks.
 
If we are planning a weekend trip i'd say the last weekend in feb (orca meeting is then? grr) or sometime in march. Spring break for us college kids is 12-17 i dont know if thats good or bad.

Im in the snorkeling boat too right now (no pun intended) - but for you divers, is the water visibility best at this time of year versus later int he year?

I am from the gulf coast and it was crystal clear in the winter, murkey and bleh in the summer but I don't have much experience with the atlantic
 
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