The Symbiotic Relationship Between Horseshoe Crabs and Killifish In St. Joe Bay, Florida

This summer, we vacationed at our good friend's rental guest house that sits in a beautiful marsh a few yards away from the clear waters of St. Joe Bay. 
How wonderful it is to stay in this house
called "Bay Window", is the subject of another post.
So stay tuned if you are curious. Click on the link if you can't wait ...

This post is about something I observed while wandering around in the clear waters of St. Joe Bay. 
There's a video below, but you know that, because the first thing you did after opening this post, was CLICK THAT VIDEO.
You know you did...




As usual, I had my GoPro Hero 5 and my selfie stick with me as I waded in the bay. I love this camera and wowsers, have I put some miles on it between obstacle course races and wet and wild nature photography. This was the perfect combo for wading in the shallow bay. With my selfie stick and the right GoPro fittings, I could poke the GoPro under the water and right into the face of the marine life creeping over the sandy bottom.
 (I even took it out there at night with a light ... yet another post to come)

So what was the thing I noticed while wading? First, you need to understand that St. Joe Bay is crawling with Horseshoe Crabs... big ones, mid-size models, and compact youngsters. They were everywhere, day and night, always moving across or plowing the bottom in search of buried clams, worms, and other invertebrates.

With the GoPro setup I had, I didn't just walk by them, I stopped and spent time with them as I filmed. The Horseshoe Crab's response to me standing still and filming was to basically treat me like part of the scenery and carry on plowing and feeding. The fish also ignored me if I stood still. And that was how I got to see the relationship that a group of shallow-water fishes called, "Killifish", had with the Horseshoe Crabs. 

History: A kill is a body of water, most commonly a creek, but also a tidal inlet, river, strait, or arm of the sea. The term is derived from the Middle Dutch kille (kil in modern Dutch), meaning "riverbed" or "water channel". (from Wikipedia)

Most fisherfolk just call this group of fish, "mudminnows". They are excellent bait and an important food fish for bigger fish and seabirds. 

The relationship I witnessed was repeated over and over again as I roamed the shallows. Almost every actively feeding Horseshoe Crab was accompanied by a school of killifish who were also actively feeding directly behind (and even under) the Horseshoe Crabs.  

As Horseshoe Crabs plow and dig up the bottom while feeding, they eject a constant flow of water and sand from underneath their body.

 This outflow from under the backside of the Horseshoe Crab probably carries with it bits of the Horseshoe Crabs meal as well as very small invertebrates dug up by the Horseshoe Crab. It is this bounty that the Killifish were feeding on.

Two species of Killifish were most abundant in this moveable feast, Longnose Killifish (Fundulus similis), and Gulf Killifish (Fundulus grandis). They dominated the scene by sheer numbers in the extreme shallows. Other fish that appear on the video in smaller numbers were Mojarra (Eucinostomas harengulus), 
Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) and
Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides)


This type of relationship where one species benefits, while the other isn't harmed or helped, is called "Commensalism".
Other types of Symbiosis include "Parasitism" and "Mutualism".

I did an internet search for "Symbiotic Relationship between Horseshoe Crabs and Killifish" and the only thing that popped up was my video above that had only been on the internet for 4 minutes at that time.

I'll probably be getting a call from the NOBEL PRIZE COMMITTEE sometime this week.

COME SCALLOPING WITH US! GOPRO UNDERWATER VIDEO BONUS!

It didn't look good as we crossed over the Apalachicola River a few weeks ago. We were heading west to St. Joe Bay to spend some time at our friend's BEAUTIFUL bay house.

Our goal was to stay as wet as possible for a few days, snorkeling, fishing, and of course ... scalloping.

We did all those things of course, and we did stay wet, but it wasn't all saltwater wetness as we had hoped for. Each day brought heavy grey clouds, blowing squalls, and just to shake things up ... brief interludes of bright sunshine.

Of course, we didn't let a little ominous weather stop us. Repeatedly, kayaks and canoes were launched from "The Bay House" on foraging missions.

Most of these were successful.

A few words about scalloping in case you have never been...

