Mosquito Lagoon, Edgewater, Florida local results, news and ecological effects.
Jan 14th 2010EdgewaterDead Sea Turtle
More than 2,000 sea turtles from Mosquito Lagoon floated up this week because of the cold. As of Wednesday, about 300 had died.
If you’re caught with one of these shells, you are facing a third degree felony and up to five years in prison for a shell,” said a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Officers say at least four dead sea turtles have been stolen!
Jan 10th 2010EdgewaterRescued in Mosquito Lagoon
The Coast Guard is reminding all boaters to be careful on the waters in cold temperatures after two boaters were rescued in Mosquito Lagoon.
The boat had ran aground on Saturday. The rescued were 32 year old Dawn and 33 year old James. The two were taken to a hospital for treatment. Their condition was not known.
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Jan 6th 2010EdgewaterEdgewater Auto & Truck Repair
Sonny’s Auto & Truck Repair is a full-service preventive maintenance and automotive repair center that performs high quality, guaranteed automotive repairs in Edgewater, Florida. They service and repair all makes and models of domestic and import vehicles. They are your logical alternative to the dealership for all scheduled maintenance of your personal, or fleet car or truck. Bring in your foreign/domestic car, SUV, or Pickup today with complete confidence that your vehicle will be serviced correctly.
Sonny’s Auto & Truck Repair is an independently owned and operated full-service repair and maintenance facility. They use the latest diagnostic equipment to guarantee your vehicle is repaired or serviced properly and in a timely fashion.
Many people underestimate the value of regularly servicing their vehicles. Whether you own a old car or new car, all cars and trucks need regular check-ups/maintenance to ensure that all parts are in working order, fluids are at the correct levels, and worn out parts are properly replaced.
4610 US Highway 1
Edgewater, FL 32141-7351
(386) 345-3080
Get directions
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Nov 1st 2009EdgewaterFly Fishing for Cancer
Fly Fishing Mosquito Lagoon for Cancer
A unique retreat allows Central Florida women battling and recovering from breast cancer to fly fish for famed Mosquito and Indian River lagoons’ redfish and seatrout. Casting for Recovery (CFR)—a non-profit support and educational program for women who have or have had breast cancer—will hold a weekend retreat at LaCita Country Club in Titusville, FL on April 30, 2010.
Women of all ages, and in any stage of breast cancer treatment or recovery, can participate at zero cost to the participants. CFR’s flyfishing program intentionally coordinates flyfishing retreats to promote physical and mental healing, as well as to provide a venue for “women a chance to share, laugh, and rejuvenate.” CFR explains that the casting motion of fly fishing provides a gentle exercise for joint and soft tissue stretching.
For more information, to make a contribution, or if you are interested in attending this retreat, please contact Casting for Recovery. (The number of participants is limited.)
Casting for Recovery
PO Box 1123, Manchester, VT 05254
1-888-553-3500
www.castingforrecovery.org
info@castingforrecovery.org
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Oct 16th 2009EdgewaterMosquito Lagoon Articles & Oak Hill Area
The Mosquito Lagoon bordering Oak Hill, Florida, aptly named for its large mosquito population, is considered by many to be the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. It immense population of Redfish, or Red Drum, has also allowed it’s nothern most bordering municipality, New Smyrna Beach, to proclaim itself as “Redfish Capitol of the World”. The rural regions of Northern Brevard and Southeastern Volusia Counties including Oak Hill remain heavily dependant on fishing from the lagoon.
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Sep 20th 2009EdgewaterMosquito Lagoon co-op to revitalize fishing town & Oak Hill CoOp
OAK HILL — The bags of hard-shell clams inside the small, chilled display case are more than a potential meal in this town.
Piled in a yellow mesh sack at a little U.S. 1 shop, anglers pass by them in the bait and tackle store on their way to the Mosquito Lagoon. Along the road, a statue of a cliche bearded fisherman in yellow rain gear stares into the town that never recovered from the state gill-net ban, which put dozens of families out of work.
Although the shop resides in a place without a stoplight or successful industry, there is seafood and hope inside.
Grown in the waters of the Mosquito Lagoon, the clams are harvested and graded by Joe Ludwig right on shore, then delivered to the little bait shop, headquarters of the fledgling Oak Hill Seafood Co-op.
