Beach report - St. George Island, FL

Connie and I drove over to St. George Island yesterday, and miraculously we didn't get rain there. Kind of disappointed in the beach as it was pretty much covered with matts of unsightly brown and ratty looking seaweed. And we could see more coming in with every wave. The junk was literally everywhere. Would not have been very much fun trying to swim in those waters with all that junk in their.

I've been watching the beach lately just to see if that oil spill is having any effect, and I'm not sure I believe all the hype I read about everything being just honky dory. For one thing, this time if year I think the Gulf waters should be teeming with schools of small fish. Nothing. In areas where the ebbing tide was leaving pools of water on the beach, normally they would have small fish trapped there, but I saw NONE at all. Normally we would see zillions of coquinas digging down into the sand after being disturbed by every incoming wave. I saw NONE. Even sand crabs were not to be seen, but I did see a few of their burrows, so SOME must still be there. Birds were there on the beach, but nothing at all like I remember seeing in the past. No fish jumping in the water, and we only saw one spot where it appeared that birds were feasting on a small school of fish out past the sand bar.

Otherwise the water looks fine. Smells fine. No odor of oil or other chemicals that were used as dispersants that I could tell. But honestly, it just is not the same. Walking the beach I got the feeling of being at a funeral wake and not the Gulf of Mexico that should be teeming with life bursting at the seams this time of year. Heck, now that I think of it, we did not see one single solitary dead fish laying on the beach. Normally there should be some, but there were absolutely NONE anywhere. In my opinion, SOMETHING is going on, and I don't believe it is good at all.

Sigh......

Oh, there was one notable bright spot that day. In all the years Connie and I have been going to St. George Island, we have NEVER, EVER found a petrified shark's tooth. Until this trip. I was astonished! I've found plenty of them at Manasota Key Beach, Englewood, and Venice Beach, but NEVER found one in this area. And it is a pretty darn nice one, to boot.



But on the other hand, kind of sad that the highlight of the walk on the beach was finding something from an animal that has been dead for millions of years.

I know that bad feeling Rich. I used to live in Orlando back in the 60's and 70's. I went down for a visit in early 90's. There was a red sand road that stretched many miles that me and my buddies would ride our bikes on endlessly. Orange and grapefruit groves, swampland and woods on each side.

Let's not forget the orange fights we had in the groves.

In the wet season temporary pools teamed with exotic baby fish dropped in from what I assume was gulls, pelicans. I would go out with nets and capture them and put them in my numerous tanks along with crabs and crayfish of different species.

I had found Indigo's, tortoises, and venomous snakes. Tons of animals that belonged there and many that didnt. Some huge arachnids and exotic bugs.

I spent a good portion of my preteens and early teen years there.

Imagine the tummy ache I got when I went down for a visit and it was all gone.

Red sand road was 6 lanes of blacktop
Orange groves, swamps and woods were gas stations, restaurants and businesses.

I actually fell into a depression that lasted awhile. Just horrible.

Kind of interesting and coincidental that there is an article in the local newspaper today stating that the oyster population is WAY down lately. They also mentioned that the crab and shrimp populations are down as well. But they seem to be dancing on eggshells to keep from pointing the finger at BP dumping dispersants in the Gulf as being the likely cause, it seems. It looks to me that the bottom layers of the food chain have been severely damaged. And now it's starting to percolate upwards.

Yeah, the seafood market that Connie was helping out at part time has been having to run over to Amelia Island once or twice a week to get shrimp so they had some to sell to their customers.

Already been hearing rumors of shrimp without eyes and crabs without claws people are finding in the Gulf.

Yeah, something definitely is not right in the Gulf of Mexico lately.