• You need a saltwater fishing license.
• Pay attention to the seasons and the limits. Go to Myfwc.com for details.
• In some shallow areas, people walk and pick them up, but generally this is a snorkeling activity in 6 feet or less of water.
• Port St. Joe down to Crystal River is the part of Florida where scalloping is done/
• Bring mask, fins, snorkel, dive flag, and a mesh bag or you'll wind up stuffing your pockets as you snorkel.

At one point, I wound up with 33 scallops in my bathing suit pockets because my mesh bag was in the wrong canoe.

These are the target... "Bay Scallops".
They lie about in the seagrass beds and filter plankton out of the water. You may find some strays out in the sandy patches with no grass, but most will be in the grass.

Scalloping isn't rocket science, but it's almost as much fun.

You just snorkel along, enjoying the scenery and sea life until you spot a scallop on the bottom or perched up on the grass.

Then you grab it.

Easy peasy... but ... I have to tell you about what comes next.

Being a successful scallop predator means you now have to clean them.

There is a shopvac method which seems so much like cheating that I will not even discuss it here.

Better to cement your hunter-gatherer clan bonds by sitting down together and cleaning the kill.

Traditional American scallop consumption involves only the white adductor muscle that opens and closes the two shells. So unlike oysters, muscles, and clams, we discard the visceral mass (body) of the scallop for that one white muscle.

Don't ask me why, I'm just going to answer "tradition".

One of these days, I'm going to eat the whole thing and see if it's a flavor thing. I doubt it since some cultures eat the entire thing.

The prize.
You can go Google "how to clean scallops" or you can marry someone who grew up doing it like I did.
There are a few tricks to it, but it's not difficult once you do a few.

(That last sentence above refers to cleaning scallops not marriage)

At the end of the day, the guts and shells went back into the bay much to the delight of the pinfish who swarmed the pile of shells and cleaned them of every speck of flesh in minutes.


As usual, when I stick my head beneath the waters of my beloved Florida, I take the GoPro camera.

The video below is a 5 minute edited version of some of the better video clips and it shows among other things, scalloping technique, me scaring the bejeezus out of my son, and a creepy crab encounter.

Enjoy!


 

Toad Orgy Proves Me Right!

Over a year ago, in the clear, crisp Florida winter, I began excavating rectangular (mostly) micro-ponds in the dry bottom of my larger pond.

My goal was to create water catchment basins that would hold water longer than it would usually last as a shallow layer spread over the "vastness" of my pond basin.

You see, the "pond" is often a dry hole in the ground, only holding water when the weather allows. It was an AWESOME LAKE back in the totally epic 2004 hurricane season, but the water has come and gone in smaller amounts since that crazy summer.

So it was that I spent some time digging these "basins" in the dry pond bottom. The were to be the flipside version of a life raft. These would be for fish and amphibians, and therefore would need to hold water, not be empty of it.

Sort of a "Life of Pisces" alternative universey kind of life raft ...

So, to get to the point, and there really is one, I promise ... they worked amazingly well.

A few months ago, when the pond swelled and I stalked it with gambusia and freshwater grass shrimp, the basins were invisible beneath the deep water.

Then, as a drought slowly dried the pond up, the basins became the last refuge for thousands of minnows and shrimps. Last week, when it seemed that they would completely dry up, I mounted a major rescue effort to dipnet as many minnows and shrimps out of the basins as possible. These went into my old tilapia tank to hunker down until wetter times.

The day before Andrea struck, the last basin went totally dry and hundreds of minnows that I had missed became part of the nutrient rich mud.

That was June 5.
On June 6, Andrea dropped enough rain to refill the basins, alas one day too late for my minnow refugees.

On the evening of June 6, after TS Andrea's winds died down, the night air was filled with the trilling of eastern toads.

Beaucoup toads, let me tell you.

This morning I walked down to the pond with the GoPro very early in dim light ... more for the sound than the sight.

What I heard, you may hear below:

GOPRO CHICKADEE CAM

I've been at it again.
This time I clamped the GoPro Hero camera to a porch column so that the lens was just about 16 inches from a new nestbox that the Chickadees have claimed as their own.

I turned the GoPro on and left it ... for about 3 hours.