Open for about four months, the cooperative is trying to cut out some of the food industry middlemen, said Susan Collins Cook, a former Oak Hill mayor and the co-op’s chief executive officer. Local commercial fishers can sell their product in town and save gas money. It also means consumers will pay less for a fresher product while spending their money locally.
In a place where it’s tough to eke out a living, becoming involved in the co-op gives locals a way to help themselves get back to work. The nonprofit staff wants to re-energize the Oak Hill seafood brand to what it used to be before the fishing industry was devastated by the net ban in 1994.
And like any project in its infancy, there are hurdles to overcome. They’ve got to convince the fishers to sell their product to the co-op instead of other fish houses, and in order to build their stock up, they need a strong customer base.
Commercial fishers face their own dilemma. Tom Hall, who catches flounder, mullet, crab, and other things, said it’s a great idea, but he worries about what would happen if he started selling to one market over another. A wholesaler that buys regularly from him could replace him, leaving Hall without an outlet later.
“It would definitely help us if they could market this stuff and get the word out,” said Hall, who drives to Cocoa Beach to sell his catch. “My truck gets eight miles to the gallon. I’d love to be able to sell my product right where I live.”
For now, folks can buy a variety of seafood inside the Lagoon Bait and Tackle store, owned by Collins-Cook. But the group has big dreams.
“My passion is to get these people back to work and boost the economy here,” she said. “We’ve got to get jobs — it’s extremely important — and this is one way to do it.”
THE VISION
In a couple of years, co-op staff envisions a processing and distribution center, where 35 local people would earn a living. Local seafood would someday be sold throughout the U.S. and even exported. To get there, it will not only take community support but also state and federal grants.
“The grant money is key to it all,” Collins-Cook said, mentioning they are in the application process.
Once the $250,000 processing plant gets built to package, store and sell seafood, she said the co-op would hopefully be the backbone of the growth to come.
The staff also thinks back to the town’s better days, when 25,000 people flocked to Oak Hill’s annual seafood festival in 1990. The festival was a popular event that defined the city, but the group that organized it dissolved for reasons unrelated to the net ban.
Mary Lee Cook, vice mayor of the City Commission, said before the net ban was enacted, the town’s seafood was well-known throughout Florida.
“There was nothing like it anywhere; it was just unsurpassed,” said Cook, not related to Collins-Cook.
Today, there are no festival feasts in this sleepy village, although the cooperative wants to change that. Even in its early development, it’s already organizing monthly all-you-can-eat cookouts with live music in hopes of one day bringing back the festival.
Cook said she sees no reason why the co-op wouldn’t be successful.
“They will be able to make a living and probably a decent living, but the fishing industry will never be like it was before the net ban because of all the rules and regulations now.”
REVIVING A FISHING TOWN Taking a drive through Oak Hill — population 1,600 — is short. The isolated village divided by U.S. 1 was once a bustling commercial fishing community, locals say, with two or three fish houses. Today there is none.
At the time of the ban, more than 100 local families were involved in commercial fishing. Collins-Cook estimates there are probably 25 left.
According to the latest U.S. Census figures from 2000, about 15 percent of families with children are living below the poverty level.
Barbara Silver, who focused her dissertation for her doctorate degree on the effects of the ban, said the anglers are “still in mourning” about losing their way of life.
Some continue to commercially fish, but don’t catch nearly as much as they used to with gill nets. They change their game plan with the seasons, using cast nets for mullet or hooking and lining trout or sheepshead.
Others became fishing guides or barely make ends meet harvesting what they can and selling it with or without a license.
Even 15 years later, some still risk using gill nets, she said, and get caught.
“This net ban made perfectly straight people criminals,” said Silver, who has a doctorate in counseling psychology. But while some of the nets were sold back to the state, the product that once defined this place still swims along these shores.
It’s just a matter of making it easy to sell, said Jimmy Rayburn, co-op vice president. Although they are currently buying seafood from locals and from wholesalers in Florida, the young nonprofit faces habits that are tough to break.
“Right now, what we’re combating is years of fisherman selling their product illegally,” said Rayburn, referring to unlicensed fishers who sell their catch to the public. “They do that because there’s nowhere that they can just get rid of a couple hundred clams every day.”
