Serpents of the Sea
Sharptail Eel – These guys don’t swim like most eels, they crawl around on the ground like a snake and they can even move freely beneath the sand. Don’t worry, they’re harmless 🙂
Happy World Ocean Day
I honor of World Ocean Day, here’s look inside the shipwreck from my previous post. A popular hangout as you can see!
Wreck Creation
This is the first picture I’ve posted here that wasn’t taken by me. I handed the camera off to my wife for this shot of me exploring the Tracy wreck, aka Ken Vitale Memorial. It’s a 132 foot oil rig supply boat sitting in 70 feet of water just off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. There are many wrecks here not far from the beach, but you do still need a boat to get to them. We even swam to a 2nd wreck from this one. Some of the best diving in the States is right here in South Florida. Come down and go for a swim!
The Wings Have Been Spread
…like an angel looking down.
Goodnight Blimp
I think I may have mentioned before that the Goodyear Blimp lives just north of me, and I can even read the giant “Goodyear” printed on the side of the hanger from my balcony. The blimp usually cruises up and down the beach for the tourists, but occasionally I’ll hear the buzzing noise it makes and be able to look outside in time to see it fly right over my building. Kind of a cool and unusual thing to see. So if you’re following this blog like you should be (wink*wink), you can expect to see a picture of it every now and again. Here it is putting itself to bed…
Spirit of the Alligator
The sun sets in the Everglades here. So I could hardly believe what I was seeing when this massive gator head appeared one night! I can only imagine what the Seminoles would have thought if the gods presented something like this to them years ago.
The Lonely Kayaker
I shot this one from the dive boat last week. I thought it was cool how the reflection showed the clouds on the left and clear sky on the right.
Northern Sunset
This is the view looking north from my balcony. It was the only evidence that the sun actually set that night, since the rest of it was blocked by clouds of a passing storm. This is what it looks like when the sun sets in the north instead of the west.
Shark Encounter
Saw this guy passing through the reef last weekend. I shot some video of him too that you can see on the Beauty of Florida Facebook page.
Invasive Beauty
Invasive species are species that are not native to the enviroment or ecosystem they are living in. They can be plants, animals, insects, fish, or even new creatures created from non-native species mating with the native species.
The Lionfish pictured here may look exotic and beautiful and it is, but it’s actually a huge threat to the oceans of Florida and the Caribbean since it’s actually a native to the South Pacific. Their spines are venomous so they don’t have many predators and they compete for food with native fish.
There are often “Lionfish Derby’s” or other types of organized hunts to help control the invasive population and tp spread awareness to the public. There are even pet amnesty days where owners can surrender their pets without question or punishment. This helps cut down on people letting their Burmese python or pet piranhas “free”. There’s even a cookbook dedicated to nothing but Lionfish dishes. No matter where you live, you likely have invasive species problems, educate yourself about them and report them when you see them.
For more info on invasive species in Florida visit Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. For info on other areas, visit Invasive.org.
Miami Red
Not all of the beauty in Florida is nature made, there’s a lot of “man-made” beauty here as well. I don’t know what this building is, but it really caught my eye when I was leaving the American Airlines Arena the other night. If you know anything about this building, please comment.
Beauty of Florida 