On the Water

Sombrero Beach Park, Marathon, Florida Keys

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

Sombrero Beach in Marathon, Florida, may be the quintessential example of a multi-use beach. Am I talking swimming, snorkeling, sunbathing, picnicking, volleyball, barbecuing, and climbing on playground playground equipment? Well, all those things can be done at this beach, but that’s not what I was referring to.

Sombrero is a multi-use beach because humans are not the only ones that use it. Between April and October each year, Loggerhead turtles crawl up onto the beach at night to lay their eggs in the sand. During these months, city workers remove tables and park benches from the beach, nesting areas are roped off, and local officials and volunteers patrol the beach at least once a day to ensure nests are not disturbed. The rest of the year belongs entirely to humans and their canine friends, who are welcome as long as they are leashed (the dogs, not the humans).

With soft white sand, gentle waters, and no crowds, Sombrero Beach is a favorite with locals and visitors.

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Wanted: Fast stone-crab eaters in the Florida Keys

The much-anticipated opening of Florida’s stone crab season takes place Oct. 15 but the 2011-12 season opening is going to be followed by a tasty test of crab-consuming capacity.

The inaugural Stone Crab Eating Contest, a challenge for amateur eaters, is set for Oct. 22 beginning at 1 p.m. at Keys Fisheries Market & Marina, off U.S. 1 at 35th Street bayside, Marathon.

Entrants must register and be present by noon the day of the event, and are tasked with cracking and eating 25 stone crab claws, picking them completely clean, in the fastest time. In the event of a tie, those competitors must face off in a 10-claw competition to determine the winner.

Prizes are to be awarded to the top three finishers. The first-place winner is to receive a two-night lodging package at Key West’s Doubletree Grand Key Resort featuring champagne, dinner for two and a sunset cruise on a tall ship or catamaran.

The second-place crab consumer earns a Swim with the Dolphins package at the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key, while the third-place finisher wins a $50 Keys Fisheries gift certificate.

The entry fee is $25 per contestant, and you must be at least 18. The contest is limited to 50 participants. Among the rules:

No professional eaters — amateurs only.
Contestants will be allowed to drink water during the competition.
If a contestant throws up, he or she is automatically disqualified.
Grounds for disqualification include:

Not disclosing risks that could jeopardize the contestant’s health or well-being.
Being under the influence of any substance.
Your appearance and/or clothing is deemed inappropriate (dress is Keys attire).
Starting prior to the start signal.
Any food in a competitor’s mouth at the final whistle counts toward the final tally if the competitor chews and swallows that portion of the competitive food. But competitors may not stuff food into their mouth in the final seconds of the contest to increase their total. Judges have the discretion to impose penalties on those who do.

Stone crabs are considered by many to be the finest Florida seafood for their succulent claw meat. In addition, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, they are the state’s only renewable seafood resource. Legal-size claws are harvested between Oct. 15 and May 15 each year, and the crab’s body is returned to the water to generate new claws.

To register for the contest, go to www.keysfisheries.com.

More Lobster Mobsters Arrested

CITIZEN STAFF

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Wildlife officers chased two suspected lobster poachers Saturday as they reportedly attempted to out-swim a state boat near Ohio Key, just east of Bahia Honda State Park.

One of the men swam to Sunshine Key Camping Resort in the hope of outrunning Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, but was captured after a foot chase through the campground, agency spokesman Bobby Dube said.

Ivan Rodriguez, 46, and Nelson Amaro-Montesino, 27, both of Miami, were charged with taking lobster out of season, snorkeling with no dive flag, interfering with an officer and resisting arrest — all misdemeanors.

Officers found 31 lobsters in a dive bag and spearfishing equipment in the water after their arrest, Dube said. Of the 31 lobster, about a third were undersized and had been speared, he said.

The agency received a call around 7 p.m., reporting that two men were in the water just outside the Ohio Key Channel without a dive flag, Dube said. He did not know whether the call came from a boater or someone driving over the bridge. Two officers responded and watched the men from a distance before stopping them, Dube said.

“They tried to swim to shore and wouldn’t get in our boat,” Dube said.