Once the co-op grows enough to accept large amounts of stock that they can also sell to the public quickly, fishers will rely and depend on it.
“I have to be able to tell that fisherman, ‘I’ll take everything you can bring me,’ ” said Rayburn, also a commercial fisherman.
Sitting in the shop, Rayburn said it’s all about people like Joe Ludwig, a clam farmer who is trying to make ends meet after leaving the offshore fishing business.
“He lives in Oak Hill, and I want to keep him working,” Rayburn said. “I don’t want to keep the guy in Asia working.”
Ludwig already supplies some of his clams to the cooperative. He regularly drives about 80 miles roundtrip to deliver clams to a wholesale outlet in Ormond Beach. Having one more customer is always great, but even better when it’s close to home.
He said there is skepticism among the fishing community about whether the co-op will really work, “but done properly, it could be huge.”
At a time when so many fishing restrictions already are in place, the co-op offers hope to their industry.
“They’re trying to keep us alive,” Ludwig said.
kelly.cuculiansky@news-jrnl.com
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Aug 4th 2009EdgewaterLearn to hunt gators
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is offering alligator hunters no-cost, three-hour classes to help them prepare for the Aug. 15–Nov. 1 statewide alligator harvest.
Reservations are not required.
Attendance is not mandatory for licensed hunters, but the Commission recommends participants attend, especially if they have not previously hunted for alligators. Class topics include preparing for the hunt, hunting techniques and safety, and harvesting and processing, caring for alligator hide and alligator hunting rules and regulations. Also, people who do not have an alligator harvest permit can attend.
The Central Florida dates:
Saturday, 1-4 p.m., Tampa, Florida State Fairgrounds, 4800 U.S. Hwy. 301 N.; use the Orient Rd. entrance. For directions, call 800-345-FAIR (3247) or visit www.floridastatefair.com
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Aug 4th 2009EdgewaterMosquito Lagoon Articles
New Mosquito Lagoon rules in effect
Florida’s new shoreline fishing license requirement took effect Saturday.
Resident anglers who fish for saltwater species from shore or a structure affixed to shore must have a $9 shoreline fishing license or a $17 regular saltwater fishing license.
Nonresident anglers need a regular non-resident saltwater fishing license. Short-term and annual nonresident fishing licenses cost between $17 and $47. Additional fees may apply.
The requirement allows exemptions for resident anglers who fish in their home county using live or natural bait on a line or pole without a line-retrieval mechanism. The exemption does not apply to anglers who use nets, traps, gigs, spears or who gather seafood by hand or any type of gear other than hook and line.
Other exemptions apply for anglers who qualify for temporary cash assistance, food stamps or Medicaid. Also, resident anglers 65 or older and children under 16 may fish without a license. Active-duty military personnel may fish without a license while home on leave in Florida. Licensed fishing piers have licenses that cover everyone who fishes from them.
Aug 4th 2009EdgewaterCrab Trap Cleanup
Mosquito Lagoon Crab Trap Cleanup
The Coastal Conservation Association of Florida will hold an abandoned crab trap cleanup in the Mosquito Lagoon and the north end of the Indian River from the Titusville bridge north beginning at 8 a.m. on Aug. 15.
CCA member Chris Peterson, the owner of Hell’s Bay Boatworks, is organizing the event with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Members of the cleanup team are asked to meet at
8 a.m. at the ramp at Haulover Canal, which also is the drop point for traps. Organizers need both shallow draft boats and party barge-type vessels to ferry traps to the collection point.
Participants will be treated to a cookout following the cleanup and also will receive a cleanup T-shirt. Participants are asked to RSVP no later than Monday by e-mailing CCA General Manager Dan Askin at daskin@ccaflorida.org or by calling 663-2588.
Jul 28th 2009EdgewaterMosquito Lagoon Auto Mechanic
Mosquito Lagoon Auto Repair
I took my 4×4 to Sonny’s near Oak Hill this week for a major repair and was very happy with the results. The price was fair, they were quick and even returned the vehicle to my place for free. I would recommend them for any Oak Hill or local auto and truck repairs.
4610 US Highway 1
Edgewater, FL 32141-7351
(386) 345-3080
Get directions
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Mosquito Lagoon News