We have had an exciting few days, having decided to stay in Largo Sound. We went for drinks at David and Lindsey Ritz’s home. One of the posh houses with its own dock in the centre of Key Largo – about MM95, Oceanside! (This is how all addresses are described in the Keys: Mile Marker 95 means it is 95 miles from Key West where the numbering begins and either Oceanside or Bayside).

The next evening we went to the headquarters of REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation). It is a very small one story building, one of the oldest in Key Largo and still with its original water butt.

We went to hear their talk on the invasive lionfish, learned many interesting facts and discovered that the evening included a short test that gave us a permit to hunt lionfish in the Special Protected Areas of the reef.

Interesting if depressing facts:

Lionfish are native to the Pacific where predators keep their numbers in check. They were introduced into the Atlantic in the 1980’s when 2individuals were released from an aquarium. They now range from N Carolina to S America and established throughout the Caribbean in less than 5 years.

They live for several decades, reaching maturity in less than a year and producing over 2 million unpalatable eggs each year that are dispersed at the ocean’s surface by wind and currents.

They are venomous - native predators exhibit avoidance in the Atlantic, and tolerate large ranges of temperature and salinity.

As generalist carnivores they basically eat anything and everything and are impacting commercial, recreational and ecologically important fish species. They can eat prey up to half their own size and continue to feed in an area until the fish are gone.

Some good news though. They are very tasty and increasingly found on the menu. Many places now hold regular Lionfish Derby’s which can reduce populations by 70% - enough for the local fish populations to recover.

Yesterday we also got to see another famous Florida resident. This snoozing manatee was in the marina when we came in by dinghy. They are huge!

We spent the afternoon being shown around Ocean Reef City by David Ritz who is one of their Managers with responsibility for utilities, landscaping and security amongst other things. Ocean Reef is a private community development that owns the northern half of the island. It attracts the very wealthy who apparently like it for the security it provides. Many South Americans have properties here as kidnapping is a big problem for them....  We also learned about how most of the planting was destroyed by a hurricane in the early 1980’s and thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted since. It costs about $2000 for a large palm tree with about a 90%  success rate providing it is well watered.  David has also supported a cat rescue facility here as cats were brought to tackle a serious rat problem. Many are now feral and some now consider them as much of a problem as the rats. The rescue centre catches them, neuters them and re-homes some if temperamentally suitable. There were about 50 living in what looked like a large sitting room - many sofas, cat baskets, climbing poles and access to a large fenced garden. You could hear them purring when you went in and many came up for a bit of attention. It was really difficult not to take one home but they definitely looked like they were as comfortable as the human residents of the Ocean City!