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MANATEES!! What a fun activity for January – chilly but doable! We welcomed Karen Frelier and Mark Schafer as they joined us. They were everywhere this year – manatees and KIDS. Three Sisters Springs at Crystal River is popular and both “critters” were abundant. We had heard that over 350 manatees were in to various warm areas in Florida but 2006 was reported to be the deadliest year for the manatee with most deaths attributed to boat collisions. I felt bad to see even a baby manatee with the signature parallel slash marks of a boat propeller across its back.
Of course several of our group wanted to take manatee pictures and every picture was a challenge – not only because of the sediment but also because the kids were sooo excited to see these gentle amazing creatures. There seemed to be a large number of babies in the group here and they loved to come right up to you. This type of encounter makes kids love the marine life and want to protect them. I know manatee constantly replace their molars but I don’t know anyone who has found a tooth that has dropped out of their mouth – do you?

Mary, sing that fight song again! She bravely defended her team even with most of the Rowdies & friends cheering for her opponent! But she was a good sport and a great hostess along with new hubby Ed Zuranski as they sponsored the Super Bowl party February 4th. A good time was had by all – along with Ed’s great barbeque ribs & chicken ----mmmmmmmmmm delicious!

Thanks to every Rowdie for your membership supporting FSDA. FSDA does more than kill fish – we encourage students to be aware of marine ecology and reach out for the next generation of scuba divers. It’s with the support of the Rowdies and all the rest of the dive clubs that makes it possible for FSDA to keep promoting legislation protecting the areas we want to preserve for good scuba diving and for the education of the Florida students. The WCC awards focused on these important activities. It was unusual to have the ceremony in February this year. The Rusty Pelican was a great restaurant for this year’s event! Having a separate room was so much better. There was a lot of competition for the many articles brought in for the silent auction again this year but great bargains for the winners. Lots of attention was given to the 2006 winning Ocean Pals posters on display. Pictures are good but it always is more impressive to see the real posters. You need to attend next year and not miss out!!

Many thanks go to the Rowdies who were the judges of the 2006-2007 Ocean Pals Poster Contest at the January business meeting. “Coastlines Are Our lifelines” was not as easily inspiring as some past themes. It is always so exciting to see the new entries come in and see how the students depict the new theme each year with their talented posters. The choices were difficult but our judges chose wisely. Florida student’s great posters went on to win 10 of the 16 National awards over New York and California student entries!

You might call us Florida’s polar bears for our winter activities the Manatees in January and Kayaking on 2/17 the coldest (?) day of the winter. Actually it was a beautiful day. In fact, you really missed your chance if you didn’t go kayaking that Saturday at Ft. Desoto since Sunday was so windy. Of course it was colder than usual but with an extra layer of clothing (skins) Lori and I were perfectly comfortable! In fact we both shed our outer coats for just a fleece vest before we launched. We did cover our ears but our noses stayed warm :-) The sun was out, water flat and not many people to disturb you - making peacefully floating around the east end of Ft. Desoto just wonderful. We especially wanted to see the white pelicans and they were there along with a variety of birds. We both are avid photographers and took many pictures but I'm disappointed in myself as I had accidentally switched from fine to normal quality. I’ll try again as we all get another chance to kayak on March 10th.

Green Picnic – doesn’t that bring up (fond?) memories of what green dye does to all kinds of food? We are resurrecting a favorite activity we haven’t done in awhile – float down the Rainbow River with a river clean up ending with our green picnic. Reserve April 28th – details TBA. (I know we are wimps for not doing this on St. Pat’s day – cold air and cold water – burrrrr.) Don’t forget that OCEAN FEST in FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida’s biggest dive and travel show, will be April 20, 21, and 22. This will make an excellent club event – grab your buddy and mark your calendar!! Hold the middle of MAY for BOYNTON BEACH drift diving with Lynn Willis. The water should be warm and the diving great!

Let’s get wet! Sonia

SPUC'S on a Roll !!!!!
Once again the Spuc's brought back the 2006 overall West Coast Council series championship home where it belonged but they didn't stop there. John Schmidt took 1st place overall for the individual championship and also took 1st place grouper and 1st place hogfish. Not to be out done. Rich Taylor took home 2nd place individual and 1st place snapper.
What Rich Taylor took home next was bigger then anything around. Rich won the Norm Wyman and Poppa Taylor award. Rich has put in many years of hard work fighting for our spearfishing rights and doing countless jobs for the FSDA. Rich is a former Spuc president who has the record for hosting the most people in single spearfishing tournament at 319 people while president in 2003 and is also former vice president of the FSDA.
We the Spuc's are very proud of Rich and John for their monster achievements. We are very proud for the both of you.

Once again the Spuc's hosted their yearly superbowl party that went off with a bang. There was tons of monster shrimp, ribs, fried fish, burgers and all the normal spread that goes along with good eating. We would like to thank all the volunteers that helped put this event on for everyone that showed up. You guys rocks.

The Spuc's are looking foward to the new tournament year and seeing all the other members of all the FSDA clubs. Good luck everyone. Be safe and shoot straight!

 

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Do you have questions or comments about this Website? Contact Mark Maznek Copyright FSDA - WCC February 2003

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