Needless to say, with hungry chicks in the nest box, the parent "Dees" were recorded making many home deliveries. They were relentless in their insect slaughtering expeditions. Time between returning parent birds was about 5 minutes (average) on the raw footage. Alot of that is redundant, so I just stitched a few clips together for the YouTube video below.

If you watch it carefully, you will see numerous bugs delivered and at least once, a fecal sac from the babies is removed from the nest.

Next stop for the GoPro ... on a stake outside the big gopher burrow, or along that busy game trail, or down by the pond during the gloaming ... so many possibilities.

In the meantime, enjoy a little chickadee commuting ...

MYSTERY HUMMINGBIRD CAUGHT BY GOPRO CAMERA

Over Spring Break, I played around with the GoPro, my narcissist camera extension pole (for filming yourself doing AWESOME things, and a few clamps.

I clamped the camera extension pole to the porch rail, turned it on, and just walked away. The GoPro can run for about 3 hours on a battery charge and the Ruby Throated hummers were stoked about the feeder being up, so I knew I would get some decent footage.

And I did.
Although, I had to wade through long stretches of gently swaying, no bird at the feeder footage to extract the birdy bits.

My notes show about 25 visits with an average "stay time" of 15 seconds. I didn't measure the gap between visits, but typically, if I am going to stand out there and wait, I figure about 10 minutes between visits.

The project worked, but may have been unnecessary. There were times when I was setting up the camera that the hummers came and perched on the bracket supporting the feeder, or buzzed my face, hovering, head cocked to the side, checking me out.

Gotta love these little P-51's.


Of course, the big mystery is the identity of the larger brown hummer that shows up in the last few seconds of the video clip below.

I can't find it in any of the field guides

StreamCam 1: Semi-Failure

Last weekend, I converted "Explorer 1" the PVC burrowcam pole into a prototype streamcam.

It was a rushed transformation, made possible by a new GoPro mount that allowed more pivoting of the camera.

I mounted the camera so that it would look out more or less horizontal to the stream bottom while I manipulated the pole from above.

I could see using it while wading, canoeing, or as in this test, from a bridge.

I cut the 10 foot PVC pole in half and mounted threaded fittings so I could use a short version or a longer version by screwing together the 2 halves.

Plus, halving it made transporting it in my tiny (but MIGHTY) JEEP more user-friendly.

Mule Creek in Gulf Hammock offered a handy trial site for StreamCam.

You can see by the shadows that I waited too late in the day for good underwater light conditions.

I credit that timing mistake to 2 Labrador retrievers who are hilarious time suckers.

Mule Creek is clear and shallow, but not entirely pristine.

The culverts beneath US-19 were a bit dark for filming this late in the day.

In the current, a gar channeled his inner stick as he waited for smaller fish to drift past in the current.

While the focus of my trip was the underwater scenery, the topside view wasn't too shabby.
The railroad line is inactive, although a fairly new gas pipeline runs beneath it and even under the stream.

Idiots had found this creek before I got there.

Speaking of idiots ... sometimes I qualify.

Lucky for me, GoPro cameras may have 9 lives.
Mine has at least 2.

In the picture below, I'm holding StreamCam (version 1.0).
Although the pipe is camera end up in this picture, when in use this end is underwater while I manipulate the opposite end.

What I hadn't considered, was the fact that even though the adhesive GoPro mount was securely stuck to the wood when it was dry, the same might not be said for wet wood.

It's not that these super adhesive mounts can't take getting wet, they just aren't made for being submerged.

So, after dangling StreamCam multiple times in different regions of the creek, the camera popped off into my hand as I barely touched it to check the reading.

A moment before, it was bumping around on the bottom of a fast flowing creek.

Whew!

So, maybe that doesn't qualify as true "idiot" status, but this next thing does.

Mounted.

Oops!
Unmounted.

So, maybe that doesn't qualify as true "idiot" status, but this next thing does ...

... I set the Go Pro on the hood of the JEEP ... "just for a minute".

You KNOW what happened next, don't you?

And ... you would be correct.

I drove off with the camera on the hood.

The little GoPro actually stayed on the hood for a hundred yards or so, and when it did go airborne, I had stopped to look at another creek. That location was too shady for any kind of photography so late in the day, so I never reached for the GoPro bag on the seat beside me.

