Hydrophyte Volume 25 Issue 3 - July 2021 by South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Sociey

The South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society

Volume 25 Issue 3

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Highlights Should Florida Exterminate or Accommodate Invasive Species Feds Help Figure Out What’s Killing Florida Manatees 6 Secrets for Catching More and Bigger Largemouth Bass Seafood How to Tips

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President’s Message Looks like we are getting closer to “normal” again. Hopefully everyone and their families are healthy and ready to get on with their lives. This past 18 months has given me ample time to reflect on how lucky I am to be in our industry. I have said many times that what we do is vital. Vital during normal times. Vital during pandemics. Vital during recessions as well as strong financial times. As a society we would like to make sure this continues. There will always be people that question what we do. Please understand each and every one of you reading this has a responsibility to represent us in the best possible way. Wear the correct PPE, abide by label rates, maintain your equipment properly. By the time you read this, we will have had our final zoom quarterly meeting. I am happy to say, moving forward, our meetings will be live. We look forward to seeing everyone in person and catching up. We will have details shortly on our first live meeting. Until then, good luck getting through the summer and be the best stewards of the environment you can. Andy Fuhrman - President South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society

Board Members - 2021 Officers 2021 Andy Fuhrman, President (954) 382-9766 afuhrman@allstatemanagement.com Dail Laughinghouse, Ph.D., Vice President (954) 577-6382 hlaughinghouse@ufl.edu Colleen Sullivan, Secretary/Treasurer (954) 382-9766 csullivan@allstatemanagement.com Hughie Cucurullo, Immediate Past President (561) 845-5525 hcucurullo@avcaquatic.com Board Members 2021 Keith Andreu (239) 694-2174

andreu@lchcd.org

Rose Bechard-Butman (954) 519-0317 rbechardbutman@broward.org James Boggs (352) 521-3538

boggsj@helenachemical.com

Norma Cassinari (334) 741-9393

ngcassinari@alligare.com

Lyn Gettys, Ph.D. (954) 577-6331

lgettys@ufl.edu

Scott Jackson (561) 402-0682 Rory Roten, Ph.D. (321) 890-4367 Dharmen Setaram (407) 670-4094

scott.jackson@syngenta.com roryr@sepro.com dsetaram@landolakes.com

Steven Weinsier (954) 382-9766 sweinsier@allstatemanagement.com

The Francis E. “Chil” Rossbach Scholarship Fund

Cover Photo by Allstate Resource Management

Funds from the scholarship are used to help defray costs for students taking classes related to the study of aquatic environmental sciences or related areas. The scholarship is open to anyone, and all are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted throughout the year and the scholarship awarded when a suitable candidate is found. Money raised by the Society during the year partially goes to fund this scholarship, the intent of which is to promote the study of aquatics. For an application, please go to www.sfapms.org.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? By Isaac Eger | Published in the March-April 2021 issue of Sarasota Magazine

ilhouetted against the moonlight, the strangest lizard I had ever seen hung on my porch screen. A foot long from head to tail, with wide golden eyes and a baby-blue body with bright tangerine spots, it looked like something a child might draw with a big box of crayons. I caught it with a mixing bowl and a Van Morrison Moondance LP sleeve and placed it in an empty cardboard box. It was big and beautiful and angry. I named it Gloria. I grew up in Southwest Florida catching lizards, snakes and frogs, but never had I seen a creature like this. A quick internet search revealed Gloria to be a tokay gecko—a voracious rainforest species from Southeast Asia that outcompetes, displaces and eats native Florida geckos and other lizards.

Like the Burmese pythons that gorge on Everglades wildlife—in just a few decades, they’ve wiped out some 90 percent of the mammals that once thrived in the Everglades—Gloria is a part of a scourge of invasive species spreading throughout Florida. Now that I had Gloria in my possession, I wasn’t sure what to do with her. I learned that it would be illegal for me to release her back into my downtown yard—or anywhere in Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) website recommended that I euthanize her humanely. But how serious was the gecko’s trespass? Did she merit execution? I had to find out. The first thing I learned is that what is and isn’t labeled “invasive” depends on a species’ behavior.

www.sfapms.org

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Invasive Species Information Center identifies an invasive species as a plant, animal or microbe that is alien to an ecosystem and “whose introduction is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” That explains why honeybees, which are vital to U.S. agriculture, aren’t considered invasive even though they are native to Europe. Florida consistently ranks as one of the top five places in the world with the most invasive species. And the state is the world epicenter of invasive reptiles. In fact, non-native reptile species now outnumber native reptiles by 3 to 1 in Florida. According to state agencies, as of 2019, 194 invasive plant species and 126 invasive animal species lived in Florida.

