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| SEA TURTLES-On the west coast of Florida during May through October you will sea wooden stakes with yellow caution tape around it. These stakes are protecting the rest of the native logger head sea turtles. There are different types of sea turtles such as green, loggerhead, hawksbill, roily turtles, and the huge leather back turtles. The leather back turtle is the largest living turtle. The loggerhead turtles go from there nest in the sand to the ocean. It has two front flippers and two small ones in the back. Loggerheads use their stronger front flippers to pull his body through the sea and the back flippers help it steer and stop himself. The Marine Aquarium sea turtle patrol is on the beach at 5:00 a.m every morning and then comes back every evening to check on the sea turtle nests. On the beach you might find a sign saying "Lights out for sea turtles". They have that because the sea turtles will get confused when they see the lights instead of the ocean. If the sea turtle go to the lights the turtle can get hit by a car or die because they have no water. | |||
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| SEA SHELLS- Sea shells come in many shapes, sizes, patterns, and colors. Most sea shells that you will find on the beach are cracked or have little pieces broken and missing. Well those shells used to have an animal inside the sea shell called Mollusk. Mollusk is an animal with a soft body. The mollusk usually are enclosed by a hard shell. Water enters the opening for oxygen leaving the other side for removing waste. Next time you go to the beach | |||
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| CRABS- Florida has a huge supply of blue crabs. You could find them in backwaters, title creeks, and the open waters of the gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. Crabbing is pretty easy. You can use just bait or traps. One kind of trap is a rectangular wire mesh trap with a opening that allows the crab to feed on the bait but, wont let the crab out when they are done eating. Another trap looks like a pyramid. These work well off bridges or docks. When you lower it in the water both sides open up and then all you have to do is pull it up to make the sides of the cage go down. The last way to crab is to tie string to your bait and throw it in while still holding on to the other end. When you feel little tugs pull the string up slowly but leave it in a little bit of water till you see it and take a net and scoop it up in the net. For bait you can use fish heads, dead mullet, chicken backs, and liver. You can't catch more than 10 gallon bucket of crabs a day and you cant keep egg bearing females or crabs under 5 inches. | ||
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| Weather- The water changes very fast in Florida. The greatest amount of cloud to ground lightning is in Florida between Tampa and Orlando. This is because many days in a year a lot of moisture content in the air and high surface temperatures produce strange sea breezes along the coast. When it is summer in Florida there are usually thunderstorms, lightning, tropical storms, hurricanes, and tornados offer with potential of flooding. There are 5 category to a hurricane. 1 minimal with winds74-95 mph, category 2 is moderate with winds 96-110 mph, category 3 is extensive with winds 111-130 mph, category 4 is extreme with winds 131-155mph, category 5 is to catastrophic with winds 155mph or more. Starting in 1953 the first tropical storm was given a woman's name starting with the letter A and then in 1979 men's names were added. The names repeat every six years unless its really violent they withdraw the name like hurricane Hugo was removed. | ||
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| Riptides- A rip tide is a strong sea current which pushes away from the shore as a strong storm is near. If you are in a rip tide you are to swim parallel to shore then swim in to get out of the rip tide. They are narrow enough if you can easily escape otherwise if you swim against the rip tide it will tire you out and make it more difficult to live through it. | ||
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| Coral Reef- Coral reefs have been described as the "rainforests of the sea" because of the variety of life that comes together to create this ecosystem. Starting in the late 1970's the reefs have begun dying do to the human population for example improperly treated sewage, over fishing and boats not being careful. A coral reef is limestone structures that take a lot of years to grow. You can view the corals reefs by scuba diving or snorkeling. |
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