When I turned the JEEP to head back to the highway I heard a clackity rattle sound as if something had fallen onto the pavement.

Which is exactly what had occurred of course.

Arrrgggghhhh !

I jumped out and recovered the GoPro.
I wasn't too worried about the camera since I knew I had not run over it, but I was afraid the underwater housing might have been cracked.

Everything seemed fine at the time.
Just to be safe, I soaked the empty housing at the bottom of my home aquaculture tank all last week.

When I pulled it up after 5 days underwater, it was completely dry inside, so it looks like we're still good to go with that housing.

I have 3 so it would not have slowed me down, but I hate to lose good stuff due to stupid mistakes.

You would think that the multitude of missing in action coffees and cokes that I set on the hood ..."for just a minute" over the years would have taught me this lesson a long time ago.

So, StreamCam 1.0 needs some redesign and I need to not do dumb things, BUT the concept is good and I did get some unexciting test video out of the day.

Prepare to be unexcited ...

DOG STICKCAM VERSION 1.0

HAPPY FRIDAY!

NORTH FLORIDA RUGGED MANIAC PICTURES AND VIDEO

The North Florida Rugged Maniac Run was a crazy, fun, blast!

Plus, we got this awesome T-shirt !

Our Team:
Stuart and Francesco



Stuart, Me, and my cousin Rick (Stuart's Dad)
This is how we looked before the mud.

It was cold with a forecast that predicted possible snow flurries in North Florida.

We were not deterred.

Rugged Maniac was fun with some pretty creatively designed obstacles packed into the 5K run.
The final water slide was a good fast one, but you won't see it on the video below since yours truly fumbled the GoPro record button.

Take my word for it, the slide was tall and fast.

I did exercise some restraint in putting the video together this time.
The last one was 27 minutes long ... this one is only twelve.

Be kind to "shoe lady".
On the video as she goes by in another lane, she stops and asks me to "run her shoes over to the finish line".
Now, we were only at mile 2 of a 3.1 mile race so it seemed kind of odd and you can sense my perplexicity when she makes the request.

I'm not sure she realized how much race there was to go.

It was one more funny moment in a day full of fun.

Be patient in the dark tunnel.
I didn't edit it, because I wanted you to experience how long that dark void was.

The outdoor showers in 60 degree weather with a brisk wind were chilly, but the water was 72 degree well water, so it actually felt pretty good.

As soon as the hose shower was over, it was ice cube city!!

See you at the next mud run!!

Enjoy the video!



GoPro Fish TrapCam : 25 Feet Below The Gulf

Last week, while fishing with my my friend Capt. Denny, I had a bout of inspiration.
On board was a small pinfish trap that we had brought along in hopes of catching something small, but neat for my daughter's classroom aquarium.
Also on board was my ever present GoPro Hero camera.

I stopped catching black seabass for a moment, borrowed a ziptie from Denny, and in a flash, TRAPCAM was born.
With the GoPro ziptied to the inside top of the trap and facing the bait box, we lowered my precious baby to the rocky bottom 25 feet below.

We soaked the TRAPCAM three times while we continued to fish. Each soak was about 20 minutes.
I have uploaded two of the videos to my YouTube account (Natcoast's channel).

They are longer than the usual video here, but soothing in a "watching fish and listening to a live healthy crackling sea" sorta way.

For those of you who want just the highlights, I jotted down a few times when major events happen. The site is a patch of limestone rock that offers some relief to an otherwise flat sandy bottom . It was a plankton rich day, so throughout the video tiny specks of life drift across the view.
The seabass and grunts find the trap just a moment or two after it hits bottom. Later, a moray eel (honeycomb moray) shows up and joins the feeding frenzy.

Here is a time line for those of you who are short on time or just impatient.

• 51s - Touchdown on the bottom.
• 2:28- First fish in the trap.
• 6:11- Black sea bass stares into camera.
• 11:23 - Haul up to check tank.
• 11:50 - Drop trap back down.
• 12:16 -  Touchdown number 2.
• 12:27 - Moray swims by in the background.
• 12:49 - Moray approaches trap.
• 14:46 - Moray enters trap.
• 1530: - Chomp! Black Sea Bass bites camera.
• 15:51 - Moray up front.
• 16:26 - Sea Bass bumps camera.
• 17:47 -  Grunts at the door.
• 20:37 - Lift off and return to surface.