What brings so many unwanted newcomers to the state’s shores? First, Florida is young. The state was underwater for most of its history. The Everglades is just 5,000 years old. Compare that to, say, the Appalachian Mountains, which were formed 480 million years ago. Florida’s brief existence has allowed less time for new species to make their way here and interact. Compared to other wet and green subtropical climates. Florida has relatively few native reptile species. For instance, while Florida has 16 species of lizards, Brazil has 248. Florida is also geographically inconvenient. For millennia, the only immigrants from the tropical south were birds and the occasional frog, lizard or insect that hitched a ride on detritus from an island after a big storm. Otherwise, Northern species colonized the peninsula.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES?

But the main reason for Florida’s invasive problem is the plant and animal trade. More exotic plants and animals are legally and illegally transported through the ports of Florida than anywhere else in the country. Most of the state’s geckos—including Gloria—are the descendants of escaped forebears of this billion-dollar industry. Horror stories about invasive animals saturate the media—pythons swallowing alligators in the Everglades, rhesus macaques in Orlando carrying a deadly strain of herpes, insatiable lionfish devouring reef life in the Gulf of Mexico. But a greater danger may be invasive plants, such as cogongrass, a weed from Southeast Asia that needs only a few inches of clippings to root and spread; the melaleuca tree from Australia, which stores as many as 20 million seeds that can remain viable for 10 years; and an Old World climbing fern that grows up to the top of the canopy and suffocates entire forests with a thick, green shroud. This is of great concern to the state. These newcomers can damage ecosystems and destroy native wildlife, threatening the economy and even human health.

Unpredictable things happen when organisms from different ecosystems first brush up against each other. Some scientists have theorized that the coronavirus pandemic sprang from the cramped intersection of wild animals from disparate places in a Wuhan market, with the virus perhaps leaping from bats to other animals and eventually to sellers and customers. Invasive species cause $137 billion annually in damages to U.S. industries and infrastructure. The National Park Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) estimate that Floridians spend more than half a billion dollars per year trying to manage the crisis. They say it’s not nearly enough. And legislative attempts to control invasive species can face pushback. In June 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law SB 1414, which prohibits the sale and breeding of green iguanas and tegus, a large lizard from Argentina. The United States Association of Reptile Keepers’ Florida Chapter and six individual plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the new law, citing “irreparable harm” to their industry.

Florida Mango Upside Down Cupcake Recipe from Fresh From Florida

Ingredients 2 cups Florida mango, diced small ½ cup light brown sugar 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup whipped cream (store bought or homemade) Fresh mint, for garnish (optional) 1 cake mix (store bought or homemade)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation Preheat oven to 375 degrees if using the homemade recipe (if using store bought, follow package instructions). Prepare cupcake batter using box mix or homemade recipe provided. Once the batter is prepared, place cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and set aside. In a small sauce pan over low heat combine the brown sugar, butter, vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the diced mangos and stir to combine. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Once cool, add a tablespoon of mango mixture to each cupcake liner. Using an ice cream scoop, evenly divide the batter into the liners (about ⅔ full) do not overﬁll. Bake for about 16-18 minutes (if using the scratch made recipe) or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Set aside to cool completely. Top with whipped cream and mint sprig, if desired.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? “Research dealing with euthanizing cane toads concludes that anything that is a tropical or subtropical adapted species is most humanely dealt with by sticking it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours,” he said. “Then put it in the freezer.” Cooling in a fridge slows down the chemical reactions in the body and avoids forming ice crystals that might penetrate the cell membrane and cause pain. “There are other humane methods,” Johnson said. “But they are a lot more grotesque.” I called Steve Johnson, a professor at the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida whose specialty is natural history and the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, to get his take on what I should do with Gloria. He agreed that euthanizing her might be a step in the right direction—but a tiny step on a near-endless journey. “If everyone removed invasive plants and animals from their yard on a regular basis, we’d see some positive change,” he said. “But removing them is not a one and done thing. It’s like maintaining your lawn. You have to keep mowing because the weeds keep coming, and that’s the same with invasive species.” “If I do decide to—remove her, what’s the best way?” I asked.

