Florida Sea Base News

The number of dead fish in the Keys is still a big topic of discussion and front page news in the papers.  The two photos were taken at Big Munson Island, home of the Out Island Adventure, by Sarah Wittke.

Like most of the rest of the country, our temperatures are rising and the massive fish kill is starting to ripen.  Fortunately, most of the dead fish in the harbor at Florida Sea Base have been carried out by the tidal flow.  But there are still a number of dead fish and they are starting to stink.

The Turtle Hospital rescued over 90 turtles during the cold snap and several have been returned to the wild.  There is a great story with lots of photos at http://www.turtlehospital.org/blog/.  I know the focus of the United States is on Haiti right now – and deservedly so.  But if you can spare a few extra bucks, please consider making a donation to the Turtle Hospital.  I have assisted these folks before and I can personally attest that they do good works.

Taken at Big Munson Island by Sarah Wittke.

Taken at Big Munson Island by Sarah Wittke.

I’m back!  I arrived early yesterday afternoon at the Florida Sea Base and stayed in the office until after dinner time.  There is a LOT to catch up.  ”Job security” some folks say.  A lack of manpower is another way to look at it.  Everything seems in order aboard Escape, EXCEPT I forgot to empty the galley trash before I left.  Needless to say, I have had all of the hatches open all afternoon.  Actually I was very surprised by how little stench was present.  I spent too much time in the office and so I didn’t get everything unloaded from the truck.  But there will time for that in the next few days.

Ice.  I was gone for 12 days.  It was so cold while I was gone that I still have ice in the ice chest that I put in the truck the day I left.  I have heard some horrible first hand accounts about the fish kill that occurred with that arctic blast that lingered about 10 days ago.  I’m glad I wasn;t here to see it.  The accounts make me even more concerned about what happened to our reefs.  I copied the following information from http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/MLRF1.txt which is compiled by the National Data Buoy Center.  The columns didn’t copy well but I’m sure you can follow the information. What’s important is that the water temperature on Molasses Reef hit 60.6 degrees Fahrenheit (15.9 Celsius) at 0900 Eastern Daylight Time (1400 UTC) on 11 January 2011. That’s about 10 degrees (F) cooler than normal and is certain to have hurt the coral as well as the fish.

#YY  MM DD hh mm WDIR WSPD GST ATMP  WTMP
#yr    mo   dy    hr mn   degT   m/s      m/s  degC     degC

2010 01   11   23   00     360     5.7       6.7    14.3      23.3
2010 01   11   22   00     360     5.7       6.7    14.4      22.8
2010 01   11   21   00     360     6.2       6.7    14.0      22.8
2010 01   11   20   00    340     6.2       7.2    13.0      22.8
2010 01   11   19   00     340     7.2       8.2    12.1      22.7
2010 01   11   18   00     340     7.2       8.2    11.1      22.7
2010 01   11   17   00     340     7.2       7.7     9.1       22.5
2010 01   11   16   00     350     6.7       7.2     7.3       20.6
2010 01   11   15   00     360     8.2      8.8     5.9       16.7
2010 01   11    14   00    360     10.3    10.8    MM     15.9
2010 01   11   13   00     360    12.4     13.4   MM      MM
2010 01   11   12   00     360    11.8     13.4   MM      21.3
2010 01   11   11   00     360    11.3     12.9   MM       21.8
2010 01   11   10   00    360    10.8     11.8   MM       21.9
2010 01   11   09   00    360    11.3     12.4   MM       21.8
2010 01   11   08   00    360    12.4     13.4   MM       21.8
2010 01   11   07   00    360    12.4     14.4   MM       21.9
2010 01   1  1 06   00    360    11.8     12.9    5.8       21.9
2010 01   11   05   00    350    13.9     15.4    6.7       21.9
2010 01   11   04   00    350    12.9     14.4    7.3       21.9
2010 01   11   00   00    360    10.3     11.8    8.4      21.7

WDIR = wind direction
WSPD = wind speed
GST = wind gust
ATMP = air temperature
WTMP = water temperature

Time starts at the bottom and goes up.  Time is UTC so subtract 5 hours to get local time.