Sports & Outdoors
SW Florida Fishing: Tarpon still around
July 3, 2024
BY CAPT. WILL WATERHOUSE
Lots of tarpon are still being caught in Boca Grande Pass, Little Gasparilla Pass, and out on the beaches.
If you are looking to back bay fish, target the snook with…
Turtle report: Please stop pulling up yellow stakes protecting nests
July 3, 2024
BY ARLENE HALL BGSTA SECRETARY
The most exciting part of turtle nesting season began last week, when hatchlings from the first couple of loggerhead nests started emerging from the sand. With t…
Van Hubbard: Memories of mackerel, and a trout show with Santa Claus
July 3, 2024
Somewhere in the intense mid- ‘80s, I took videographer Gary Sullivan tarpon fishing. It was 1985 when I met Gary, aka Sully, when he came along on a trip. He was in the production business and, a…
Seagrass survey volunteers needed by Sea Grant
July 3, 2024
A volunteer seagrass monitoring program through the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences needs volunteers to survey sites this summer.
The UF/IFAS Extension Florid…
Bagged a sweet cane toad on Park Avenue
July 3, 2024
A giant seven-inch poison cane toad was caught and bagged in the alley behind the Boca Beacon office on Tuesday, July 2.
The cane toad (also known as the bufo, giant or marine toad) is an invas…
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: No chum of the noxious Boca Grande iguana, Brian Ambrose
July 3, 2024
As one story goes, sometime in the 1980s, a man and his children grew weary of caring for their pet iguanas. They decided to visit the Range Light in Boca Grande and deposit the no-longer-loved pe…
EcoWatch: July 4th is more than fireworks and hot dogs
June 27, 2024
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of h…
SW Florida Fishing: Offshore heating up…
June 27, 2024
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CAPT. BRAD HICKMAN
When it comes to grouper offshore, count on a few gag groupers, but also black, red and yellow-mouths to fill a cooler.
Capt. Brad Hickman can be reach…
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: From Illinois crime lab to turtle volunteer, Arlene Hall
June 27, 2024
Her byline in the Beacon should be enough of a clue that Arlene Hall is someone worth getting to know. She is the one who has been writing about the happenings with the Boca Grande Sea Turtle Asso…
Turtle report: Nest predators appear this week, snacking on eggs
June 27, 2024
BY ARLENE HALL BGSTA SECRETARY
At long last, the first green sea turtle crawl was documented on Gasparilla Island during the week ending June 22nd! It turned out to be a nest and it occurred o…