No Kings in Gainesville, Fla.

No Kings - Gainesville, Fla.

A short story called "Diamonds in the Rough," courtesy of San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park. See it? 🐍

One stout rainstorm, and you can shoot the rapids in the middle of Gainesville.

What a whopper! On a recent shoot for the Reef Keepers film in the Keys, the nice people at Robbie's let me feed the tarpon that hang around their dock. This one got close enough to graze my fingernail -- an absolutely resplendent fish.

Elkhorn corals now functionally extinct in the wild. This new genetically diverse batch may help the species hold on amid disease, climate change & pollution, which have the reef on the rails. "We have less than 2% live coral cover out there right now," KML's Cindy Lewis said.

Waiting to receive the corals were KML's director Dr. Cindy Lewis and conservationists from various orgs that will use the corals in restoration projects on the reef. It took hours to acclimate these sensitive babies so they could be moved to new tanks.

These baby corals are a combo of many different Florida elkhorns, bred and hand-raised for years by Keri O’Neil's team at The Florida Aquarium. They'll be grafted onto the reef where scientists will be watching to see who's tough enough to survive Florida's waters.

It’s official: We’re making a coral documentary. 🎥 "Reef Keepers" tells the story of the people restoring the Florida Coral Reef.

Filmmaker Alyson Larson and I started by trailing a truck with 1,000 elkhorn corals from The Florida Aquarium in Apollo Beach to the Keys Marine Lab.

All the more reason not to take a healthy lagoon for granted, says Capt. Jonathan Moss. "We've worked so hard to advocate and see these changes and have these bans with the sewage and the fertilizer [sources of nutrient pollution]."

Seagrass acreage increased 25% between 2021 and 2023. Capt. Billy Rotne says, "The lagoon is rapidly moving in a good direction. Some areas still aren't where they were, but it's gone from nothing to this in two growing seasons." Gains are fragile: Rotne sent this photo of an algal bloom last week.

The Indian River Lagoon's gin-clear water turned to a slurry, and its reputation as a haven for world-class redfish, snook and seatrout diminished. Fishing Brevard County in 2021 (left), when grass hit record low, and 2023 (right), as clarity improved and grass shoots reappeared.

Decades of nutrient pollution pushed the lagoon, once North America's most biodiverse estuary, past a tipping point. Nutrients supercharged harmful algae, shading out the seagrass that powers the IRL's biodiversity. Fish vanished or died, manatees starved & dolphins struggled.

Seagrass is returning to the Indian River Lagoon after a decade of punishing algal blooms dropped acreage to record lows. "I wanted to cry," said scientist Lori Morris on seeing lush meadows in Mosquito Lagoon.
Catch my story in the May edition of Florida Sportsman mag.

Golden hour at La Chua.

Gainesville, the moment we clinched it.

Sunrise on the Suwannee. Where's Winslow Homer when you need him?

Scrub jays are such show-offs! Caught this raucous flock of Florida icons calling and clicking in Brevard County.

I have joined the elite club of iguana-eaters, and the rumors of true: It's delicious. Lean and flavorful, with a delicate chewiness. I paired this South Florida invasive reptile with classic Cuban sides and a spritz of lime. 🦎