Still, tossing Gloria in the fridge didn’t seem like yanking out a dandelion to me. I looked for a second opinion from Stephen Enloe, a professor of agronomy at the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants at the University of Florida. He didn’t share my moral dilemma about removing invasives. His field is plants, and he would love for people to murder invasive vegetation. Invasive flora is a far greater threat than alien fauna, said Enloe. He sometimes feels like Sisyphus, and I imagined him rolling an invasive Australian pine tree up a hill only to have another sprout in its place. And then there’s the Brazilian peppertree. Brought from South America as an ornamental plant in the 1840s, it now covers more than 700,000 acres in Florida. It crowds out other plants and creates inhospitable conditions for native species, reducing Florida biodiversity

www.sfapms.org

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? and ecological health. Conservationists have a whole host of tools at their disposal to remove Brazilian pepper and other invasive plants. They pull them out by their roots. They introduce other non-native species that prey on them.

“We have millions of acres in Florida that are relatively intact,” he said. “So it’s important that we continue to protect areas that have not been invaded yet.”

The air potato plant population, for example, has been significantly reduced thanks to the intentional introduction of another invasive species—the air potato leaf beetle, which they had studied for years to make sure it wouldn’t negatively affect other organisms.

“Anything with a face becomes more difficult to deal with,” he conceded. “So you have to think of the number of other faces that [invasives] kill.” Enloe called his thought process ecological triage. “It’s an awful thing, but if there are invasive species causing major damage, triage that gecko,” he told me.

Mostly they use herbicide; the most common is the controversial glyphosate. The chemical has come under international scrutiny and has been suspected of having carcinogenic links, but the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) agrees with the EPA’s assessment on glyphosate as a safe herbicide. “We use surgical precision when applying glyphosate,” Enloe assured me.

I still didn’t like the idea of being an executioner. After all, species appear, evolve and disappear all the time in the natural world. Change is an evolutionary constant. Wouldn’t nature manage to find a balance, with Florida eventually adapting to golden-eyed Gloria and her fellow alien intruders?

But despite all those methods, completely eradicating Brazilian pepper has not been possible, he said. It’s here to stay. Enloe believes the best approach is to prevent invasives from getting here in the first place.

What would Enloe do about my gecko?

Ray Vinson, a land manager with Manatee County’s Parks & Natural Resources department, seemed like the right person to ask. When I called him and said I wondered whether we should just let Florida’s ecosystems sort themselves out, he told me he wanted to show me what managed land looks like in comparison to land that has been left alone or developed without an understanding of natural ecosystems.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? I drove to a spot east of I-75, near Lake Manatee, to meet him. We walked along a dirt path bordered by a barbed wire fence. On our right was the land-managed Rye Preserve. On the left was Faulkner Ranch. The preserve was an open space with few trees and lots of brush. The ranch was crowded with pine trees. To the untrained eye, the area with more trees looked healthier. But Vinson explained that it’s not healthy for pines to be so close to each other. In nature, wildfires would thin them out, he said, but when they crowd together, the trees displace habitat for animals like the endangered Florida scrub jay. “We offer to remove invasive plants and remove pines, but most ranchers aren’t that interested,” Vinson said. Then he pointed out the cogongrass. This plant—considered a weed, but then, weeds are really just plants we don’t like—was brought from Asia to Alabama to be used as cattle feed. “They didn’t realize that the grass has all these barbs, and the cows won’t eat it,” Vinson said. The plant was abandoned as feed, but not before it colonized rural Florida. Then some Florida ranchers thought they’d try it as feed themselves, expecting different results, and now here we are.

