Diabetes and Neuropathy Treatment in Turtle Beach, FL

SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN) — A group of Riverview High School students had the idea to go shark-fishing last weekend and reeled in something unexpected off of Turtle Beach in Sarasota.

“At first we were like, ‘what is this?’” Isaac Francis said. “‘It’s not a shark, it has weird colors.’”

Francis said it only took about 15 to 20 minutes after they threw bait in the water to get a hit on the line, but that it took just as long — if not longer — to reel in his catch.

“We saw Isaac, the rod started going down, he started screaming and everything,” Jacob Musa said. “And all of us started running towards Isaac, and were like ‘it’s a shark, it’s a shark,’ and see this massive fish and go, ‘that’s not a shark – that’s a Goliath Grouper!’”

Musa said Francis did most of the work, but it still took a team to reel in the fish they estimated to be around 6.5 to 7 feet long and 250 pounds.

“Once the fish came in, one of my friends went out on the beach — he had waders on, he was ready — he grabbed the grouper, and he brought it in,” Francis said. “And then I jumped in the water with all my clothes on because I was so excited.”

While Francis has been fishing most his life, Musa and Aiden Homsey were lucky enough to see it as beginners.

“It was like my first time ever, or second time coming out,” Homsey said.

“It was my first time shark-fishing too,” Musa said. “We’re planning to go tonight, but I don’t think anything crazy like that is going to happen.”

They said they do not know of anyone else who’s caught a Goliath Grouper off of Turtle Beach, so it could be the first one that the beach has ever seen.

“We were like, let’s get this fish in, keep it tight, that’s just what we were thinking,” Francis said. “We were having a great time.”

“Everyone was just screaming and scattering around trying to get pictures and everything,” Homsey said. “And we just wanted to make sure the Goliath Grouper was safe.”

Amidst all the fun, they say they know Goliath Groupers are critically endangered, so they kept it in the water and made sure it swam off strong.

Francis’ father, Stu Francis, said while his son calls the catch “lucky,” he credits it to skills and years of experience to land a huge fish on light tackle off the beach.

A Florida teenager and his friends landed the catch of a lifetime when they pulled in a fish estimated to weigh about 250 pounds from the beach.

FOX 13 in Tampa reported that Isaac Francis, a 17-year-old junior at Riverview High School, was fishing from Turtle Beach in Sarasota, Florida on Saturday night.

While fishing, Isaac's line went tight and the fight was on until he brought in a nearly 250-pound goliath grouper, according to his father Stu Francis.

The senior Francis told the station his son called the catch "lucky," though he credited skill and years of experience fishing.

RECORD-BREAKING FISH: 10 HUGE CATCHES THAT MADE HEADLINES IN 2023

Ever since Isaac was young, he has been an avid fisherman, his dad said.

Several of Isaac’s friends, who also attend Riverview High School, were also at the beach when he caught the fish, and helped bring it in.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s website says goliath grouper, which at one time were called "jewfish," must be released alive, unharmed and with proper fish handling techniques.

ANGLER HOPES 27-POUND SMALLMOUTH BUFFALO FISH SHATTERS TEXAS RECORD

Fishermen are also not permitted to pull goliath grouper from the water because the skeletal structure cannot support its weight outside the water, and it could sustain fatal injuries.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

Juvenile goliath grouper have very visible bands or stripes, though when they get older the bands can fade.

While Isaac’s catch was massive, the Florida state record for a goliath fish was set in 1961 when a 680 pounder was caught off Fernandina Beach.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The fish have been known to reach 800 pounds in other areas and can stretch to over 8 feet in length.

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Just as they have for millions of years, sea turtles by the thousands made their labored crawl from the ocean to U.S. beaches to lay their eggs over the past several months. This year, record nesting was found in Florida and elsewhere despite growing concern about threats from climate change.

In Florida, preliminary state statistics show more than 133,840 loggerhead turtle nests, breaking a record set in 2016. Same for green turtles, where the estimate of at least 76,500 nests is well above the previous mark set in 2017.

High sea turtle nest numbers also have been reported in South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, although not all set records like Florida, where Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, said the number of nests is remarkable this year.

“We had more nests than we had ever seen before on our local beaches,” said Perrault, whose organization monitors Palm Beach County and broke a local record by 4,000 nests. “That’s quite a bit of nesting.”

There are seven species of sea turtles: loggerhead, green, leatherback, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, olive ridley and flatback. All are considered either endangered or threatened. They come ashore on summer nights, digging pits in the sand and depositing dozens of eggs before covering them up and returning to the sea. Florida beaches are one of the most important hatcheries for loggerheads in the world.

Only about one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings live to adulthood. They face myriad natural threats, including predators on land and in the ocean, disruptions to nests and failure to make it to the water after hatching. This year along one stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast where 75 nests had been counted, most were wiped out by the surge from Hurricane Idalia in August.

“Unfortunately, the nests pre-Idalia were almost all lost due to the high tides and flooding on our barrier islands,” said Carly Oakley, senior turtle conservation biologist at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

EARLIER COVERAGE

Female turtles generally lay eggs in a three-year cycle, leading to up-and-down years of nests, she said. “The nesting process is very exhausting and, in this break, females regain the energy to do the process again,” Oakley said.

Climate change has added to those challenges, reducing beaches as sea levels rise and causing more powerful tropical storms. Hotter air, water and sand and changes in the ocean currents turtles use to migrate also lower the odds of surviving, according to Oceana, an international conservation group.

Sand temperatures play a major role in determining sea turtle sex. In general, warmer temperatures produce more female turtles, and sand temperatures are projected to increase dramatically around the world by 2100, according to researchers at Florida State University.

“So the warmer the nest is, the more likely that nest is to produce females,” Perrault said. “Additionally, hatchlings that come out of warmer nests are much smaller and often slower.”

