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Conservation / Locations — 1 Comment
10
Jun 16

A little mangrove destruction in Fresh Creek

I saw some photos yesterday of some mangroves being ripped up near Fresh Creek in Andros.

Mangroves, as most folks here would know, are vital. They are the nurseries for juvenile fish. They hold the shoreline in place when the big storms come through. They are host to crabs and shrimp and all manner of wild things.

You shouldn’t rip out mangroves because you want to put in a fuel station.

But… if the reports are true, that’s exactly what our good ole pal Prescott Smith is doing down in Andros. Yup, that Knight of Conservation appears to be ripping out mangroves. And yes, that’s a bonefish flat right in front of the ripped out mangroves.

It boggles the mind.

The number one threat to bonefish is not angler pressure or illegal netting or pollution. The number one threat to bonefish is habitat loss.

There is a lot of habitat in Andros. Miles and miles and miles of it, square miles. It is the biggest nursery in the Caribbean. It is only that good because it is mostly intact. Bonefish won’t be lost by a few huge devastating blows, but by a thousand little cuts. This is one such little cut.

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Conservation — 1 Comment
28
Apr 13

I love mangroves

Mangroves give life to so many of the things I love. Amazing that so many of them are gone… either that or it is amazing there are any left. Development is the main enemy. Mangroves ripped out to build condos or the flat filled in to make land or pulled out to make a channel or a marina. We need to protect our mangroves.

 

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Conservation — 2 Comments
27
Oct 10

Richard Leaves Belize With Millions of Dollars In Damages

Well, I hope the folks down there at El Pescador are doing OK in the wake of Richard coming through like Keith Richards through an expensive hotel room.

Power got knocked out, while houses on stilts were blown away in the city after Hurricane Richard made a landfall south of the the City of Belize Sunday night.

via Hurricane Richard Weakens, Leaves Belize With Millions of Dollars In Damages | Golf Talk.

We don’t have to deal with that kind of stuff here in CA… earthquakes, sure… massive forest fires, OK… but Hurricanes? Not so much.

Hurricanes are a reason that the over-development that is either on the doorstep of Ambergris  (or somewhere in the living room) is important.  The mangroves, as I understand it, help absorb the force of the storms… they buffer.  When you screw with that perfect and time-tested system, well… you lose even more habitat, you lose the prey, you lose the fish and you lose the fishery.

So… put that bulldozer away and sail that dredge into deep water for an artificial reef and I hope the hurricane shutters worked.

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Conservation / Locations — No Comments
10
Jul 10

Want to fish Bimini?

Well… you might want to do so quickly before every last mangrove in Bimini is taken out, filled in and turned into golf courses and resorts… because the world doesn’t have enough golf courses.

I found this little video of Bonefish Ebbie talking about the Bimini Bay development that is dredging up bonefish habitat to make way for pure and bottled greed.

Read more about the badness that is this Bimini Development.

Bonefish Ebbie can be found here.

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All the other stuff — No Comments
09
May 10

Happy Mother’s Day and Tag Ends 5/9/10

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there… really, there are probably very, very few moms reading this, but, still… cheers.

My mother lured my father into thinking she was going to fish, but after the wedding, she never fished again, or so goes the local folklore.

My wife, mother of my 3 year old, tried fishing very, very briefly on a trip to Montana/Yellowstone.  She saw a big snake in the grass along the Firehole and also rather forcefully declines my assistance with her casting while at a high mountain lake going after Yellowstone Cutts… those two episodes concluded her short-lived and undistinguished fishing career.

Still, there are some great angling women/mothers out there for my little girl to take as role models on the water.

A few other bits from around the web, non-mom related:

  • Moldy Chum with some… disturbing bits about the Gulf oil leak.
  • This is Fly Daily picks up the One Surf Fly story… see, that is starting to look like fun… and that SoCal surf looks a lot more agreeable than the Santa Cruz breakers.
  • Nice little post from our friend over at Flatswalker about our “quiet” sport.
  • MyTurksandCaicosBlog has a bit about mangroves… I love mangroves.
  • Trip report from Skinny Water Culture down in the Keys.
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