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September 15, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

BY: Dustin Cranor

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© OCEANA / Carlos Suárez

 

On Wednesday morning the Oceana Latitude pulled up anchor and started to make its way to Port St. Joe, Fla.

As we left Mobile Bay, we passed Dauphin Island, home of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo. Oceana has participated in this conservation minded fishing tournament in the past, which typically attracts more than 100,000 spectators and more than 3,200 fishermen. Unfortunately, like so many other summer activities in this part of the Gulf, the Rodeo was canceled this year after the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

We will sail all day and night so that we can begin diving tomorrow morning at a location known as the 3-5’s area, which is an important fish habitat area on the Florida shelf edge near Port St. Joe. This once bustling port is now a tourist hotspot and was previously named one of America’s best beaches. Oceana will work to document this valuable and vulnerable area that remains at risk from future oil spills in the region.