The crackling and popping soundtrack is simply ocean background noise, much of it provided by shrimps and other invertebrates.

The abundance of fish in the video, both around the trap and passing in the background, is pretty awesome. That is due entirely to the presence of the rocks which provide valuable hard substrate real estate for all of the sessile organisms that need a hard surface upon which to attach and grow.
The sponges, soft corals, barnacles, and oysters that attach to the rocks not only provide food for predators, but they also become part of the structure ... literally part of the habitat.

All of the fish in the trap were released except for one moray, a sand perch, and a sea bass that now reside in our Cedar Key Marine Science Lab.

Enjoy!

GoPro BurrowCam

On these 10 wooded acres that we call home, there are somewhere between 7 and 10 gopher tortoises that also call "our" place home.

They have been here since the last ice age and we, well, our St. Augustine rooted family brags about being in Florida for the past 250 years ... which always seems pretty impressive until the gophers drop their ... "since the last ice age" bombshell.

That always ends the discussion ... I try not to bring up generational timelines anymore when I am chatting up a gopher tortoise.

It's a dead end street.

Speaking of dead ends ...  consider the scene below.

In the photo above, we see a gopher burrow that has been dug into by some nongopher critter.
The entrance, which should be a nice semi-circular, domed opening barely bigger than the gopher who made it, has been dramatically enlarged.
Also, at 3 places along the length of the burrow, the ceiling has been breached by holes that break through to the tunnel below.

The day before I took this photo, all was well. It was a perfectly normal, active gopher burrow.

When I discovered this dramatic change, it was late in the day, but a dead gopher not too far away from this disturbed burrow got me wondering about what was inside that burrow now, and how were the other gophers on our property doing?

The unfortunate dead gopher was a mystery, young, maybe only 3 years or so, with hardly a mark on him except for a puncture through his carapace.
A puncture about the size of a canine tooth.
While demons from hell neighbor's cats do cross PFHQ, uninvited dog traffic is nil and Bear walks on a leash with me, so I doubt a domestic dog got this gopher.

I did suspect coyotes though.
They are abundant here, yipping like crazed hyenas on moonful nights ... this past week was loaded with moonful nights.

It seemed to me that I should be able to take a little looksee in that burrow.
After all, I had a 3.5 pound human brain on me, a GoPro video camera in the house, and a workshop full of odds and ends.

With all of the possibilities bouncing around in my brain like a pack of coyotes on an electrified trampoline, I headed to the workshop.

I pondered a moment and then quickly rigged up a "burrowcam" which I christened, "EXPLORER 1".
To a 10 foot piece of schedule 40, 1 inch PVC pipe, I attached a small block of 1"x2" wood.
Next, I took one of my extra GoPro adhesive camera mounts and adhered it to the wooden block.
After that, I ziptied a small, but bright flashlight to the device.

With no view finder, my AWESOME little GoPro Hero camera couldn't tell me what it was seeing in real time. That would have to wait until I could hook the camera up to my laptop.

At least I could peek in the burrows and see if the gophers were okay.
Or, would I see the green glow of coyote eyes staring back at me?

Only time would tell.

Gopher burrows are fairly straight affairs, which is a good thing since the one inch PVC pipe was not going to turn any corners.
My goal was to get in and out pretty quickly, with minimal disturbance to the burrow occupants.

Once the camera and light hit a wall, a curve, or a dead end, I would just retrieve EXPLORER 1 and move on.

Sliding the camera into the burrow was a bit of a "deja vu" moment for me.
Substitute a bamboo pole for the PVC pipe and a large wire hook for the camera, and you would have a gopher pulling pole.
Growing up in St. Augustine in the 1960's and 70's, a device like that was a common sight in the bed of any pickup truck and the gopher stew it provided was traditional backyard cookout fare.

I like the camera concept much better.