“The urban boundaries are even worse,” Vinson said. We drove across a state road from the preserve to another managed area. This one was next to a newly developed gated community called River Wind. As we walked through the development, Vinson stopped every couple of minutes to point out a different non-native species, including the highly toxic rosary pea and the deep-rooting guinea grass. It will be nearly impossible to get rid of all of them. He lamented losing the native species to invaders. “We are losing potential life-saving pharmaceuticals when native plants go extinct,” he said. Apparently, I realized, nature needs help in finding a healthy balance. I asked Vinson what he would do with Gloria. “I’d see if someone wants it as a pet,” he said.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? If it were a Cuban tree frog [an intruder that’s causing many problems in Florida, including in suburban neighborhoods], I’d happily humanely euthanize it.” One invasive species Floridians don’t seem to have any trouble euthanizing is the green iguana. An entire cottage industry of pest removal companies has cropped up to eradicate them. They’ve been spotted in Phillippi Creek in Sarasota—creating lots of arguments on Nextdoor about whether to kill them—and as far north as Gainesville. But they are firmly established farther south, especially in Naples and Miami, where the deft swimmers navigate networks of manmade canals to colonize residential back yards. That iguanas seem to prefer to settle in human-disturbed areas rather than the wild might make you wonder what kind of “nature” is being restored when we kill them. I asked Jeremiah Doody, a professor at the Department of Integrative Biology at USF, whether the companies exterminating iguanas are helping to solve the state’s crisis of invasive species. “The occasional killing of a few iguanas doesn’t really amount to much,” he said. “I have to teach my undergrads over and over that killing the odd animal is not helping.”

He’s had students run over exotic frogs in the belief that they are making a difference. “But the fact of the matter is you’re not doing any good,” he said. “You’re probably just being cruel.” Besides, Doody said, iguanas aren’t causing a lot of damage to the environment. They’re more a nuisance to human endeavors. They eat the flowers in people’s gardens and burrow into the ground, ruining sidewalks and seawalls. But leaving invasive animals alone is not what the public wants to hear, Doody admitted. “Today, conservation trumps animal welfare, but there’s no clear answer,” he said. “We need impact studies. They’re cheap and we could figure out the impact of each invasive species in Florida and rank them accordingly.” From these studies, we could then determine which animals are truly harmful and which we can just leave alone.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES?

As for my gecko? Although he doesn’t believe I should let it back into the wild, “I wouldn’t kill that animal,” Doody said. All the geckos we see around houses and buildings are invasive, he pointed out. “The native geckos don’t hang around houses. And if the tokay is going to eat other geckos, they’re going to be eating invasive ones, so ultimately they’ll contribute to removal just as well.” Gloria was still in the cardboard box, living off the grubs and palmetto bugs I tossed to her. Everything I’d read about tokay geckos warned they weren’t for amateur keepers. Gloria had shown nothing but hostility and loathing towards me, biting my fingers every time they got too close. I harbored no fantasies about our forming an interspecies bond, but neither killing her nor releasing her into the Florida environment felt right. I hoped I had found someone who might understand my dilemma when I discovered anthropologist and author Eben Kirksey, a New College graduate who teaches at Australia’s Deaken University. He is described as an “expert on science and justice” and studies the intersection of humans and animals.

In his book Emergent Ecologies, Kirksey had posed exactly the question that was consuming me: “When should we let unruly forms of life run wild and when should we intervene?” No fan of what he calls the “abstract ideal of the native,” Kirksey said it’s impossible to recreate a natural Eden that never really existed, anyway. Instead, we dwell in a world of complex, constantly evolving ecosystems, where man is the most destructive invasive species of all. Not even the deepest parts of the ocean are left untouched by human development, and scientists warn that within the next few decades, our actions will annihilate more than 1 million more plants and animals. Yet we consider the entire earth our own and are the arbiters of what gets to stay and what must leave. We don’t always understand the actual effects of an invasive species, Kirksey warned. He pointed to his work with the rhesus macaques in Florida’s Silver Springs. He concluded that the monkey, in spite of the media hysteria surrounding its herpes (the only documented case of the virus infecting a human was in a lab), is not ecologically harmful and has earned the right to call Florida home.

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SHOULD FLORIDA EXTERMINATE OR ACCOMMODATE INVASIVE SPECIES? “I see a lot of displaced anxiety about human impact in the world being put onto other animals,” he said. Successfully dealing with invasive species, Kirksey contends, requires better political and economic choices, from limiting pollution to developing with more environmental awareness. “Rather than looking at managing life and death in these spaces that have been set aside as preserves or wild places or forested areas, why aren’t we thinking about regulating human enterprises more?” he asked. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude—and maybe the hopelessness—of the issues Kirksey was raising. In the face of so much human folly and environmental destruction, what difference did the life of one little gecko make? But then he said something that spoke straight to my heart. “In this era of extinction,” he declared, “we can each ask a very personal question: ‘Who do we love?’” Whether the answer is geckos or monkeys or birds or snails, he said, the kind of life we value inspires us to exercise our curiosity, to investigate and learn more about it and the environment we share. All the ways the world needs saving can feel out of reach. I’ve never even seen an iceberg. But somehow, this gecko from all the way across the planet ended up in my back yard and presented me with a choice.

