Snorkeling Blog

Next time you go freshwater snorkeling in Thailand, you better hope you don’t run into this guy!

Read the story here.

The Miami Herald had another good story today about yet another invasive species on the move – this time the aggressive lionfish that has been spotted in the Florida keys.

”Lionfish are eating their way through the [Atlantic] reefs like a plague of locusts,” said Mark Hixon, a coral reef ecology expert at Oregon State University. “This may well become the most devastating marine invasion in history.”

Invasive species are a growing problem on land and in the water (both saltwater and freshwater) – hopefully the lionfish population is small and can be controlled before they really being to spread throughout the area.

Australia has a great tourism campaign going where you can apply for a high paying job on the great barrier reef, where your responsibilities are to snorkel, hike, swim and blog. Not a bad deal, huh?

The publicity stunt has gone so well the website for the promotion has crashed….

Below is the video for the promotion:

A sad story out of Palm Beach, Florida where a large reef suffered major damage – possibly from a tug boat towing a barge. Given the lack of reefs off the coast of the continental U.S., this is very unfortunate.

A huge swath of stunning corals on one of the most popular and profitable reefs in Palm Beach County has been shaved from the ocean floor — a crime almost impossible to solve and repair…..The damaged site is about a mile offshore in about 50 feet of water. It is a ”major tourist attraction,” said Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue. “Most tourist divers that come, that’s one of the prime locations they go to.”…

Read the fuull story here

A Maui Snorkeling Charter company was fined $400,000 after their charter sank and damaged coral reefs near Molokini:

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources in January approved a recommendation that penalties totaling $550,000 be imposed on Maui Snorkel Charters Inc., which does business as Maui Dive Shop. But settlement negotiations resulted in a reduced amount.

The 32-foot Kai Anela sank Sept. 29, 2006, after one of the its bow lines became tangled in an engine. Fifteen people had to jump overboard, and all were rescued.

Full story.

It’s nice to see the State of Hawaii takes things like this so seriously.

Interesting story out of Hawaii this week – a very rare Monk seal climbed aboard a snorkeling tour boat off the island of Lana’i.

The endangered mammal climbed onto the swim steps at the stern of the Ocean Quest catamaran, according to foundation spokeswoman Anne Rillero. Crew members on the foundation’s Lana’i Wild Dolphin & Snorkel Eco-Adventure kept passengers away from the monk seal, she said….The seals, found exclusively in the Hawaiian Islands, are known to be aggressive toward humans and should not be approached on land or sea. Their population numbers an estimated 1,200.

talk about a rare sighting…let’s hope the seal isn’t becoming desensitized to humans…

Looks like someone else also enjoys freshwater snorkeling as much as we do. Here is a good piece from the Detroit Free Press about snorkeling in rivers and lakes in Michigan.

read it here