I love my resident gophers and manage the areas around their burrows to keep the forest back and provide the sunshine and forbs they need to remain here. A little meadow burning and tree trimming is all it takes to give them the open space they need for gophrolicking.

I checked 4 burrows with the burrowcam.
The dugout burrow and another had just enough of a curve that the pole dead-ended.
The third burrow sloped down and then up a little and the pole dead-ended again.

Those videos show burrow tunnel and then ... plunk! A sand wall.
Not too exciting.

But the 4th burrow was easily navigated by EXPLORER 1 and it contained a healthy, fat gopher.

EXPLORER 1 came back from it's mission in great shape.
Just a little sand here and there.

I see great potential for this little prototype "stick it where you don't want to go or can't fit" camera setup.

I'm thinking "culvert cam", "dark scary hole cam", "big scary toothy fish cam", "rattlesnake cam",  ... the possibilities are mind boggling.


Here's the burrowcam video that bore fruit ...

Paws and Effect ... a Bear Post

Gosh, I haven't put sweet little Beardog on Pure Florida for too long.
Some of you may even be suffering from "Abearobic Withdrawals" !
Not, to worry.
Here's a little GoPro video of Bearzy being teased over a treat last night.

No Bears were harmed in this demonstration of "Paws and Effect".

SURVIVOR MUD RUN AT BUNNELL, FLORIDA 2012

Finally, the Seafood Festival is over and I don't have to go home and make clam chowder every night of the week!

Being free of that responsibility allowed me to stitch together a video showing some of the obstacles (and the cow poop) I encountered during the run.

The first two and last two scenes are in order, but as far as the other obstacles, I did not attempt to put them in the actual order in which they were encountered.

My thoughts on the "SURVIVOR MUD RUN":

• First, it was fun and I did enjoy it. I loved that it wasn't too far from my parent's home so I could take a shower there and visit awhile.
• I guess Mud Runs come in all shapes and sizes, but I would pump up the challenge level on this one as a way to improve it. Lots of sloggy mud ... and they DID call it a "Mud Run", so I expected that, but the actual obstacles were pretty mild.
• The biggest negative thing at this race was an abundance of fresh cow manure along the trail and even floating in the mud obstacles ... eeuuuu.  As a biology instructor, the potential for infection when people are splatting, crawling, face planting, slipping, slurping, and splashing in fecal contaminated mud kinda' bothers me.
• The check in and registration, etc seemed well organized and went smoothly.
• I give it a C.  I could have gone with a B minus, but for the abundance of cow poop.

Here is the video with my muddy critique at the end. Sorry for the sound on parts of the Jeep Critique final segment, a stiff breeze had sprung up during the race.

My next run is December 8 in Jacksonvillle and finally, I will not be going alone. We have a crew running together so that should be a lot of fun with more exciting video possibilities.

I also signed up for the Rugged Maniac race in February (16th) 2012 at Waldo, Florida.

Junior ran the Xtreme Mud Warrior obstacle race last Saturday and finished in less than 26 minutes!!!!
WHAT THE HELL?
I couldn't run a 5K race WITHOUT obstacles in that time.
I am in awe of my baby boy.

Here's the video:

BEST ZIPLINE IN FLORIDA! THE CANYONS ZIPLINE

My daughter Emma, (seen zipping away above), gave me a trip to the Canyons Zipline and Canopy Tours near Ocala, Florida this year.
Now, my birthday is in January, but we were so busy with school, we just never had a chance to go play ... until this week.

Oh my, oh my ... This place is TOTALLY AWESOME.

Just the scenery alone, is worth the trip. 

I love my home state, but she's flat as a board folks.
We get a few soft mounds on the central ridge and again in the panhandle, but mostly, there is no relief in sight.

The Canyons are different.

Set in an old limerock quarry, the Canyons Zipline property is just spectacular with valleys, canyons, vertical limestone cliffs, and lakes.

If it weren't for the cabbage palms, you would not think this was Florida at all.

Neither Emma or I had ever zip lined before, so we didn't know exactly what to expect, but everything about that day exceeded our expectations.

Our two zip line guides, "Jonesy" and "Rob" were funny, safety conscious, and just a heck of a lot of fun to be around.

