Yesterday, June 8th, was World Oceans Day and the many reports and editorials in the news give us a lot to ponder about the health of the water that surrounds us all. This article is from the United Nations.
2016 Theme: Healthy oceans, healthy planet
Plastic bottles and garbage from a nearby village wash on the shores of a river and then spill into the sea in Dili, Timor-Leste. UN Photo/Martine Perret
The ocean is the heart of our planet. Like your heart pumping blood to every part of your body, the ocean connects people across the Earth, no matter where we live. The ocean regulates the climate, feeds millions of people every year, produces oxygen, is the home to an incredible array of wildlife, provides us with important medicines, and so much more! In order to ensure the health and safety of our communities and future generations, it’s imperative that we take the responsibility to care for the ocean as it cares for us.
This year, the theme is Healthy oceans, healthy planet, and we’re making a special effort to stop plastic pollution.
Plastic pollution is a serious threat because it degrades very slowly, polluting waterways for a very long time. In addition, plastic pollution impacts the health of aquatic animals because animals including zooplankton mistake the microbeads for food. Scientists also fear health impacts for humans.
In case you haven’t seen this story. We called these “nettles” in the Chesapeake and they can make a trip overboard miserable. A poultice of Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer was the remedy of choice for us. This report is from AOL.com.
Sea lice are infesting Gulf Coast beaches Tiny creatures are lurking in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. The nearly invisible creatures are known as sea lice and can cause an itchy rash and even flu like symptoms.
Although the small creatures are almost undetectable to the human eye, their sting packs a huge punch. The itchy rash they cause, known as “ocean itch” or “seabather’s eruption,” can last for days but luckily it goes away on its own. Applying an oatmeal preparation and calamine lotion can soothe the itch.
According to Florida Department of Public Health, “outbreaks of seabather’s eruption occur intermittently between March and August, but they appear to peak during early April through early July.”
The appearance of sea lice during the summer months is caused by shifts in south Florida’s current and the highest incidence of cases of seabather’s eruption occur in Palm Beach County and Northern Broward County.
Sea lice are the larvae of adult jellyfish and their small size sometimes causes them to get stuck between a swimmers’ skin and their swim suit, clothes or hair, which causes them to sting.
Swimmers can reduce their chances of getting seabather’s eruption by avoiding wearing T-shirts while in the ocean and changing out of their bathing suits as soon as possible after exiting from the water.
This advice on Gulf Coast Florida comes in response to folks about to make the voyage south from northern Florida. All the marinas listed below can be found in our Western Florida Marina Directory accessed from our Homepage.
Keep in mind that scallop season starts the 25th of June which will be an issue gaining dockage the closer you get to this date. That said there are many nice marinas reminiscent of old time Florida along the Big Bend area. Don’t expect anything fancy but you will receive great friendship and clean accommodations. All the marinas I’ll mention can handle a 3 foot draft and then some. Be cautious of the depth in this area. 1) Swanee River has two: Swanee River marina 352 542 9159 & Gateway Marina 352 542 7349 Call the local BoatUS Tow for current channel depths and USE THE NORTH channel NOT the river. 2) Yankee Town; YT marina 352 447 2529; Best talk with Helen 352-447-5888; Riverside 352-447-2890 This is one of my favorite stops. 3) Crystal River: Petes’s 352 795 3302 & Twin River 352 795 3552 This area thinks highly of there dock space but if you’ve never been to Crystal River the stop might be nice. 4) Now to my favorite river the Steinhatchee: For a nice motel with dockage call Shelter Cove. They have recently been bought out by Ideal Marine so you can be the first to review them. 352 498 5707/352-210-1781. There are also Good Times Motel never been there 352 498-8088; SeaHag 352 498-3008 lots wakes; River Haven my favorite 352 498-0709/352-356=2904.This is outland Florida so best to phone in advance to qualify all your requirements. Gaz
Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.
Bahamas Chatter: Help Help Posted: 05 Jun 2016 02:22 PM PDT Good day all. Planning trip from Grand Bahama to Acklins. Is there a known channel between the southern tip of the tongue of the ocean to the crooked island passage, for vessel drawing 15′ water? Thanking in advance.
If you mean going down west of the Exumas, at 15′, absolutely no way!. Your best option is to head for Exuma Sound , if you can get through into it and then down the east side of Long Island. Otherwise you have a long sail either outside Eleuthra and Cat Island or south of Andros, long sails either way. But your objective, The Acklins is well worth it. All the out islands are friendly, but we have never received a warmer welcome than at Landrail Point (Crooked Island). Excellent wall dive just a few hundred yards off the beach.
The New Bern Grand Marina lies in the heart of downtown New Bern, North Carolina, along Trent River’s northern banks between the low-level Trent River highway and railroad bridges.
Hague Marina is located in a sheltered loop on the Waterway’s southern shore some 2.4 nautical miles southwest of the Myrtle Beach high-rise and railroad bridge.
