Conchs...A Food Post, But It's Not About You, Human.

Yes, yes, ... I know. 
Conch makes great chowder, fantastic fritters, and tangy ceviche.
I get that.
But this post is not about your predatory relationship with members of Class Gastropoda.
This post is about the conchs' (and their whelky cousins) predatory ways.

So, go ahead and watch the video and then we'll continue...

Snails like the Crown Conch (Melongena corona) and the unfortunate Lightning Whelk (Busycon sinistrum) in the video are active predators and scavengers. 

The Lightning Whelk in the video is a young one. The Whelk actually grows to a much larger size than the Crown Conch.
Had the Whelk survived to maturity instead of winding up as Conch lunch, the tables could have easily been turned in this encounter.

In the video, the Conch has almost completely engulphed the Whelk, but the Whelk is not "inside" the Conch.
You are not seeing the "mouth" of the Conch with just the "apex" of the Whelk visible.

The Whelk is wrapped up and almost completely covered by the muscular foot and mantle of the Conch.

What we can't see beneath all that is the actual eating action.

Below the surface, the Conch is using its "Radula" to scrape the Whelk apart and consume it.  Radulas are sometimes described as a "toothed tongue" which gives a pretty good mental image, even if mollusks don't have true teeth.

The Radula is covered with sharp chitinous points that act like a rasp to scrape off bits of food so they can be passed into the mouth of the Conch. 

Once the Conch is finished, the Whelk shell will be totally cleaned of flesh. 

When you stroll a beach and find that "perfect" shell, all fresh looking with vibrant colors still, it's probably the leftovers from some Gastropod's lunch.

See if this has happened to you...
You are shelling on some beach, and you find a clam or cockle shell with a perfectly round hole drilled near the apex of the shell. 

Yup, a radula has been there... the Oyster Drill snails use their radula to drill THROUGH the shell of bivalves to get to the yummy flesh inside.

Impressive.

Night Creatures Of St. Joe Bay, Florida. Let's Go Into The Dark Bay And See What's Going On Beneath The Surface.

This summer we spent a week on Cape San Blas near Port St. Joe, Florida. We stayed at this wonderful vacation rental house, called Bay Window. 
The house, perched on pilings just a few feet from the water's edge, offers wonderful views as well as easy foot and kayak access to the clear waters of St. Joe Bay.

It is such a sweet spot!

You can walk downstairs and hit the bay without any driving, parking, traffic, etc. We kayaked and waded the clear bay over and over again. The house is just about 10 minutes from the actual Gulf Beach and T.H. STONE MEMORIAL ST. JOSEPH PENINSULA STATE PARK too. 

We did bay and beach repeatedly during our week.

I did some of my bay exploring long after the Sun had set. 

On the first-night wading expedition, I took only my headlamp and my GoPro Hero 5. The GoPro was attached to my 3-foot long expandable "selfie stick". That allowed me to plunge the GoPro beneath the surface and stick it right in the face of interesting (and aren't they all?) sea creatures.

The incredible thing about St. Joe Bay, besides the water clarity, is its shallow depth. There are vast stretches of the bay where you can walk for hours in water less than waist-deep.

The first night, I went out into the bay with only the GoPro on the selfie stick and my headlamp.
I was traveling light on this exploratory mission and it went great, but the headlamp gave a limited view due to its narrow beam.
I saw and filmed lots of cool animals, but ... what was I missing just beyond that tight circle of light?

Was I missing Fiddler crabs?

or...

...Southern Stingrays?

Luckily, I had planned ahead and brought my Ryobi One Plus 18 volt work light. This thing is awesome around the house and with a fully charged battery, it shines for hours.

Plus, it is fairly light in weight and would not be tiring to carry in my left hand, while I poked the GoPro underwater with my right.

It wasn't designed for this use, but the Ryobi worked like a charm. It was much brighter than the headlamp and opened up a huge area for hunting marine life.

On the second night, I took more gear. 

First I put the kayak in the water just to serve as a pack mule of sorts. I didn't get in it at all that night, although I packed a paddle and could've if the need arose.

I tied a short length of a line from the kayak to me with a quick-release knot. That way I could walk and tow the kayak which was loaded with my flounder gig, life jacket, extra headlamps, my Florida Fishing License, and a few other items.

Now I only had to carry what I was using at the moment and I had a stable platform when I needed to set things down and tweak things or drink a little water.

I didn't hit the water until after 11PM and I stayed out on the water until 3:30 AM. 

It felt like a much shorter time, ... so much was happening out there. 

EVERYWHERE  there were horseshoe crabs of all sizes... even a blueish one. Some were hooked up waiting for the spawn, others were cruising and digging for food.

It was deliciously dark and quiet all around except for my light which was mostly pointed down.

The fish! So many kinds, bay anchovies, pinfish, killifish, mojarra, hardhead catfish, ... even a huge seatrout ...definitely a keeper.

