The Island Waterfront Bar and Grill in Merritt Island is one of the only spots around you can grab food or a drink by boat. We were there last Sunday and I had the phantom in the car so I shot this short video.

The Island is a great place to grab a drink and a bite to eat and watch the river, or listen to the live bands they have playing quite often. It is easy to get to being right off of 520 on the West side of the Banana River in Merritt Island, FL. Find them on Facebook to see what is going on there!

The Cocoa Beach Boat parade is rapidly approaching! This year it is December 12th and boats start lining up just before dark along the South side of 520 in the Banana River. The main path is outlined below and does not include all of the canals that the route follows. The Cocoa Beach boat parade usually runs from 6:00 to 9:00 or later, depending on how many boats join in the festivities.

You don’t have to sign up to be in it, but you do in order to win a prize! Go to The Captain’s meeting this Wednesday, December 2 at 7:00 pm at the Cocoa Beach Country Club to register!

Join the fun at the 2015 Cocoa Beach Boat Parade

Bioluminescence in Brevard County Rivers is back! The waters around Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach are full of organisms that react to being disturbed by lighting up. Many area kayak and SUP rental businesses offer night time trips to view this awesome event. It reminds me of something from Avatar. It is difficult to photograph, but this is what it looks like.

 

Anything that moves the water makes it react, from a fishing line, paddle, boat wake, wind waves, or cannonballs and backflips. If you haven’t seen it, its worth checking out.

Stopped by Molly’s Restaurant in Merritt Island for lunch the other day. We sat at the bar and had some street tacos that were very good. Christine was the bartender and was very helpful. They also have a raw bar and a bunch of different types of oyster shooters.  Good food and close to home for all of us North Banana River Drive residents.

Mollys Restaurant Merritt Island is located in front of the Wal-Mart on 520.

 

The Bird Island Pirate Party for Elsa’s 5?th birthday party was 7-19 and Kent arranged for the band Panama to play on a barge. Bird Island had never seen anything like it before!

 

A great time was had by all. Thanks Kent & Elsa for making it happen and PANAMA for keeping the music going, and happy birthday to Elsa!

 

I volunteered to do a Oyster Reef Deployment with the Brevard Zoo on 6-18-14 at 8:00 am. I feel like this is something that more people that use the Mosquito Lagoon/Indian River should assist with because this has a huge impact on water quality and nutrition removal to help keep the algae blooms in control. If you are a boater, fisherman, or just care about our local waterways I feel like this goes a long way in keeping water quality in our lagoons and rivers the level it needs to be. Each oyster can filter 50 gallons of water every day, rain or shine, year round!

We met at 8:00 at the Canaveral National Seashore in New Smyrna Beach (about an hour and ten minute drive from Merritt Island) to take a short boat ride to the site they had been working on previously to do more work on completing the deployment of the oyster mats.

The mats consist of 36 oyster shells that are zip tied onto a black mesh to help give the oyster spat (baby oysters) a solid habitat to grow that would not be affected by boat wake and wind waves tossing them about. Once the oysters are off the reef, they can’t exactly walk back on to it and live happily ever after. These shells will roll in the waves ultimately forming piles in the shallow water, where the oysters will dry out and eventually die. This creates large piles of dead oyster shells, referred to as dead margins. If you would like more information (I just helped with the deployment, I am not a biologist) the link is at the bottom of this page.

The work consists of leveling the current oyster bar so the mats could be placed on top and keep the bar from shifting. There were plenty of rakes, shovels and pick axes to go around. It is very labor intensive but seeing all of the little shrimp, crabs, and minnows cruising around while you are working, and seeing the oyster spat already growing on the mats that have been stacked in water for a few weeks made everyone feel good about what we were doing. These mats work, and work quickly.

 

As you can see there is still plenty of work to be done at this Oyster Reef Deployment site. To find out more information about what you can do to help please visit brevardoystergardens.org