My Fishing Adventures
By Christopher Sprague Jr. Angler-Team Tuppens, Contributing Writer
Hello Anglers,
I couldn’t do too much fishing this month, but I did go to Fort Myers to see some family. When we were there, we had planned to go kayaking and paddle boarding around this little lagoon, but when we got there, we saw the immediate effects of the red tide. There were a bunch of fish either dead or about to die in super shallow water, maybe a foot deep. We didn’t really see any living fish sadly, just the ones that were affected by the red tide. Even at the lagoon, people were coughing a little from it. Other than the red tide, the lagoon itself was cool. It was about a 2-hour trip of kayaking, that was fun since we got to spend time with family. We also went on a pink shrimp working waterfront tour at the Ostego Bay Marine Center where we met a researcher studying the red tide. Hopefully, science will soon have a safe solution for this tragic issue. The waterfront tour was super interesting since they talked about how shrimp are caught, prepared, and a lot of other facts about the boats and nets that catch shrimp. I was relieved to see how many safety precautions for bycatch there were. The nets have release mechanisms for turtles and other fish which is great because I’ve always heard that the shrimp boats kill many fish. But the greatest part was getting to spend some time with family, and we all had fun!