One of the weirder moments was as I was taking a break and was holding the Ryobi light a little more horizontal than straight down. I was out pretty far on a grass flat and in the deepest water of the night which was about waist-deep. Suddenly, off to my left, two sets of glowing red,... I mean CRIMSON RED eyes were heading my way.

It turned out to be two Ladyfish on patrol. 

Really impressive.

At this point, you might be thinking, "What about that flounder gig ...did it get used?" 

After about four hours of wading, filming, exploring, and yes, looking for flounder, I had not seen the first one.

That was okay with me because I was having a blast just being out there... living deliberately.

On the way back in, as I approached the shoreline directly in front of the BayWindow house ... there he was.

A Gulf Flounder, maybe 16 inches nose to tail. In Florida, Flounder only have to be 12 inches to be legal (TOO SMALL FLORIDA!), so I could've gigged him, but what would I have?

A single small flounder at the end of the night who would not feed 2 people and would need to be filleted before I hit the rack... and I was ready for some sleep.

So, I let him live to feed and grow.

And that,... THAT was the perfect ending to a perfect night in St. Joe Bay, Florida.

The video below is a composite of video clips from both nights.

Come along with me!

Great Lodging and Great Food In Port St. Joe, Florida

In the last few posts, I have touched on the wonderful saltwater adventures you can experience in the Port St. Joe area. From fishing, to snorkeling and kayaking clear Gulf waters, Port St. Joe has it all. However, ... you have to stop to eat and sleep sometimes, so here are a few places to eat and a really cozy place to stay if you are in the area. Located just outside the entrance to St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park is "Cone Heads". We ordered hamburgers, which were very good and served on a very light fresh bun. It was a typical beach meal as far as what we ordered ... crinkle cut fries, onion rings and burgers. They were all good, but do NOT be in a hurry when you get there. My impression is that they are operating on a minimal staffing formula so the wait to be served was far too long. Everyone was nice and the food was good, I just think they could do with a little larger staff. The town center of Port St. Joe is undergoing a transformation apparently. There are signs of restoring and reusing all sorts of older store fronts along the core of the town. The scene above is right across the street from the Port Inn were we stayed, so we were able to just walk over to dine. Joe Mama's was recommended by the Port Inn staff. We decided to give it a try after the desk clerk said, "They make great pizza, but it's not going to be like regular Pizza Hut pizza". He was right. The service was great, the atmosphere inviting, and the pizza was this Delicious thin crust crispy creation topped with totally fresh goodies and NOT smothered in sauce or a pound of cheese. You could actually taste all of the ingredients! t was the best non seafood meal we had on this trip. I'm pretty sure it was the tastiest pizza I have ever eaten, and because it was not smothered in oily over "cheesage", I never experienced that post-Pizza Hut feeling of having just ingested 20cc's of horse tranquilizer. Here's a side view of the Port Inn looking east from the street with all the restaurants and shops. The Port Inn was a lucky find on this trip. When I was planning ahead for the trip ... about 3 days ahead, it became very clear that this was not a motel dense area. In fact they are few and far between. Lucky for us, the Port Inn is one of the few. The Port Inn was delightful. To borrow a paragraph from their website, "Port Inn is a recently-restored 21-room hotel located in the small coastal town of Port St. Joe on Florida's quiet Gulf Coast, less than twenty minutes from Apalachicola and Mexico Beach. The Inn sits just across the street from St. Joseph Bay and Frank Pate Park with public boat launching facilities, and just three blocks from a new, state-of-the-art marina offering fishing charters and waterfront dining." We almost drove past it, since the room were described as a"bay view" room. That descriptive term had us looking at the left (bay)side of the highway as we drove west through Port St. Joe. Suddenly, there it was on the right! So, yes, it is a "bay view", but a bay view across the road from the bay. No big deal, because it turned out to be a great place. It had the right amount of quaintness as a restored older inn, but there was nothing stuffy about it. The room was beautiful, the bed very comfortable, and the TV was not flat ... see, I told you it was quaint. The staff members were very pleasant and even though there is a pretty fun bar on site called "The Thirsty Goat", the bar music and noise never seemed to be intrusive back at the room. They serve a fantastic breakfast also and this is included in your room price. The price was about $119 per night, but considering that on the final night of this trip we stayed at a Days Inn in Apalachicola for almost the same price with boring basic motel furnishings and a sad, pitiful complimentary breakfast (which we skipped), ... well, considering all THAT, the Inn was a deal. I would definitely stay there again. And here is your "bay view" from the pretty park located directly across the street from the Inn. When I return to Port St. Joe, the Port Inn will be my first choice for lodging. In this final Port St. Joe post, I've tried to string together (by way of links to the previous posts) a first hand account of what to do, where to eat, and where to stay. Why, I've practically planned your vacation for you! We were only there for a few days, so obviously we missed some other neat places to visit in the area, but, hey, all the more reason to return! Book your 2011 and 2012 Florida villa breaks with Florida4Less

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.

