Hubbard's Catch

Local finds - to the left a juvenile sea turtle caught in fishing net and to the right a seahorse on the side of the fishing fleet before leaving harbour. And here a playful dolphin - all at Hubbard's Marina 1.5 miles down the beach from my home. Photos courtesy of Hubbards.

An edited extract from Captain Jack's marine report of 4th March 2016 - he is based at Hubbard's Marina and tells the story better than I could:

Recently at Egmont Key the large pods of dolphins have been coming alongside the ferry ride. During a recent ferry trip, a large container ship was heading into the bay and we noticed their large bow wave had attracted a big pod of dolphin playing in the wake jumping super high super high in the air as the ship headed into port. This was a very cool and unique sight! The local seabirds are starting their mating habits. Most of the birds get a very unique looking mating plumage during this time and they will roost in the trees of dog leg Key Island, our local island rookery inside Johns Pass. This includes the roseate spoonbills, pink birds mistaken for flamingos but they are not actually pink they are white birds that eat a type of crustaceans that causes their feathers to get a pink hue to them. The local great American egrets have started to sport their mating plumage again so the pelicans aren't the only seabirds gearing up for the spring mating season. These egret's mating plumage nearly caused their extinction in the 1920's and 30's when the long wispy feathers along the bird's back became super popular in lady's hats causing hunters to nearly drive these great American egrets to extinction. They became the first seabirds protected by the national autobahn society after this nearly complete wipe out of their population. Unfortunately the weather has become too cold for our local manatee population. This means they have moved north to the natural springs for the winter or to the local power plant outflows where the water stays 72 degrees or higher all year around. Since manatees are marine mammals its important they stay in waters above 72 to help them regulate their body temperatures.

The Hubbard's fishing fleet routinely catches large quantities of very large fish as evidenced here - to see more of what and how big visit their site here or to catch the sights when fishing boats come in, their webcams here.