Island watches, waits
Residents are preparing for the worst but still hoping the "Category 5 oil spill" stays far away from Anna Maria Island.

Watching the spread of the Deepwater Horizon oil slick is like a hurricane watch for Anna Maria Island residents - the waiting is the hardest part.

With no shutters to put up, no ice to stockpile and no survival kits to assemble, there is very little to do but watch, wait - and go to the beach.

Beachgoers are not taking crystal clear water and clean beaches for granted now that they’re threatened by oil. More...

Island watches, waits
Tourism officials work to get out the message that, so far, local coastlines remain unaffected by the spill.

Larry White had planned to jump out of a plane to celebrate Tourism Week, May 8-16, before the Deepwater Horizon disaster began on April 20.

But after the spill, the jump took on a new meaning: The beaches are still clean.

White, 75, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, jumped Saturday from about 10,000 feet wearing a “Travel Means Jobs” T-shirt to land on Coquina Beach, which the CVB promotes to the world. More...

Oil spill puts other projects on hold

It’s out there and it’s getting huge and until officials know where the oil spill will go and how soon, a lot of other projects are going to have to wait. Manatee County Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker said that the impending influx of oil is taking precedence over all other projects.

“Even though the oil from the spill is weeks away from us, barring any major and unforeseen change in the weather which would put the currents toward us, we still have to deal with it now,” Hunsicker said. More...

City approves special events despite dissent

BRADENTON BEACH – Gulf Drive Café will be able to hold three special events on the beach in its newly built chickee hut even though it hasn’t begun construction on the tiki hut that will go between the chickee hut and the restaurant.

That was decided at the city commission meeting on Thursday, May 6, after Commissioner Janie Robertson removed the requests for special events for Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and Father’s Day from the consent agenda. When the three requests came up as new business, she said she did not want to be a wet blanket, but she had problems with the circumstances surrounding the requests. More...

Hair donated to collect oil

HOLMES BEACH – Not so long ago, the hair from haircuts and from dog groomers was an annoyance and trash, but with hundreds of thousands of gallons of sweet crude oil drifting around the Gulf, a little known program has come to the forefront. It’s called “Matter of Trust” and it is a hair mat oil spill program.

One of the Island’s newest hair salons, called Salon Salon, is one of several hair cutting facilities that is now packaging the hair that falls from your head to the floor and sending it to a collection point, where it is stuffed into nylon tubes. The tubes are then put into water containing oil from a spill and it is successful in culling the oil from the water. More...

Oil impacting fishing industry

Local commercial and recreational fishermen are reeling from the threat of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has progressively closed fisheries as the oil spreads through the northern Gulf of Mexico, affecting local commercial fishermen who are in that area.

As the oil drifts with the currents and winds, closures could affect more and more local fishermen, commercial and recreational alike. More...

Wildlife, plants at high risk from oil

The start of sea turtle and bird nesting season is a particularly bad time for an oil event, according to wildlife experts.

Locally, the first nesting turtle arrived on Longboat Key on May 4, and threatened shorebirds have been nesting on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key since late April.

“At this time we are holding tight and just continuing with our daily survey walks looking for the nests left by female sea turtles on our shore,” said Suzi Fox, of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Protection in Bradenton Beach, the designated group for local sea turtle rescue efforts. More...

Stock analysis predicts oil spill worse than Valdez

An analysis of BP by Morgan Stanley predicts that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s costs will exceed that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska.

Cleanup costs could be higher, about $3.5 billion compared to $2 billion for the Valdez, and fines could make the BP spill even more costly, according to the report, supplied by Holmes Beach Commissioner David Zaccagnino, a Morgan Stanley advisor. More...

Sarasota Bay Watch cleans up Sister Keys

Sarasota Bay Watch conducted its Second Annual Sister Keys Clean Up on Saturday, May 8, 2010. More than 80 participants gathered close to a ton of trash during the morning event. The volunteers were treated to a complimentary lunch by Ed Chiles and the Chiles Group, under the buttonwood trees bayside at the Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant on Longboat Key. More...

Ethics complaint lodged against Stoltzfus

Valarie Fernandez, an attorney representing Pine Avenue Restoration, has complained to city officials that Commissioner Harry Stoltzfus’ one-way memos and blog postings are in violation of the state’s public records and open meetings laws, which are known collectively as the Sunshine Laws.

Stoltzfus has frequently sent one-way memos to Commission Chair John Quam and to other commissioners about thoughts he has concerning parking in the city’s residential/office/retail district. More...

Surviving heron released

The sole survivor has spread his wings and returned to the wild.

Wildlife Inc. Education and Rehabilitation co-owner Gail Straight recently released the great blue heron from care after it was involved in a fall when the tree that held its nest near Kingfish Boat Ramp was cut down on Feb. 14 by a crew clearing out Australian pines near a seawall. More...

Bair's Lodge: A Bahamian treat

Moments after Leslie Johnson pushed the skiff from the marl bank on the west side of South Andros Island, Captain Bryon Chamberlin was on the front casting platform stripping line from his 8-weight fly reel. Before he finished, Johnson sighted two large bonefish approaching up-tide. After an initial moment of surprise, Chamberlin started a false cast that landed a Peterson's Shrimp fly just feet ahead of the feeding fish. With a bit of coaching from Johnson, Chamberlin started stripping the fly just as it got into the fish's cone of vision. More...

The time has come to leave the fence

Have you noticed it? Have you noticed the quiet hum that has settled over Anna Maria Island during the past couple of months? At first I thought it was a soft wind or a flock of pelicans overhead or even the surf, but soon I understood. I realized that what I was hearing was not a force of nature but a force of humanity as every homeowner on the Island stopped holding their breath. More...

Bond-based portfolios

For certain individuals, converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA may provide advantages from an income tax and estate planning perspective. Previously, eligibility to convert to a Roth IRA was prohibited for those with household income over $100,000 (as measured by modified adjusted gross income). More...

Golfers compete in sunshine

The days are warmer and the golfers at Key Royale Club who live here during the summer are out in force.

Dick Rouse, Bill Shuman, Carl Voyles and Dick Eichhorn won the men’s nine-hole tournament on Monday, May 3, with a best ball of foursome score of 22. Second place went to two teams: Ralph Bassett, Austin Rice, Tom Warda and a proxy; and Bob Sayles, Barry Martin, Paul Kaemmerlen and a proxy. More...

A thrilling end for horseshoe tossers

Only two teams qualified for playoffs on Wednesday, May 5. Art Kingstad and John Johnson took on Ron Pepka and Sam Samuels in the final. With Pepka and Samuels leading 19 to 16, Kingstad stepped up and threw a six pack, snatching victory from defeat, 23 to 19, in a very exciting finish.