Florida Man Almost Cooked and Ate Endangered Sea Turtle

A Tampa fisherman caught himself a turtle a few months ago, put it in a fresh-water tank, and kept it in his backyard. But his intent wasn’t so much to make the little guy a pet but to totally make him into soup. Turns out, the guy caught a Kemp’s…

DEP’s Jeff Littlejohn Hammered Once Again By PEER

When Jeff Littlejohn walked into the number-two post at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in March 2011, there was no way he could have foreseen the PR crapfest that was coming. And no group has been as relentless in exposing his industry-first approach to environmental protection and fueling the…

Study Shows Oxitec GM Mosquitoes Work: What It Means for a Florida Experiment

See also “Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Glow Red and Self-Destruct; Can They Keep Away Disease?” and “Petition Against GM Mosquitoes in Key West Has Nearly 100,000 Signatures” Opposition to the potential release of Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes in Key West caught a head of steam this summer. A petition against the experiment garnered more than…

Overfishing Deals Severe Blow to Local Economy, Pew Environment Group Says

Scientists tend to frame the consequences of overfishing in esoteric ecological terms that seem frightening but are difficult to comprehend. A new study commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, however, translates the consequences into dollars and cents, making it all too clear that South Florida has lost millions in revenue due to depleted…

Sixteenth Dead Panther of 2012 Killed by Cat-on-Cat Aggression

See also “Urban Sprawl Kills Endangered Florida Panthers”The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission this week recovered a “heavily scavenged” panther carcass, marking the 16th dead panther recorded by state officials this year. The endangered predator was found on a piece of private land in Hendry County, east of the Okaloacoochee Slough State…

Scared? Thanks to Hurricane Andrew, You Can Live In Your Own Bunker

See also: Herald Reporters Remember Hurricane AndrewExactly 20 years ago this morning, Jorge Villa opened the rollup door of his warehouse in Kendall and stared out at devastation. The traumatic experience led him to start U.S. Bunkers, which still sells massive concrete pods in which you can outlive almost anything, for…

Florida Fish and Wildlife Declares Open Season on Lionfish

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) recently announced changes to the harvesting on lionfish. Namely, that you no longer need a fishing license to catch one (when wearing certain gear).Which means you’re totally screwed, lionfish!Now before you go thinking this is some kind of act of animal cruelty,…

Florida Sponges Rebounding; What Killed Them Remains A Mystery

See also “Mystery-Sponge Killing Disease Now Seen From Palm Beach to Keys” and “Sponges in Palm Beach Hit By Disease”Earlier this year, a mystery ailment ravaged sponges off the coast of Florida, from the Keys up to Palm Beach. Scientists became alarmed as reports rolled in of massive barrel sponges…

Colony Collapse Disorder: Can BeesFree Save the World’s Bees?

Back in 2006, researchers from the University of Florida described for the first time a cryptic phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, through which massive amounts of worker bees vanished.The problem has since been documented around the world. Everyone from esteemed entomologists to armchair scientists to crazy conspiracy theorists have…

Sally Ride Dead of Pancreatic Cancer at 61

Former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died of cancer today at the age of 61, according to her organization’s website, which has since crashed.Born in Los Angeles, Ride earned multiple degrees in physics and English from Stanford in the late ’70s, which is also when she…

Saharan Dust: What the Hell Is This Stuff?

Say what you will about the State of Florida’s news organizations; our weathermen are absolutely topnotch (except when they’re sexting kids). They have every computerized graphic in the book, amazing hairdos, and a penchant for predicting calamitous end-of-days scenarios based on nothing more than a blip of green. They also…