After all I’d learned, I couldn’t square the circle that the solution to life is death. So I chose life for Gloria. She and I felt contained in our own little world, and I decided I would protect her from the world and protect the world from her. I got a 50-gallon terrarium and heat lamp, filled the bottom with gravel and branches, and went to transfer Gloria into her new home. I opened her cardboard home and out she jumped. I lunged for her, but it was too late. She found a hole in the porch screen, slipped away and disappeared. In spite of all my agonized consideration, she had made her own plans for her life. Isaac Eger is a Florida native whose stories have appeared in The New York Times, L.A. Times, Medium, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, Deadspin, and in the book The Wilder Heart of Florida. His latest Sarasota Magazine feature, about the privatization of Florida’s beaches, was “A Line in the Sand.”

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FLORIDA HAS AVERAGED 7 MANATEE DEATHS A DAY FEDS TO HELP FIGURE OUT WHAT’S KILLING THEM BY ADRIANA BRASILEIRO (MIAMI HERALD)

Efforts to figure out what’s killing scores of manatees in Florida’s waters this year just got a big boost from the federal government. This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared Florida’s manatee crisis an “unusual mortality event,” triggering a federal investigation to determine the causes of a recent spike in deaths and directing more money and resources to state agencies and environmental groups involved in rescues. As many as 539 manatees have died in Florida through March 19, according to the most recent tally by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

That’s almost seven manatees per day, and nearly 400 more than the five-year average of 146 deaths. At this rate, 2021 is on track to be one of the deadliest for the gentle mammals in the past decade. A total of 637 manatees died in all of 2020, and 607 died in 2019 in the state. Wildlife managers say that a combination of cold temperatures and a reduction of food availability in key wintering areas may explain at least part of the spike in deaths, even if the winter wasn’t as severe as in past years. The new unusual mortality event status will likely help speed up research into other factors that may be killing Florida’s beloved sea cow, including ecological and habitat degradation.

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FLORIDA HAS AVERAGED 7 MANATEE DEATHS A DAY FEDS TO HELP FIGURE OUT WHAT’S KILLING THEM Nearly half of all deaths — 235 — occurred in Brevard County, where Indian River Lagoon provides an important refuge for the mammals to gather to escape cold water temperatures during winter months. Pollution and recent algae blooms have killed off seagrass beds in the region in recent years, leaving manatees without enough food to make it through the winter. “We know that there’s been some water quality issues in the Indian River Lagoon and the loss of sea grasses. We don’t yet know whether that is a primary cause or just a secondary cause. And the job of the investigation is to work through all that,” said Gil McRae, director at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, a division of FWC, which is leading the response to the manatee mortality and the investigation. The COVID-19 pandemic is still disrupting necropsies, which adds to questions about the staggering death numbers. Of the 539 manatee carcasses found, 372 weren’t necropsied, according to the agency. Cold stress killed 27 animals while 66 manatees died of what FWC considered natural deaths. If manatees were more evenly distributed in the state, maybe mortality wouldn’t be so high, McRae said.

Winter aggregation behavior puts a lot of manatees in just a few spots, including the Indian River Lagoon, an estuary spanning more than 150 miles that historically supported hundreds of species that live on Florida’s east coast. Increased nutrient pollution in the northern end of the lagoon and the southern end wiped out much of the seagrass in those areas, forcing manatees to look for food elsewhere. But water management structures and development have cut off much of their access to traditional wintering areas. Often manatees end up in polluted man-made canals that don’t provide enough food and expose them to boat traffic, said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity. Habitat loss is a key threat that is only getting worse, Lopez said. Natural springs in central and northern Florida provide wintering refuges, but as springs have been developed or access cut off, the giant mammals began congregating near warm-water discharges from power plants. Those are not sustainable sources in the long term as Florida moves to expand solar power. And increased spring water use by Florida’s growing population is also reducing areas that are available for manatees to spend winter months.

