Collecting pics (South FL)

[Zoodiver]

Yesterday, took a small team from work with the intention of scouting for sharks. Five went along, only the two guys actually did any collection (we let the girls hold down the fort at the beach and talk to the public about the aquarium and what we were doing while the guys toughed it out most of the day in the 65 degree water). We were at a nice isolated beach that was mangroves on one side, grass flats in the middle, and rock shore on the far side. Lots of bait fish, young 'cuda, needlefish, various inverts etc.... Came back with a few non-shark goodies: Two scraweld cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis), burrfish (Chilomycterus spp), and another octopus to raise in holding (we just put one on display last week). Also snagged a few hermits and misc other inverts at the same time.

Kids that were on the beach got a huge kick out of running over to see the fish and ask questions. For the ones who were international tourist, we got luckly that between the 5 of us, we had 4 or 5 languages that we could translate into. We kept the fish in buckets on the beach to keep a close eye on fish conditions, then transfered them to the larger transport set up I've got built into the cargo area of my SUV for the haul home.

(Some of the pics got resized a bit off, but you get the idea.)

Enjoy.

The girls thought it would be fun/ironic to have a sushi lunch while out collecting fish. Personally, I'm not a big fish eater.

 

[armac]

You guys drink Schitlz.............wrong.

Nice puffers, boxfish, cowfish..........whatever you want to call them.

Atlantic or Gulf?

 

[ceeej31]

what aquarium are the fish going to?

 

[ADEE]

how freakin' cool!!! and to think all of that is off our coastline, great pics... ahhh we live in paradise. the girls got FRIED by the looks of it lol .. nice booty pic guys hahaha. really, really cool. i would love to go out and collect like that (Dont you need a license though?) i would love to see a pic of your cargo in the SUV! For sure Atlantic, my fav' is the octopus!

neat pics, thanks for sharing!

 

[Ullopincrate]

Nice catch. Nice scenery. Love the octopus.

 

[Zoodiver]

You guys drink Schitlz.............wrong.

Nice puffers, boxfish, cowfish..........whatever you want to call them.

Atlantic or Gulf?

I drink Mt Dew. Don't lump me in with them!

Gulf side.

what aquarium are the fish going to?

We caught them on a private collector ornimental permit, but they're going to MSQ for display. When we're out on the aquarium's permit, we're on the clock and decked out in MSQ uniforms.

 

[armac]

Keys? or Naples/Marco area?

 

[Zoodiver]

Keys

 

[ewurm]

That looks like a blast! How do you do the collecting?

 

[BIGgourami]

Yesterday, took a small team from work with the intention of scouting for sharks. Five went along, only the two guys actually did any collection

i thought you were going to say "five went along.. only two made it back" that'd have been hilariously tragic


sweet pics man