Nature

Product Review: First Aid Kit for Marine Animal Stings: Jellyfish, Stingrays, Urchins, Fire Coral

January 2, 2012

I’ve just created a video review of some products that I think will be very helpful to anyone who plays in the sea or to any first responders who encounter marine envenomations and punture wounds from marine animals. These First-Aid Kits and other products are designed to have everything you might need to treat an [...]

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Meet the Inkberry

October 15, 2011

To most people, beach plants are just an obstacle to walk around on the way to the water. But they do serve a purpose. Many purposes, in fact. Beach plants are specially adapted to live in the hot, dry, salty environment of the upper beach and dune. But development of Florida’s has decimated beach plant [...]

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Jellyfish Remain in the Florida Newspaper Headlines

August 17, 2011

This has been a big year for jellyfish. It seems like every few weeks they are making headlines by “invading”some Florida beach. Well, now they’re back. In southeast Florida. Apparently they’ve heard that the weather is nice in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. Moon jellies (Aurelia aurita) are hitting the beaches by the thousands. Though [...]

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Blue Jellyfish Washing Up on Texas Beaches

July 31, 2011

July has brought a lot of Blue Button jellyfish to the Texas beaches. These beautiful jellies are quite harmless. Have you found Blue Buttons? Report your sighting by leaving a comment below this blog post. Visit my Blue Button sightings web page to see where else they are being found and to see more photos. [...]

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Coastal Wildlife Club Turtle Patrol

July 24, 2011

Most any stretch of beach in Florida with sea turtle egg-laying activity has volunteer caretakers who carefully monitor the nesting and keep careful records. The Coastal Wildlife Club in the Englewood, Florida area keeps track of the nests on the beaches in Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota Counties, including Manasota Key, Palm Island, Little Gasparilla Island [...]

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Indo-Pacific Lionfish Threaten Florida

July 17, 2011

Lionfish are a colorfully striped fish native to the western Pacific Ocean. They are heavily protected by long, sharp, poisonous spines. And they are invading Florida waters. Lionfish seem to prefer rocky reefs, so are unlikely to be a threat to people enjoying sandy beaches, but they do seem to seriously reduce populations of native [...]

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Sharing the Beach with Birds

June 28, 2011

I was disheartened this morning to read a story by Lisa Neff this morning in The Islander newspaper about black skimmer nesting grounds on Anna Maria Island being vandalized three times in the past week during the night. This is the time of year when many of our beautiful beach birds are trying to give [...]

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Clouds I Like

June 24, 2011

When I was in high school I found in the library a book about clouds. It was a big thick tome filled with color photos of clouds described and classified. A cloud bible it was. I’m quite sure I was the only one to have ever checked it out. I learned about stratocumulus, cirrostratus, mammatus, [...]

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Don’t Plan Your Florida Beach Vacation Around “Average” Water Temperatures

June 21, 2011

Note: If the video keeps pausing to load, you can click through to watch it on YouTube and it will probably perform better. What if the “average” temperature of the water at the beach in Florida is 82 degrees? How is that information useful to you if you are vacationing in Florida in February when [...]

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Cannonball Jellyfish Common Along Florida’s Atlantic Coast

May 25, 2011

Jason Cristofalo took some great underwater photos of some Cannonball Jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris) swimming off Cocoa Beach, Florida this week and was kind enough to share them with everyone. Here’s what he said in his email to me: I found your website (beachhunter.net) and thought you might be interested in these pictures and video for [...]

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