You have to live here a while to understand the abundance of

[rzemanfl]

life in the Gulf of Mexico. When I came here only as a tourist I missed a lot of it. I live in the most densely populated county in Florida. Many times I have watched three foot long snook swim within a foot of a person's legs right along the shoreline without them ever noticing what was swimming around their feet. I've followed manatees for hundreds of yards down the beach and seen them swim a few feet away from people who never were aware they were sharing the water with an animal as big as a cow. I've often seen kitchen table sized rays leap entirely clear of the water. I've watched schools of hundreds of jacks swim along in undulating snake-like schools a hundred yards long chasing bait, moving so fast that one cast was the only chance I'd get before they were gone. In the fall I could throw a three foot cast net (and not very well) and catch so much bait I could barely lift it. I've had dolphins swim up and expect to be given a fish I just caught and ospreys sometimes swooped down and stole fish from me. I've routinely caught coolers full of fish on one of the busiest beaches in the country, just down from the high-rises, in front of the million dollar homes. Some days were just fish watching days-I stood in water so clear I could see the fish at considerable distances and they me-very few were foolish enough to bite in those conditions, although small sharks, in their incredible stupidity, would.

All that could be gone in a week or so. Thanks BP, thanks Halliburton, thanks Bush and Cheney, you miserable fucks.