(When you go, be sure and give them a little extra tip ... I didn't think about that ahead of time and had a total of $4.00 in my wallet. They deserved better.)

The guides kit you out with the safety harness and give you a short tutorial on a tiny zip line and then its off to the races.
The zips start out small for the first two.

After that they get pretty dang A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

This is the view as you break out of the treeline, pass over a cliff, and head out over the lake.

See those cliffs!
This is Florida?

Looks more like Arkansas.

This is the view from the highest platform in the park. According to Jonesy and Rob, this is the longest (1100 ft) and fastest zip line in Florida.
At this point, you are 130 feet above the lake.

And there goes Emma!

Here's my view as I leave the 130 foot tower.
All the photos on this post are video captures from my GoPro camera.
I know this sounds like a commercial, (it's not), but this little GoPro Hero is absolutely a fantastic little camera.

I thought I was going to have to use my head mount strap for the GoPro, but The Canyons has some of their helmets outfitted with standard GoPro mounts so you can just snap your camera to the helmet.

SWEET!

Its not all zip lining, there is a bouncy fun rope bridge that crosses a chasm.

This is called a "self rescue".
If your momentum doesn't quite get you to the next platform, you just spin around and hand over hand pull yourself those last few feet.

This only happened to me once on the 1100 foot zip.

Its effortless, so stop worrying.
All day long, the safety harness and zip equipment did all the heavy lifting.
You can do it.

After the final zip, you wind up on a platform, high above the ground with no way down but rapelling.

This too is effortless.
Once again, you are in control, but the rope and hardware are doing all the work.

Going down.

All in all, I think we did 9 different zips, plus the neat rapel at the end.
Emma and I were the only ones on this late afternoon tour, so we had no waiting and no delays.
As a result, our tour time was a little quicker than most, but that beats waiting in line any day. Tour groups are up to 8 people and a full one takes longer.
Rob and Jonesy (our guides) were up front about this when we first met, since the brochure mentions 2-3 hours.

You can get all the particulars at the website.

Dress comfortable and the rest is up to the Canyon folks.

I'm posting about it here on Pure Florida because it truly was a quality experience.
And, it was a real experience, as opposed to the superficial NonPureFlorida MouseWorld experience.

The price isn't cheap, but neither is the experience. When you consider what people pay for a few hours of boat rental, fishing guide service, or other outdoor activities that require special equipment or knowledge, then the Canyon's price of about $89 is not unreasonable.


Plus, if you ride 3 times within 2 years, you can get a 4th Zip free. Sweet.

Just as a disclaimer, I'm not getting reimbursed for this review in any way. If it had been a Zip Rip Off, you would have heard about it here, but it wasn't. Neither GoPro (who I gush about constantly) nor the Canyons folks have any input here at Pure Florida.

I'm just telling it like I see it and my advice for anyone looking for a unique experience is go ZIP THE CANYONS!

MANATEE MULLET MAGIC

I finally sat down and installed my Blurfix attachment to my GoPro camera housing. Wednesday, I took it to Manatee Springs State Park for a pressure test in the main spring bowl ... about 25 feet deep.

After a few deep dives with an empty case and  no leaks, I returned to the surface and popped the GoPro into the housing.

Then it was back into the water.

I cruised around filming the fish and scenery for an hour or so, hoping that the Blurfix truly had fixed the slight underwater blur that plagues the standard GoPro housing.

A school of large mullet were extremely cooperative, and I think you regulars may notice how much sharper the focus is.
If you want to compare, you could go back a few posts to the last Manatee video post and compare the sharpness.

I'm stoked and looking forward to getting it wet over spring break.

In case you are wondering about mullet in pure fresh spring water, they are "euryhaline" and can handle both salty and fresh water ... just like bull sharks ... which I did not see in Manatee, ... but ... it's not impossible.

Stay wet y'all.

Kayaking St. Joe Bay, Florida

Debbie of Happy Ours Kayak & Canoe Outpost sharing a chart of St. Joe Bay before Mrs. FC and I paddled out into the clear waters of the bay. I found Happy Ours just by doing a Google search our first evening in Port St. Joe.

I am so glad I did.