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FLORIDA HAS AVERAGED 7 MANATEE DEATHS A DAY FEDS TO HELP FIGURE OUT WHAT’S KILLING THEM That’s why the Center and other conservation organizations want the government to identify specific areas that can be protected to conserve the species, which lost its endangered status in 2017 and was downlisted to threatened. In 2010, in response to a petition filed by the Center, Defenders of Wildlife and Save the Manatee Club, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the revision of critical habitat was needed. The Service agreed that the loss of Florida’s warm water habitats is one of the leading threats to manatees. But it never revised the manatee’s critical habitat. Instead the agency downlisted the manatee to threatened in 2017 despite ongoing threats to the species and manatee habitat. Adding to the challenges, a new study showed that manatees have been chronically exposed to glyphosate, a key ingredient in pesticides like Roundup, because of application in sugarcane fields and aquatic weeds. The study by University of Florida scientists showed that the chemical was found in the plasma of about 56% of the 105 manatees that were analyzed between 2009 and 2019.

If manatees were more evenly distributed in the state, maybe mortality wouldn’t be so high, McRae said. The concentration of the herbicide has “significantly increased” in Florida manatees over the past decade, the study said. “This chronic exposure in Florida water bodies may have consequences for Florida manatees’ immune and renal systems which may further be compounded by other environmental exposures such as red tide or cold stress,” said the study, published in the scientific journal Environment International.

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6 SECRETS FOR CATCHING MORE AND BIGGER LARGEMOUTH BASS BY DEBBIE HANSON

If you've been wondering how to boost your chances of landing a bass over 8-pounds, and catching more bass overall, these six tips will point you in the right direction.

Study your target species. There is a difference between Northern strain largemouth and Florida strain largemouth. Florida strain bass is a distinct subspecies that are often referred to as the “super fish” because they grow faster and are less aggressive than Northern strain fish, making them more of a challenge to catch. They are also more affected by significant changes in temperature.

Spend time on lakes and ponds that see less fishing pressure. Check the online database at Trophy Catch Florida to find out which types of waterways are producing the highest number of fish 8-pounds or over.

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6 SECRETS FOR CATCHING MORE AND BIGGER LARGEMOUTH BASS 3

Become an amateur meteorologist. Study the weather and barometric pressure to learn when optimal feeding periods are likely to happen. For example, just before a front moving through when the pressure is falling. Consider downsizing your presentations or using finesse techniques when water temperatures are several degrees above or below the largemouth's preferred feeding temperature range, which is between 65 and 80 degrees.

Use a solunar calendar to plan your trips around the best fishing periods based on the lunar phase. A solunar calendar will rate each day of the month as average, good, better, or the best. You should also check the two major feeding periods and two minor fishing periods for each day of the month. If you are targeting trophy fish, be prepared to fish at night or during the early morning hours. Combine this information with the weather forecast to learn how to stack the odds of catching more and bigger fish in your favor.

Plan to focus the bulk of your efforts during the months when the majority of bass are preparing to spawn. In South Florida, for example, this timeframe generally runs from late winter through spring. Florida strain bass usually prepare to spawn when water temperatures reach 62-75 degrees.

Consider the best method for catching a trophy largemouth. Live baits, such as live wild golden shiners, will most often provide your best opportunity for big fish. One tip to remember when fishing with shiners is to hook them through the lips because you'll get more action out of your bait. Besides, bass tends to eat shiners head-first, so you'll also increase your chances of a good hook set. Now that you know how to sway the odds of catching a trophy in your favor, pack up your tackle and get out on the water.

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Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Seafood "How To" Tips Shopping for Seafood

Only buy seafood from reputable, commercial sources. When you are food shopping, purchase seafood last and keep it cold. Ask your grocer to pack your seafood on ice for the trip home. Fresh fish, shucked oysters and scallops have a mild, fresh sea breeze odor. A strong fish odor generally is not acceptable. When purchasing clams and oysters (molluscan shellfish) in their shells, make sure they are alive. Shells of live clams and oysters may open naturally but will close tightly when tapped, indicating that they are alive. Discard any dead ones.

Fresh whole fish should have:

· A shiny surface with tight scales. · Gills that are deep red or pink, free of slime, mucus and off-odor. · Clean, shiny belly cavity with no cuts or protruding bones. · A mild aroma, similar to the ocean.

Fresh steaks, fillets and loins should have: · · · · ·

A translucent look. Flesh that is firm and not separating. A mild odor, similar to the ocean. No discoloration. Packaging that keeps them from being bent in an unnatural position.

