A Stroll on a Gulf Beach Yields a Dolphin Disposal

Laurel Lockamy has seen her share of dead sea life washing up on the beaches of Mississippi. Like a few other residents, she’s toted her camera along wherever she goes, documenting the dolphins, sea turtles, red fish and plethora of dead birds that seem to be washing in unusually high numbers.

That isn't stopping Gulf businesses from hoping for a better year than last, when beaches were soaked in oil and tourism vanished with the black tide. Now there are signs business is rebounding. Tourist industries in Florida panhandle report better than expected traffic this year. Some in Congress in fact are pushing for increased drilling in the Gulf, with fewer safety and environmental reviews of the process. It seems some lawmakers have short memories.

But not all is well in the Gulf. High numbers of endangered sea turtles and dolphins have washed into the beaches, although the number of fatalities is declining. Scientists still don’t know what has caused this spike in deaths.

And they are still dying. Last Sunday, Laurel decided to take a stroll down the Gulfport beach after watching a boat race in nearby Biloxi. Off in the distance she saw a familiar orange-colored figure lying by the water’s edge. It was another dead dolphin, the third one she’s seen this year.

As she approached she realized it was a juvenile, maybe three or four feet long, badly decomposed. Someone had spray painted IMMS in bright orange on its side. That means Institute for Marine Mammal Research investigators had been there and counted it. A tag was stuck in its mouth with the date: May 13, 2011. That was two days earlier.

“At first I could not believe what I was seeing,” Laurel says. “It looked like an alligator with a long tail. Then I got really angry. The smell was so bad, it was heartbreaking.”

The next day Laurel slept late and went out to see if the dolphin was still there. It was. But just as she was taking more pictures, a large yellow bull dozier came roaring up the beach toward her. The driver sort of winked at her, she says, then proceeded to move the giant front loader bucket into position to snatch the decaying dolphin carcass from the water's edge.

As it wheeled closer to the orange-painted dolphin, Laurel stood her ground. She continued taking pictures as the tractor rolled along the shoreline and quickly scooped up a batch of sand along with the dolphin carcass. With his sandy catch held up in the air, the driver gunned his engines and rolled down the beach to a less populated area. Laurel watched in amazement as the front loader turned and dumped its load behind some beach vegetation. Poof it was gone! A instant sandy sarcophagus for another federally protected mammal. Perhaps no one else will ever know it’s there.

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http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/in_the_gulf_a_sunday_stroll_yi.html

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Sand sculpture created to honor space shuttles

CAPE CANAVERAL — Combine about 30 volunteers, 12 shovels, six rakes, a ton of sand and what do you get?

Artist Todd Brittingham of Fort Lauderdale created a sand sculpture titled "Sun and the Moon," which commemorates the end of the shuttle program with stars dedicated to shuttle astronauts who have died.

A work of art depicting the moon, sun and stars etched in the sand at Jetty Park. The creation, completed Sunday after four days of work, is the mastermind of Fort Lauderdale-based artist Todd Brittingham.

Every year since 1988, Brittingham has traveled across Florida creating a new "sky message" on the beach in honor of Earth Day. The creations are as large as 10 acres and best seen from an aerial view.

In addition to Earth Day, Brittingham also wanted to honor the shuttle program, which will come to an end later this year.

"I've been a big fan of NASA, and I thought this is the perfect year to do something space themed," the 47-year-old said. "We're dedicating this to the 14 people who lost their lives on Challenger and Columbia."

The sand sculpture is about 150 feet by 150 feet and contains 14 stars to represent the astronauts killed in the shuttle tragedies.

His crew of about 30 volunteers spent four days creating the piece.

Curious beachgoers milled around wondering what was being formed as volunteers used everything from their hands to a wheel barrel to perfect the artwork.

When it was completed, those involved laid around the sculpture to create human stars as a plane, paid for by Brittingham, flew overhead to snap photos.

"It was unbelievable," Brittingham said after seeing the aerial view. "You never really know what it will turn out or how accurate to the design it will be, but I'm just tickled it was so incredible. Probably the best one we've done in 23 years."

This is Brittingham's sixth trip to Brevard County, a place close to his heart since he grew up in Orlando and often came to Space Coast beaches.

He began doing the sky messages on a whim, when a friend in the real estate business asked for help with some advertising. Back then, the single college student pulled together about a dozen friends to help him with a day of fun on the beach.

"I can't believe what it's turned in to," said Brittingham, now a married father of two.

"It's a family event. We all get together every year. It' a chance to have fun and promote a positive experience. People say they aren't good at art, but everyone can dig, everyone can take part."

Some of the original dozen, along with numerous volunteers who joined in during the years, took part in the latest creation.

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Florida beaches get $30 million tourism boost from BP

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) - Hoping to bring tourists back to Florida's Panhandle beaches, Governor Rick Scott joined BP officials and local tourism leaders on Monday to announce a $30 million marketing grant for the region, which lost much of its business last year.