Debbie is a certified Master Naturalist with the state of Florida. On top of that, she's been doing this a while and really knows and loves the bay. She was so knowledgeable and fun to talk with, that we actually started paddling about a half hour after we were technically ready to start.



You can follow the link above for all the details, but here's the cost scoop on our little adventure.

• A tandem kayak rented for 4 hours = $45.


• A few incidental rental items like a pair of boat shoes and a waterproof watch = $4


• Total bill with taxes included, about $54.

I spend that much when I hit the movies these days and THAT fun is virtual ... except for the excellent movie popcorn of course.

Debbie's prices are very reasonable and the helpful service was excellent.

If it hadn't of been so, I would tell you, believe me.

Give her a try, you will not be disappointed.





St. Joe Bay is kept crystal clear by a rare combination of being almost totally enclosed by Cape San Blas and the absence of any major freshwater input via rivers. Add in the fact that it is very shallow and you get a unique experience of viewing the wonderful dwellers of the sea bottom.

Debbie recommended paddling straight out from Happy Ours towards Black's Island as that course would pass over shallow flats and deeper holes where fish congregate.


We took her advice and it was just as she said ... schools of mullet, killifish, and what looked like Spanish mackerel passed by continuously as we paddled.

Since you can see everything on the bottom as you paddle or drift, all the creatures from our wading fun of the day before made an appearance, plus some new ones.



The Keys? The Bahamas? No, ... North Florida!





Here is an egg case of the Lightning Whelk. I actually found one whelk in the act of laying the egg case.

Even though I have seen a bazillion whelk egg cases in my life, THAT was a first for me.

I think that illustrates one of the very special things about St. Joe Bay. The vast, quiet, shallow waters allow you to not just SEE a critter, but to see them in action. The silent approach of a kayak or a slow, quiet wade opens up a world where horseshoe crabs continue their grazing and courtship behaviors, whelks lay eggs, spider crabs compete for mates, and stingrays fly by, not in a frightened rush, but with purpose.

It was pretty much heaven.

Okay, it would have been heaven if the water had been just a little warmer. We were there at the tail end of winter and the water was just chilly enough (by Floridian standards) to keep my head above water.
Floridiots like me tend to be weenies about water temps that northerners would plunge in to with glee.

It has to be fantastic snorkeling after the water warms a wee bit.



Here's a lightning whelk creeping across the shallow bottom. This one actually crawled up on to my extended hand ... I have a video of that somewhere to show you.

Soon come.




This is a very cropped shot of a flock of Buffleheads who no doubt found plenty to eat in the teeming waters of St. Joe Bay.
What a beautiful duck!

Ignore my still winter white legs and focus on the dry bag. You can rent one from Debbie, but we had our own which we used constantly on this trip.
You definitely want one in a kayak if you are bringing anything you intend to keep dry.

I have used this Seattle Sports H2 Zero bag for a couple of years now and love it.

Nothing inside it has ever gotten wet and it's big enough to toss in beach towels, extra clothes, cameras, lunch, ... everything except a Labrador Retriever.

If you are taking along hundreds of dollars worth of camera gear, you definitely want them to survive the trip, so don't forget this vital piece of equipment.

If you do, you can always rent a dry bag from Debbie at Happy Ours of course.

When our 4 hours was up, we emerged from the bay with a wonderful, fun, unique experience under our belts. Debbie came out to check in our rentals and we walked out to the truck to the soothing sounds of her chickens clucking and her donkey braying for attention.

I'm sure she must pinch herself daily to be living and working in such a beautiful spot.

Below is a little video compilation I created showing a tiny bit of our 4 hours of bay bliss.

Enjoy it, but go experience the real thing if you can!!

Post Script: GoPro Camera Review

Regular readers of PF know I recently acquired a GoPro wearable video camera. This trip was the first time that I used the camera underwater.
I was curious to see how it would do, especially after reading online that it had focusing issues underwater due to the domed lens cover on the underwater case.

I found this to be pretty accurate, the focus is definitely softer underwater. There are some fixes for this out on the internet and all involve a flat surface over the lens.
The rumor is that GoPro is working on a fix, so I think I will wait to see what they offer before taking the plunge to fix this flaw.
Otherwise, I am totally having a blast with this neat little camera.