Storing Seafood at Home

Store seafood in leak-proof containers for up to two days in the coldest part of your refrigerator at 32 to 38 degrees F, or three to 10 months frozen. Shelf life will vary depending on product form and species. Never store live (in the shell) oysters or clams in air-tight containers. Place them in a container with a lid that is slightly ajar and refrigerate for no more than five days. Oysters and clams will naturally open during storage. Tap the shell lightly. If it does not close, the oyster or clam is dead and must be discarded. If you have seafood storage questions, ask your seafood supplier.

Preparing Seafood at Home

Thaw seafood in the refrigerator, never at room temperature. To use frozen seafood immediately, thaw under cold running water (1 to 2 hours per pound of seafood) or use the microwave defrost setting. Prevent cross-contamination between raw seafood and other food products. Wash your hands with hot soapy water before and after handling raw seafood. Do not drip seafood juices on counters, utensils or other foods. Thoroughly wash containers that held raw seafood before using them again. Always marinate seafood in the refrigerator, never at room temperature. Discard the marinade after use. When in doubt, throw it out. Do not taste a food if you even suspect it might be spoiled.

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Cooking Fish

A general rule for baking or broiling fish is 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400-450 degrees F, turning the fish halfway through the cooking time. This rule does not apply to microwave cooking or frying. Fish less than 1/2-inch thick do not have to be turned. If fish is cooked in a sauce or foil, add five additional minutes to the cooking time. The cooking time for frozen fish should be doubled. Seafood with low fat content — like grouper, flounder and tilapia — should be basted when cooking with a dry heat method such as broiling and baking. Fish is done when the flesh becomes opaque and flakes easily at the thickest part. Most fish will continue cooking for one to two minutes after being removed from the heat, so plan for this in the cooking time.

Broiling Fish

Place fish, 1-inch thick or less, 2 to 4 inches from the source of heat. Fish thicker than 1 inch should be placed 5 to 6 inches away from the heat. Seafood with low fat content — like grouper, flounder and tilapia — should be basted when cooking with a dry heat method such as broiling or baking.

Frying Fish

When pan-frying or sautéing: Fry fillets in 1/8 inch of oil for three to six minutes per side or until golden and fish flakes easily. Thickness of fillets will determine the cooking time. When deep-frying: Place fish in single layer in deep kettle or saucepan and cook in enough fat to cover and permit fish to move freely; do not crowd. Generally the temperature of the oil should be 365 degrees F. Cook for two to three minutes or until golden brown. When cooking multiple batches, always allow the temperature of the oil to return to 365 degrees F before adding more fish.

Grilling Fish

Preheat gas or electric grill. Start the fire about 30 minutes before cooking when using a charcoal grill. Fish is best grilled over a moderately hot fire and on a surface that has been well oiled. When coals are white-hot, spread out in a single layer.

Adjust the grill height to 4 to 6 inches above the heat. Use indirect heat for a whole fish. Firm-textured fish — like grouper, shark, swordfish and amberjack — grill well. When cooking kebabs, put foods with the same cooking time together, as seafood cooks quickly.

Cooking Shellfish

Scallops, clams, oysters and shrimp become opaque and firm when fully cooked. Don't overcook as this will result in loss of moisture, which affects texture and taste.

Boiling Shellfish

Place shrimp and scallops in a large pot of boiling water (four cups of water per pound of meat) and simmer three to five minutes.

Broiling Shellfish

Scallops and peeled and deveined shrimp will be cooked in three to five minutes. Rock shrimp cook in about half the time of regular shrimp, so watch closely. Shucked clams and oysters will be cooked in three to five minutes. Seafood with lower fat content — like shrimp, scallops, clams and oysters — should be basted when cooked with a dry heat method such as broiling or baking.

Frying Shellfish

Pan-fry or sauté: Shucked oysters and clams for three to five minutes. Shrimp and scallops for seven to nine minutes. Deep fry: Breaded oysters, shrimp, scallops and clams until golden brown in oil that is approximately 365 degrees F.

Steaming Shellfish

Shrimp and scallops cook in three to five minutes. Oysters and clams should be steamed until their shells open completely.

Marinating

Always marinate seafood in the refrigerator. Always discard marinade that contains raw juices from product. The juices may harbor bacteria. When marinade is needed for basting, set aside a portion of the marinade before adding raw seafood.

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