As officers followed the men, Amaro-Montesino tired and eventually boarded the agency’s vessel, Dube said. Rodriguez made it to shore before officers corralled him in the campground, Dube said.

The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case, and more charges could be pending, Dube said.

Back in the channel, officers found a milk jug with a spear gun tied to it and a bag containing lobster.

Both men were taken to jail in Marathon and county Judge Tegan Slaton set their bond at $74,000.

The lobster “mini season” runs July 28 and 29. Regular season begins on Aug. 6 and runs through March 31. It is illegal to spearfish for lobster any time, anywhere in Florida.

Smathers Beach in Key West Renourished

Beaches at Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

by Barbara Ann Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels

I’d often driven by Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys, but had never stopped. During a recent trip to Key West, determined to rectify that oversight, I carved out a couple of days on the end of my trip, specifically for beach time.

Bahia Honda contains three separate beaches, each of which is completely different from the others. Caloosa Beach is tucked into a gentle cove at the foot of the old Overseas Railway trestle at the southern end of the park. A portion of the old bridge has been maintained as an elevated walkway that offers spectacular views of the beach and inlet. Caloosa is popular with families because restrooms, a snack bar, and ample parking are all located adjacent to the crescent.

At Loggerhead Beach, located in the center of the park, a submerged sandbar emerges at low tide. Sunbathers deposit coolers and perch folding chairs on these exposed sand hills and wade far out into the shallow aqua water to search for shells and sea glass. At low tide, the amazingly clear waters of Loggerhead Beach recede to reveal half a mile or more of sandbar flats.

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Key Largo Lobster Mobsters Convicted

By GARY PHILLIPS
KeysNews.com
Saturday, June 12, 201

Nearly nine months to the day after being accused of molesting a commercial lobster trap, two Key Largo men were convicted on third-degree felony charges.

Ruben Barbuscio, 62, and Daniel Peralta, 53, were led in handcuffs from a Plantation Key courtroom after Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia found them guilty on Thursday. The pair waived their right to a jury trial and opted to have their case heard by Garcia.

Their crime occurred on Sept. 11, when commercial fisherman Abilio Gil and his stepson, Yardiel Penton, videotaped Barbuscio and Peralta pulling a lobster trap belonging to commercial fisherman Dana Pettit onto Barbuscio’s boat between Rodriguez Key and Tavernier Creek.

In announcing his ruling, Garcia said the poor-quality video was of little value as evidence, but it did contain Gil’s spoken description of the defendants’ action. Gil was watching through binoculars while Penton operated the camcorder. Garcia said the eyewitness account was credible and weighed heavily in his decision.

Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne also provided photos of the trap, buoy and rope, and had the trap brought into the courtroom. She said the photos taken the day of the incident clearly show the rope and trap had been recently handled, as silt and marine growth on the items had been disturbed.

A sentencing hearing is set for June 29.

Key West Captain Cited With Illegal Possession of 60 Stone Crab Claws

The state wildlife agency confiscated 60 out-of-season stone crab claws from a Key West boat coming home at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, says the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The commercial fisherman and captain of the Maru was cited with illegal possession of the claws and interference with an FWC officer, both misdemeanors. He was issued a notice to appear in court.

The Maru was south of Key West, returning to port, when the captain apparently saw FWC Lt. Roy Payne approaching and made a sharp turn, speeding up, as the crew dumped overboard white trash bags of the claws.

The captain at first denied the crime, but after the officer found similar trash bags aboard, he and his mate allegedly admitted to it and wrote out confessions.

Lobster Poaching Convictions of Father & Son Cavagnaros Tossed on a Technicality

A former Upper Keys elected official and his son, both commercial fishermen convicted of lobster trap molestation, should get a new trial, an appellate court has ruled.

Michael Cavagnaro Sr. and his namesake son had their convictions overturned by the 3rd District Court of Appeal, according to a six-page opinion the court released Wednesday.

The court found that Monroe County circuit Judge Luis Garcia failed to explain “reasonable doubt” to jurors before their deliberations in the June 2010 trial. The jurors should have been given the Florida Standard Jury Instruction (Criminal) 3.7, wrote an appellate judge. The instructions explain reasonable doubt, burden of proof and other legal definitions.

