The AuCoin Report
News Briefs from the Great Outdoors
April 2006
1. Where in the great outdoors is this?
Google Earth these coordinates: 27 37 03.55 N, 82 43 32.03 W
But why? See #12, World Headquarters for Birds and Birders.
2. Volunteer for the Environment
TIERRA VERDE, Fla. -- Schedule your Florida vacation just right and you can volunteer to improve the wildlife and sea-life diversity of Tampa Bay. Volunteer activities like beach cleanups, planting seagrass, counting scallops or starting oyster colonies are organized by Tampa Bay Watch, Inc., a non-profit stewardship program. Visit www.tampabaywatch.org or contact volunteer coordinator Kendall Sanderson at Ksanderson@tampabaywatch.org or by phoning 727-867-8166.
[MEDIA CONTACT: GM Dennis Kellenberger, 727-867-8166, dkellenberger@tampabaywatch.org
3. Innovative sunglasses have built-in readers
MOBILE, Ala – Ono’s Trading Company has announced five new styles for its polarized performance sunglasses with built-in readers. New styles come in two lens colors, amber and gray, with five reader magnifications – 1.50, 1.75, 2.00, 2.25, and 2.50. Farsighted people can focus up-close to tie fishing knots, dial the cell phone, check golf scores, check maps and read books on the beach. The Carabelle, Oak Harbor, Vieux Carré, Aviator and Harbor Docks are less than $100. Check out the new styles and get a list of retailers at www.onostradingcompany.com or phone Ono’s at 866-865-4695.
[MEDIA/RETAILER CONTACT: Chris Nelson, 866-865-4695, chris@onostradingcompany.com.]
4. Retirement planning with a yacht
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla -- Still nine years and nine months away from retirement, Rich Koths and wife Suzy of Michigan are buying their winter “home” in Florida – a 42-foot motoryacht -- with other people’s money. Actually, the Koths have put their vessel into the charter fleet of Southwest Florida Yachts in North Fort Myers. The revenue generated by other people’s charter cruises helps pay for the boat and upkeep plus new electronics and other nest-feathering upgrades. Plus, the Koths take time to cruise on their Florida “home” away from home about three times a year. www.swfyachts.com
[MEDIA CONTACT: Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371 or email wmaucoin@verizon.net]
5. Summer camp with a new twist
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – Florida Sailing & Cruising School (FS&CS) has announced Camp AHOY!, a week-long summer day program for boys and girls 10 to 15 years of age emphasizing boating safety and the marine environment. Barb Hansen, who co-founded and has managed FS&CS since 1984, said the school has scheduled four Camp AHOY! sessions, all based from Marinatown Marina on the Caloosahatchee River in N. Fort Myers. Each five-day camp session begins on a Monday in July and concludes on the following Friday. Tuition for the unique summer camp is $995. For information phone Hansen at 1-800-262-7939 or visit http://www.flsailandcruiseschool.com/
[MEDIA CONTACT: Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371 or email wmaucoin@verizon.net]
6. How many pockets do your jeans have?
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Wrangler ProGear has unveiled a pair of jeans with nine pockets for hunters. The new 9-Pocket Hunter Pant features five traditional pockets front and back plus four easy access side pockets. The new pants come in different camouflage patterns including Advantage MAX-1 High Definition for open settings like sage covered hillsides, mesquite flats, wide-open prairies, rocky terrain and croplands.It is effective hunting small game and big game like whitetail, mule deer, elk and bighorn sheep.