A study led by FSU professor Mariana Fuentes that was published recently in the Global Change Biology journal found sea turtles will have to nest much later or much earlier than they currently do to cope with changing environmental conditions.

Even that may not be enough for every species, said Fuentes, who works in FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. Turtles have adapted to altered climates over millions of years, but today’s rapid changes could happen too quickly for them to evolve, she said.

“We have found that even if they do change the timing of their nesting, that’s not going to be sufficient to maintain the temperatures of current nesting grounds,” Fuentes said.

Sea turtle mothers already have to lumber out of the water to find a good spot to nest, which can be difficult in areas where humans have built seawalls. Some female turtles make several attempts, known as false crawls, before finding a suitable location.

Racoons, coyotes and other predators raid the nests and hatchlings, once they dig their way out, have to crawl to the sea before being snatched up by birds and other animals. Electric lights can disorient them, causing turtles to head the wrong way on the beach instead of following light from the moon and stars. And when the lucky ones finally start swimming, hungry fish await.

Michelle Pate, biologist at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said tens of thousands of hatchlings don’t make it to the water, even as nest numbers trend higher across much of the Southeast.

“If we can’t get hatchlings to emerge and make it to the ocean, then an increase in nest numbers doesn’t help,” she said.

The increase in turtle nests this year conceals an ominous future for the animals, Perrault said.

“Yes, we’re seeing record numbers, but our hatchling production may not be that great,” he said. “And so in the future, 20 to 30 years from now, and these things come back to nest, we may not be seeing these record numbers that we’re seeing now.”

___

AP video journalist Cody Jackson contributed from Juno Beach, Florida.

UPDATE: The body of Nick Lovensen Alincy was recovered at Bathtub Beach in Stuart around 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office reports. That’s about five miles south of where he was last seen, officials said.

The original story continues below.

A 17-year-old boy went missing in the Atlantic Ocean, just minutes after a photo session showed him greeting the sunrise with arms raised, according to Florida officials.

Nick Lovensen Alincy of Fort Pierce vanished around 6:45 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 6, in waters off Sea Turtle Beach, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Sea Turtle Beach is in Jensen Beach, about 115 miles north of Miami.

“A witness said it appears Nick got caught up in rough surf during an early morning swim that was pulling him further out into the water,” the sheriff’s office said.

Alincy and his girlfriend arrived at the beach at daybreak to take some “neat photos of the sunrise,” Chief Deputy John Budensiek said in an interview posted on Facebook by WPBF.

“Several individuals have since reported to us that a few yards down the beach, they also saw Mr. Alincy in the surf before he went under. (He) has not since resurfaced,” Budensiek said.

“Really, this is a needle in a haystack type of recovery operation.”

Alincy played soccer for the PSL Hurricanes FC, a youth club, and was “a dedicated student-athlete at St. Lucie West Centennial High School,” according to a fundraiser.

The search includes Martin County dive teams and aviation units, and officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, officials said.

Swift flowing rip currents that drag people out to sea are the most common cause of beach fatalities along Florida, according to the National Weather Service.

“Rip currents are often referred to as drowning machines by lifeguards,” NOAA reports.

“Speeds are typically 1-2 feet per second, but speeds as high as 8 feet per second have been measured. That is faster than an Olympic swimmer! Drowning deaths occur when people, pulled away from the shoreline, are unable to keep themselves afloat.”

Read Next

Florida

September 21, 2023 10:46 AM

This story was originally published November 6, 2023, 11:28 AM.

Beginning this week through the end of June, residents and visitors to South Siesta Key will notice 100 to 120 dump truck trips per day bringing sand from inland to repair Turtle Beach In 2016, Hurricane Hermine narrowed and damaged the beach.

That damage occurred only three months after the most recent beach renourishment on that part of Siesta Key in May 2016. Prior to that, the beach there was renourished in 2006.

The contractor for the repair project plans to haul beach-compatible sand from Lake Wales in Polk County, using 60 to 70 dump trucks, most of them making two trips per day, traversing through the intersection of Stickney Point Road and Midnight Pass. That will add traffic to an already congested area.

Still, the project must be done, and it must be done now, according to Sarasota County Environmental Protection Division Manager Rachel Herman. Funding was set aside for the beach repair by FEMA and the Florida Department of Emergency Management. Between those agencies, the county is eligible for 87.5% of the project cost.

The catch is that deal expires on June 30.

“We initially thought that what we would do is apply the funding that FEMA was going to give us for the damage to the next full renourishment, which is planned for 2026,” Herman said. “But around November of 2019, FEMA introduced the concept of an interim repair project, using sand transported via dump trucks from an upland sand source, and so at that point we transitioned to doing the repair project.”

The current cost of the project is not to exceed $8.2 million, with a deadline for substantial completion by the end of June in order to qualify for the funding.

With upwards of 120 dump truck trips per day, times two for arriving and departing, traffic disruptions will occur through the duration of the project. Once completed, though, the work will widen the beach in the project area by some 25 to 35 feet.

“We appreciate everybody's patience as we're doing the work and understanding that it's just for a short duration, but it will provide some much-needed protection for this storm season coming up,” Herman said. “That is the benefit of doing it now as compared to waiting until next fall.”

Turtle Beach will remain open throughout the project duration outside the work area, but other beaches may be more crowded as beachgoers look elsewhere for their day in the sun.

“Any time there's anything happening at any of the beaches, whether it be red tide at one beach and not another, or if we're working on the access point at Siesta Beach or another beach, you'll see that shift,” said Media Relations Officer Brianne Lorenz. “Folks are clever here. They know their favorite beaches. If there's a will, there's a way. They’ll find a way to get to the beach they want to get to.”