“This is not a case in which a trial judge inadvertently skips an instruction while reading the assembled instructions,” the ruling states. “Trial counsel for the state and the defendants simply did not include such an instruction in the compilation for the jury charge.”

Prosecutors must prove a person’s guilt to jurors beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict someone in a criminal case.

The 3rd DCA found that the error “reaches down into the validity of the trial itself,” and that it was a “fundamental error requiring reversal.”

Lawyers with the Attorney General’s Office can ask the 3rd DCA for a rehearing within 10 days and before that hearing the 3rd DCA opinion published Wednesday is not considered final.

That office handles criminal appeals that arise from the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.

The error is major because the evidence presented in trial was circumstantial and the limited eyewitness testimony was not conclusive, according to the ruling.

“One of those witnesses admitted that he had a pre-existing dislike for one of the defendants and a pre-existing friendship with the state wildlife official to whom he reported the alleged crimes,” wrote 3rd DCA Judge Vance E. Salter. “The global positioning system (GPS) tracking evidence pertaining to the defendants’ boat demonstrated, according to the defendants’ expert, only that the boat’s track came no closer than 196 feet from the lobster traps at issue in the case. The state’s GPS witness did not rebut that analysis. Under the ‘totality of the record,’ we conclude that a fundamental error in the jury instructions has been shown.”

Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne prosecuted the Cavagnaros and will prosecute them again should the appellate ruling stand, she said. Dunne has taken a lead role in Monroe County prosecution of fishery violations and has spent much of the last two months lobbying Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee for tougher penalties against convicted poachers.

“This is unfortunate, but the facts remain the same,” Dunne said. “I’m ready, willing and able to retry this case.”

Marathon-based attorney Bill Heffernan represented both men at trial, but their appeal was handled by longtime appellate attorney Joel Hirschhorn of Miami.

“They [3rd DCA] got it right, 100 percent,” Hirschhorn said. “The first time I read the jury instructions, I thought the court reporter dropped something or that we were missing a page. I couldn’t believe that the standard jury instruction was not given. This is the first case I’ve seen in 44 years that the standard instruction was not given.”

In August 2010, Garcia sentenced Cavagnaro Sr. and his son to nine months and six months, respectively, in county jail. He also ordered each Cavagnaro to pay $5,000 to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for its investigative costs and $8,392 to the State Attorney’s Office for its prosecution costs. Father and son were also ordered to pay $5,000 and $2,500 fines, respectively, to the Marine Resource Trust Fund.

Garcia allowed both to stay out of jail under the surveillance of the Department of Corrections pending their appeal, Heffernan said. He also delayed, or stayed in legal parlance, their fines, also pending their appeal.

Both men, however, lost their commercial fishing licenses. The appeal means they may be able to reapply for those licenses, pending the outcome of future court proceedings, Heffernan said.

Should there be a second trial, they will be represented by Hirschhorn. The attorney said both men passed polygraph tests, which were not presented at trial.

“I’m defending them now and it’s going to be a different ball game,” Hirschhorn said.

The Cavagnaro case became a bellwether for commercial fishermen and environmentalists in the Florida Keys as an example of the changing attitude toward busting and prosecuting lobster poachers.

“It’s certainly unfortunate that this case was overturned on a technicality,” said Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “We’re confident that the State Attorney’s Office will prevail in a retrial of this case. Colleen Dunne has become a strong ally within our industry in bringing trap robbing under control.”

The case began on Aug. 25, 2009, when commercial fishermen reported the Cavagnaros to state marine officers, saying a boat they were on was at the site of another commercial fisherman’s trap. They were arrested and charged with one count of trap molesting and one count of theft of a trap and/or its contents. Both are third-degree felonies.

Commercial fishermen in two boats reportedly watched the Cavagnaros pulling traps that allegedly didn’t belong to them near Molasses Reef, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Bobby Dube.

While one boat chased the Cavagnaros, the other stayed behind, picked up a trap they had left, and called state wildlife officers.