They had a fantastic ships store but it burned. Owner is making do right now with small office building. Fabrication shop and tools were not damaged in fire, so they can still do anything you need. Not fancy, but gets job done. My brother worked there from 1972-2013. He quit to be a Restaurant Chef. Frederick
The Hague is a dump. Don’t get on the docks or you risk injury. Avoid at all cost. Unreliable power and water you shouldn’t drink. The owner is not concerned about “customer service” and is only interested in an offer for the property. The previous poster obviously had a misplaced loyalty to the owner…
Here is an unusual question for you armchair lawyers. Have any of you experienced such “aquatic squatting”? If you have suggestions, let us hear from you.
My question is how can one retain rights to a mooring and the tackle that she has put on it? I purchased a houseboat on a mooring off Islamorada, Florida Keys. I added chain and anchors and tackle to it and a mooring ball with my FL numbers. I used the houseboat for days at a time, but was not a full-time liveaboard. I left the mooring to spend a few months at a marina ashore in order to perform needed repairs. Now there is a man that hooked up to my mooring tackle and refuses to move. What can I do about it? Captain Anne Baxter
I would start with police. Also look at bill of sale to determine if mooring is public or private. The devil is usually in the details. … We used to leave our tender tied to ball when we were off of it. Hope some of this helps. Hard to deal with rude people. Especially in today’s world. Winston
I have contacted both the Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Friday. Yesterday I spoke with the FFWCC woman. She had checked on it and said that the Basin had been declared a sanctuary and that no one could moor or anchor in it. However there are already several boats on private moorings in there. One man had been there for 20 years. My houseboat was already on a private mooring when I bought it 5 years ago. She said the FFWCC will do nothing about this man’s takeover of my mooring and use of my mooring tackle. She said it is a civil matter. I asked why if someone car was stolen, the cops would search for the car and arrest the thief. My mooring tackle is still there but this person is using it and so perhaps it is a trespassing issue? Does anyone out there have any suggestions?
Bad news for motorists, good news for boaters – at least until inevitable repairs begin. With a closed vertical clearance of 7ft, Little River Swing Bridge crosses the ICW just south of SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR Harbougate Marina. This Associate Press report comes from The Daily Reporter, Greenfield, Indiana (!!).
A swinging bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway near North Myrtle Beach has been closed after the gearbox that moves the bridge broke. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS First Posted: June 02, 2016 – 5:48 pm Last Updated: June 02, 2016 – 5:48 pm
Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.
Bahamas Chatter: Bird Rock light restored Bird Rock light restored Posted: 02 Jun 2016 04:18 AM PDT NOTICE TO MARINERS
(RBDF MAY 30th, 2016) The Aids to Navigation Section of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force wishes to advise mariners that the automatic light at Bird Rock Lighthouse, off Pitt’s Town, Crooked Island has been relit.
The light at Bird Rock is situated at Latitude 22° 50.7’N and Longitude 74° 21.6’W (Charts ACK 1 and ACK 2, pages 57 and 58 Explorer Chartbook Far Bahamas, Sixth Edition).
Any discrepancies with this or any navigational aid should be reported to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force at telephone number 362-4436 or by e-mail at aton@rbdf.gov.bs (For further information contact the RBDF Public Relations Department)
This aid was fixed on 30th May 2016 after being extinguished for some time. Technicians found evidence of vandalism, as the main cable from the batteries was severed by a sharp object and six of the eight solar panels were removed. The cable was reconnected and the technicians had to make do with the remaining two panels. These southern lighthouses are plagued by this sort of thing, rendering the aid extinguished.
Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.
Bahamas Chatter: New species of snake found on Conception Island New species of snake found on Conception Island Posted: 31 May 2016 10:47 AM PDT (from an article in the National Geographic published May 26, 2016) On an uninhabited island in the southern Bahamas, a scientist noticed a snake that shined like metal as it climbed a tree. “We all came to take a look at it, and it was instantly clear that this was something different,” says biologist R. Graham Reynolds, part of the scientific team exploring the remote islands. Expedition member Alberto Puente-Rolón, an expert on Caribbean boas, agreed that the animal appeared unlike any species of known boa. So the team went searching for more boas, finding four more snakes before settling down to sleep on the beach at Conception Island. But it turns out the boas weren’t ready to call it a night. (See “Extremely Rare Fishing Snakes Discovered.”) “Sometime around 3:30 in the morning, I woke up to something crawling across my face,” says Reynolds, now a biologist at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. Another silver boa had come down from the forest and crawled right over him as he slept. They’d located their sixth specimen, and DNA analyses back at the lab confirmed the snake was a new species. The scientists named the Conception Bank silver boa (Chilabothrus argentum), based on both its color and the fact it was first found on an aptly named silver palm tree. A study on the species appeared in the journal Breviora.
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