[MEDIA CONTACT: Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371, wmaucoin@verizon.net ]
7. Cruise ship with two cabins, not 5,000
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There are cruises and there are cruises. One kind of cruise puts you on a ship with hundreds of cabins, lots of strangers and elaborate spreads of food. The other puts you on a vessel with only two or three cabins and you have to bring your own groceries. It comes with a skipper who goes where you want to go on the placid Gulf Intracoastal Waterway along famous barrier islands like Sanibel, Captiva, Caya Costa, Useppa and Boca Grande. Southwest Florida Yachts offers a 36-foot Grand Banks luxury trawler for five days for about $3,000. (http://www.swfyachts.com/)
[MEDIA CONTACT: Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371 or email wmaucoin@verizon.net]
8. Florida’s two-mile private beach resort
PALM ISLAND RESORT, Cape Haze, Florida. -- Enjoy the outdoors at Palm Island Resort - located on a Gulf barrier island and accessible only by car ferry or private vessel. With two miles of private beach, Palm Island offers everything for outdoors. World-class tarpon and backcountry fishing, island activities including four pools, complimentary tennis, canoe and kayak rentals, bicycling, island massages, mainland golf, birding, beach toy rentals, restaurants and nature trails. Explore the mangrove trails and find Hidden Lake on Palm Island by kayak or canoe. Families are entertained weekly by Red Beard the Pirate.
[MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Frankowiak at 813-630-2774 or email jenni@cprg-web.com]
9. Deet Nay, Geraniol Yea
CARTERSVILLE, Georgia – Dan Ritter, chief of Bug Band, Inc., says the future of insect repellents is positively, absolutely “Not Deet.” Biting insects lay low in winter but their enemies, people like Dan Ritter, plot their demise all year long. Bug Band’s proprietary recipe includes a powerful repellent called Geraniol, a sweet-smelling ingredient safe for kids and adults, too. Ritter’s company has introduced insect-repellent wristbands in favorite kiddy colors, including Glow-in-the-Dark. Far out. Golfers, gardeners, anglers, campers and hikers prefer the 6-ounce pump spray bottle.(Hunters get it in camo.) “The bugs are coming. The bugs are coming,” warns Ritter. www.bugband.net.
[MEDIA CONTACT: How bad will biting insects be post-Katrina? What are the health issues in your area? Interview Dan Ritter, 1-800-473-9467, dritter@eesatl.com]
10. The Ultimate Flats Boat
CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Action Craft boat company has unveiled the ultimate boat for fishing the flats, a 17-foot “technical poling skiff” made of composite Kevlar and carbon fiber and weighing less than 650 pounds. With two anglers and their gear it poles and runs in only seven inches of water. Innovations also include a “crustacean well” on the forward casting platform and unique push-pole holders that fold flush to the deck so they don’t snag fly line. www.actioncraft.com.
[MEDIA CONTACT: Angela Nichols, angela@actioncraft.com. ]
11. Discover Boating TV Ads Now Appearing Nationally
CHICAGO, Ill.-- The Discover Boating marketing campaign, a major component of the marine industry’s Grow Boating Initiative, officially launched its highly anticipated television advertising campaign on April 1. Look for television spots to run more than 2,900 times on CNN, Fox News Network, TNT, ABC Family, The History Channel, Discovery Channel, Weather Channel and several others. Print and online ads have been running since mid-March. The national advertising campaign is expected to generate more than 1.63 billion consumer impressions. For more information on the Grow Boating Initiative’s Discover Boating campaign, visit GrowBoating.org and DiscoverBoating.com.
[MEDIA CONTACTS: Lindsey Savin (lsavin@nmma.org; 312-946-6204)]
12. World Headquarters for Birds and Birders
Google Earth coordinates: 27 37 03.55 N, 82 43 32.03 W
TIERRA VERDE, Florida -- A mulberry tree at Fort DeSoto Park just south of St. Petersburg becomes world headquarters in mid to late April for birds migrating back to the states from their winter homes in Central and South America. Lush purple berries are breakfast, lunch and dinner to grosbeaks, warblers, buntings and tanagers arriving hungry from flights of up to 5000 miles. Fort DeSoto Park is located in Pinellas County, which checks off more than 375 different bird species including stars like the American Oystercatcher, Roseate Spoonbill and Reddish Egret. For more information visit www.floridasbeach.com or phone 877-352-3224.