St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park

I'm not sure where to begin.
You can tell by the sheer volume of photos in this post that I wasn't sure what to put in and what to leave out ... this place, St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park, and the adjacent waters are just spectacular.


(photo by Mrs. FC ... she got a camera for her birthday)

We did go kayaking on the bay the next day, but this post is about the joys of just wading and critter watching in the crystal waters of St. Joe Bay. The peninsula partially encloses the bay in a thin sandy embrace. That barely there strip of sand coupled with a lack of large rivers or stream diluting the bay waters make St. Joe Bay a uniquely beautiful place.

The bay is very shallow and therefore, perfectly suited for wading.
All you need to enjoy this bay is a pair of bare feet.


The darker areas are seagrass beds. The bay bottom is a mix of seagrass meadows and sandy bottoms.

If you go, and you must go, plan on doing the Sanibel Stoop a lot.

The bay bottom is just full of sea creatures ... which is why this post is just so darn long.

I couldn't help myself.


Let us begin, shall we?

This tulip snail is alive ... just camera shy. He retracted into his shell when I picked him up.

This tulip snail holds a hermit crab and not the original snail. The surface is being colonized by slipper shells.

Here is the current owner of the tulip snail shell.

He has the grouchy look of a crab who is probably "discovered" weekly and held up for pictures by happy waders.

There are a lot of live sea urchins munching their way through the seagrass meadows. They will be in another bay post.

THIS bit of beaded beauty is the test of the urchin, minus the animal and its spiny covering.

The neat critter on top of the test is a chiton.

I get wet in salt water quite often and chitons are not a common sight in my book.

That made finding this one extra special.

Here is the reason you can not book a motel or cabin reservation from July to early September along the bay. Florida's bay scallop season runs from July to September and it is very popular. Visitors snorkel or simply wade the shallows, picking up the delicious goodies.

Somehow, this lucky scallop survived last season and made it in to the new year.

I hope it spawned ... a lot.

Good ol' Class Asteroidea.

Thank you oh long ago starfish class namer.

You made remembering this one really easy.

This looks like a Forbes Common Star.

These guys eat scallops too, but this one needs to grow a bit.

This brittle star has prehensile arms that are more like tentacles than the less wiggly arms of "regular" starfish.

You can call them seastars if you like ... it is very trendy to do so, but I prefer starfish.

Above is one of our most beautiful clams, the Sunray Venus. This species is a hot aquaculture research animal and may be the next big thing in clam aquaculture.

According to my friends at Harbor Branch, the shell turns pink when they are steamed.

That opens up a whole new marketing niche ... "Enjoy pink clams ", etc.

The aquaculture hurdle to be leaped is the more fragile shell of the Sunray Venus. Clam harvesting, grading, and shipping is not for the fragile shelled.

Pen Shells are edible too. This one had already been consumed by something in the bay.

When they are alive, the pointy end of the pen shell is deep in the sandy bottom and only the very top is above the seafloor.

I like having empty pen shells in my saltwater tanks at school, because they provide neat habitat for blennies and the like.

This is not a live horseshoe crab. It may have died or it may just be a molted exoskeleton cast off by a growing member of Class Merostomata. We did not find any live ones while wading in the park waters, but there were plenty of live ones on our kayaking trip the next day.

I find it really hard to leave shallow clear water full of marine life, but breakfast was a Zone Dark Chocolate AlmondProtein Bar and some fruit, so around 1:30 pm, we headed out of the park to find lunch.

I say 1:30, but what time it was depended on how I held my cell phone. St. Joe Peninsula is so close to the central time zone line that my phone would sometimes pick up a tower to the west and I would gain an hour.

We had a remarkable hamburger at a joint called Coneheads right outside the park entrance.

I'll post it on Pure Florida Food later.

(photo by Mrs. FC)

Look at that smallpox vaccination scar ... that dates me doesn't it?

After the most excellent burger, we headed back into the park and went to the beach side to catch some late afternoon rays.

The deeper ocean water was much chillier than the bay shallows and the breeze had a nip to it, so I just did the lazy beach sloth thing and flopped down on the sand.
Yes, I wimped out.

(photo by Mrs. FC)

At the end of the day, I hated to leave, but we had caught a rumor of an amazing pizza place in downtown Port St. Joe and I wanted to check it out. I dragged my feet on the way back to the truck, ... not wanting to leave such a magical place.

St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park has it all ... if all to you means beautiful beaches, crystal clear bay waters teeming with very approachable marine critters, biking, hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, camping, and fishing.

We tested the kayakanicity of St. Joe Bay the very next day.

I'll tell you about that next.