Scott lauded BP's commitment to "do the right thing" by earmarking nearly $82 million so far for tourism and commercial seafood testing since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and subsequent spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I thank BP for stepping up, especially at this time, because it's terribly important that we get the tourist season up and going," Scott said at a press conference.

Unlike South Florida, the Panhandle region's peak season occurs in the summer months.

BP has already made tourism payments of $18 million to Mississippi and $22 million to Alabama, according to the company's recovery website.

Last month, Louisiana's 64 parishes split $5 million in tourism aid from the company. Those funds were the first of six BP payments to Louisiana that will total $30 million.

The grant money announced on Monday for Florida will be distributed through the Northwest Florida Tourism Council, a non-profit group set up after the disaster to represent tourism officials in seven Panhandle counties affected by the spill.

Funds will be divvied up among the counties, which produced marketing plans that have been approved by the regional council.

"We have seen the plans and have great confidence that they will result in great help to the tourism industry there," said Luke Keller, BP's senior vice president in charge of Gulf restoration efforts.

Marketing efforts are expected to include media buys in nearby states where people can easily drive to the Panhandle beaches for vacation but also in places farther afield.

Other incentives include coupons, vouchers and package deals.

"Each of those counties has very different plans," said Dawn Moliterno, chairwoman of the regional tourism council.

"But what you can expect to see are concentrated, targeted initiatives in each of those counties to the customers of their targeted markets."

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http://whtc.com/news/articles/2011/apr/11/florida-beaches-get-30-million-tourism-boost-from-/

Giant pink snails take over Miami Beach

Dozens of giant pink snails have invaded Miami Beach in what appears to be a bizarre cartoon migration along Florida's sun soaked coast for those who venture out of their luxury Florida villas, but is fact an art project to promote a clean environment.

The international REgeneration Art Project, which has already made its mark in Paris, Milan and Prague among other cities, will remain in this tourist-favored beach community until January 3, said organizers Cracking Art Group.

The 45 colorful mollusks, which are made of recycled plastic, are intended to "play with the city in order to rebuild it ideally and mentally," said the international artistic collective Cracking Art Group, which has joined forces with Italy's Galleria Ca d'Oro for the project.

Placed throughout the city, the huge pink snails are "designed to inspire a community-wide conversation about the importance of recycling and its environmental impact, while leaving a potent artistic trace on the Miami Beach community," said the organizers.

Tourists brave cold, hit beaches in sweaters

Tourists in southwest Florida aren't letting the sunshine state's cold temperatures keep them locked in their Florida villas away from the sand, bundling up before heading to the beach.

Temperatures dipped into the 40's Tuesday morning and raising to the mid-50's by the afternoon - but still tourists were laying out on the beach by 10:30 a.m.

"Its still pretty out even though the natives probably think we're crazy for being out here," said Carroll Blair, a tourist from Indiana.

Some groups said they were going for a walk on the beach and then going to a tanning salon before heading back out of town.

Temperatures are expected to continue to dip into the week.

Drilling Ban Make Florida Tourism Happy

Florida tourism industry is pretty have with the off shore drilling ban. Florida tourism believes that drilling ban is important to save $65 Billion tourism industry in the state.

Last week Obama administration decided to let the drilling ban stand along Florida's coastline. The decision has come under severe criticism from some sections but so far tourism industry is very happy.

In April BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded which poured nearly 175 million gallons of oil in the sea which ended up on the beautiful beaches of Florida. Tourism industry took a big hit because of the oil spill as negative media coverage turned tourists to other destinations.

There were no takers for many of the florida villas and rentals which made Hotels, restaurants and tour operators in Florida suffered massive losses because of drop in tourist arrivals. Apart from tourism, fishing industry also took huge losses because of oil spill.

Hotels owners says that Florida tourism is $65 billion industry which can't be risked for $700 million of oil drilling revenues. They believe that tourism plays a major role is state's economy as more such incidents could dent the industry further.

Its a miracle that Florida tourism has managed to come out of the incident pretty good in shape but it doesn't mean that government take such risk again to Jeopardize tourism industry. Its not just tourism industry but also the environmentalist who also supports the ban on off shore drilling because of the damage caused by the oil spill to marine life.

However the opposition of drilling ban cites that this will increase United States' dependence of the oil from hostile countries therefore drilling should be continue in the region. Luckily for tourism industry, drilling has been banned until 2017 which gives them time to recover from the current losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Florida Turtle Walks

From May to October, it's that time again: at which one of the world's oldest species, the sea turtles leave the wet element to nest on Florida beaches as we leave our Florida Vacation Rental Homes for sightseeing. 

This fascinating natural phenomenon can marvel  every summer visitors at Florida on guided walks, the so-called "Turtle Walks" or "Turtle Watches". 

Important is the distance due to the endangered marine animals. In the events organized by the state of the participants received interesting information about the armored reptiles. Also are aware of the threat to the turtles through beach and marine pollution, and explained the correct behavior towards animals and their nesting site.

For more information on the "Turtle Walk" under 

http://www.myfwc.com/WILDLIFEHABITATS/SeaTurtle_index.htm