[EDITORS NOTE: For more information or to interview a wildlife expert contact PR Director Wit Tuttell, 727-464-7213, wit@floridasbeach.com or Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371, wmaucoin@verizon.net]
13. World Record Largemouth Bass. Not
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The world record largemouth bass weighed 22 pounds, 4 ounces and it has stood as a record since George Perry caught it in a Georgia lake in 1932. In March 2006, Californian Mac Weakley caught a 25-pound, 1-ounce bass in little Lake Dixon. But the potential world record fish was foul hooked and the angler has decided not to submit his catch to the International Game Fish Association for the record. (San Diego Union-Tribune, Field & Stream).
14. Youth like camping, fishing
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tent camping and freshwater fishing rank three and four behind bowling and basketball as the two most popular sports for American children ages 6 to 17. Other popular outdoor recreations in the list of 25 activities include day hiking, skateboarding, ice skating, inline and roller skating, horseback riding, tennis and RV camping. The study was conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. The association will be encouraging Capital Hill lawmakers to require more physical education in schools on May 3 during National P.E. Day. [SGMA]
15. Recreational angler registration?
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Federal managers looking for ways to get better fishing data have been told they need to register recreational fishermen and collect better data. The recommendation was a primary recommendation to a study by National Research council for NOAA, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Congress is considering it as part of the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. (The Outdoor Wire)
16. New Ocean Forming
With blinding speed by geological standards a new ocean is forming in the Horn of Africa. Geologists from Addis Adaba University have witnessed the earth splitting open and documented hundreds of new crevices on the desert floor in the Afar Triangle area. The desert is slumping and eventually the Red Sea will flood the region, splitting Africa into two land masses. (Spiegel Online)
17. Youth Sailing Center Coming
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Using proceeds from a 2003 lawsuit settlement, Port of Los Angeles will spend $3.1 million for the Wilmington Youth Sailing Center. (BYM News)
18. This vacation stinks
A broken sewer line spilled about 50 millions of gallons of sewage into a canal that drains into Hawaii’s Wikiki Beach. (Outside Online)
19. Best Boy’s Bedroom in the World
ORLANDO, Fla.– ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition used a fishing theme and fishing tackle to decorate the bedroom of a 13-year-old Orlando boy whose parents home was damaged twice, once by an electrical fire and once by Hurricane Charley. Thousands of dollars worth of rods, reels and other tackle was presented to the TV producers by Jesse Simpkins of the Plano Molding Company, Plano, Illinois, and Mike Bolinder of the Future Fisherman Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia. The program aired April 2. (Future Fisherman Foundation)
20. Man versus Gator in a Garage
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – John Turney, 82, used a broom, a water hose and a length of plastic pipe to prod a four-foot alligator from the garage back to a nearby pond. The retired corrections officer from Syracuse said he wasn’t afraid of the alligator. Said Turney, “He came after me two or three times, and I stopped him with the broom.” When the gator went under his auto, he sprayed it with water from a garden hose. Others arrived to help and poked the gator with PVC pipe until it retreated to the pond. (Outdoor Pressroom, Fort Myers News-Press)
21. Non-lethal deer herd control?
EKOJASTI, Mich., April 1, 2006 – Detroit Free Press Outdoor Editor Eric Sharp reported that Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission voted a $1 surcharge on hunting and fishing licenses to help fund a non-lethal deer population control experiment by an animal rights group called Barristers Overseeing Zoological Organisms Sympathetically (BOZOS.) [Detroit Free Press]
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News Briefs from the Great Outdoors© is a service of AuCoin & Associates, Inc., 5253 Dover St. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33703. Whether you’re selling hulls or hooch, gear or granola, issues or answers…you need specialists. From research to reward, our specialty is Communications for the Great Outdoors. For information about this and other communications programs please contact Bill AuCoin, 727-522-2371, wmaucoin@verizon.net.