Cavagnaro Sr. was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in the 1970s moved to Florida and worked as a firefighter. He had been a Key Largo Fire-EMS District board member since 2005, until Gov. Charlie Crist suspended him on Nov. 9, 2009, after his arrest. He did not file for re-election to the board in 2010 after his conviction. The district’s website said he owned a commercial fishing business.

alinhardt@keysnews.com

Snapper Ledge Reef, in the Florida Keys, Protection is Fast-Tracked

Divers consider Snapper Ledge among the most beautiful places in the Keys to take a plunge. (Photo by Tim Grollimund)

Snapper Ledge, a shallow reef off Tavernier, could be declared a protected marine zone by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Many Upper Keys divers, spearheaded by underwater photographer Stephen Frink, describe Snapper Ledge as a vibrant reef with diverse fish life, yet it is not designated as Sanctuary Preservation Area under the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

As of this week, 3,036 people had signed an online petition to change the Snapper Ledge status to a no-take zone. Efforts have been going on since 2008.

Amending Keys sanctuary rules to add a new Sanctuary Preservation Area involves reports and hearings that could take until 2015 at the earliest, sanctuary officials say.

“We’ve had requests from constituents to get it done more quickly, so in August we asked the South Atlantic Council to look into it,” said David Makepeace, an Upper Keys marine educator who serves on the Sanctuary Advisory Council.

“Much to my surprise, they said they would look into it,” Makepeace said. “Frankly, I did not expect this much action this soon.”

At a 4 p.m. Monday meeting at the Hilton Key Largo Resort at mile marker 97, the South Atlantic Council will take general comments on several issues, including whether the agency should begin working on a marine-protected zone for Snapper Ledge. A final decision would be months away.

“Personally, I support it,” Makepeace said. “I don’t want to create a precedent for using spot-zoning based on individual needs, but the Snapper Ledge situation and concerns are somewhat unique.”

Also Monday, the council also will review a proposal to establish 56 areas in Keys waters around protected elkhorn and staghorn corals where lobster-trap fishing would be banned.

The zones as proposed came out of talks between the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association, the Keys Sanctuary and local marine-conservation groups.

“We’re on board for almost of the zones, except for three,” FKCFA Executive Director Bill Kelly said. “We’re asking them to them to shrink those or break them into two or more zones to cover a smaller area.”

Those three include a large area off Newfound Harbor in the Lower Keys, one off Davis Reef near Long Key, and one inside Carysfort Reef off Key Largo.

“Fishermen are all in favor of protecting the coral but these three zones include a lot of ground where there is no [branching coral],” he said.

The South Atlantic Council also is considering creating new rules that could limit the use of powerhead fishing — using a spear that uses a shotgun shell to take large fish, or create a special permit for powerhead fishing.

For information on the proposed rules, go to www.safmc.net. No action will be taken at Monday’s meeting, but officials will explain various proposals and take comments.

Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorada Opening a Public Research Library

The History of Diving Museum in Islamorada dedicates its Bauer Diving History Research Library on Feb. 29 at the museum, mile marker 83 bayside.

The ribbon-cutting celebration is from 6 to 8 p.m. RSVP is required, call 664-9737 or send an e-mail to info@divingmuseum.org.

Named after the museum’s founders, Joe and Sally Bauer, the new facility serves as the repository of the Bauer Library Collection, which consists of about 2,500 volumes. It is one of the most comprehensive collections of rare books relative to the story of undersea exploration and was amassed by the Bauers over four decades.

The collection is focused on titles published prior to the mid-1900s and includes some publications dating back to the 1700s. Included are books, prints, woodcuts, catalogues, and photographs illustrating diving history, treasure hunting, submarine warfare, natural history and other aspects of underwater exploration.

The project was made possible with a grant from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. The grant allowed the museum to purchase custom archival-quality bookshelves, document storage drawers, a waterless fire-suppression system, light fixtures and an art hanging system. There is also wireless Internet and audio-visual equipment to make it a functional space for business meetings and events, available for rent.

“The staff, board, and volunteers have all worked extremely hard on this project and its completion signifies a very important step forward for our young museum,” said Erin Wolfe, manager of collections and administration.

Tickets for the opening event are $25 ($15 for museum members). Drink tickets and hors d’oeuvres are included. The deadline to RSVP is Feb. 22.

The museum is open to the general public daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The research library and meeting room will be accessible during those hours.