Category Archives: Marine Life

Thoughtful Thursday Orcas spotted in Florida Keys

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Photo by Felix Rottmann on Pexels.com

I just heard about this on the news and it took me by complete surprise so I had to share it with you. As most of you know I’m a native Floridian and have spent much of my life in and near the ocean. But I’ve never seen or even heard of Orcas in our waters. But this past weekend, Orcas were been spotted in South Florida.

Florida waters are normally warm and this year the oceans are extremely warm. But Orcas usually prefer cooler waters so it’s surprising to see them here. Typically you’d find them in the Arctic, Pacific Northwest and the Northern Atlantic oceans. Although they do travel in all of the oceans around the globe, including South Florida seeing them this far south is definitely a rarity.

Apparently, last Saturday a group of fisherman were fishing 20 miles off the coast of Key Largo, located in the Upper Keys, when a group of orcas came up to their boat. It’s one thing to see one of these large whales in captivity, but it’s a bit unnerving to have a group of them get this close to you in open waters when your in a boat.

Marine biologists are stumped as to why they came to South Florida. But the group hung around the boat for a few minutes and then went off into the ocean. One of them even had a fish in his mouth. Luckily the fisherman were all fine.

Orcas are family oriented and live in groups or pods of up to 40 members. They can live anywhere from 50-80 years in the wild. An adult male can grow up to 26 feet in length and weigh up to 13,200 pounds. A baby orca, or calf is born weighing around 350 pounds. They’re very smart and are considered to be one of the most intelligent marine mammals.

We may never know why they were here, but I like to see it as a blessing 😊

Hope you enjoyed this post today, thanks for stopping by!!

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Save Our Oceans and Turtles Journal Pages (Part 1)

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Sometimes I save pieces of ephemera from things I buy or places I’ve visited. I recently bought a Simply Southern t-shirt which are super comfortable and it had a sticker on it “Save our oceans and turtles.” I kept it not knowing what to do with it but when I was creating another piece of art, I came across yet another piece of ephemera I saved, the canvas seashell tag. So I set the two pieces aside and decided I had to make them work and this is what I came up with.

Stay tuned and I’ll post the second page shortly.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Thoughtful Thursday – Earth Day

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Photo taken by Maria Vidaurre, Marco Island, FL

Earth Day started April 22, 1970, as a way to bring awareness to environmental issues and changing the public’s outlook. We are all interconnected on this planet. Every action causes an equal reaction whether it be good or bad.

Everyone chooses their battles to fight. Some battle to reduce air pollution while others battle for the forests. My battle is for the oceans because they are one of the biggest sources of life on this planet. It’s heartbreaking to see the islands of plastic that have formed as a result of dumping garbage into the oceans. Some of the plastic breaks down, pollutes the waters and eventually settles on the ocean floors. Marine animals mistake plastics for food causing them to get sick or even die.

As humans we consume tons of fish, crabs, lobsters and shrimp from the oceans every year. With the amount of plastics, garbage and toxins that have been dumped into the oceans the marine life has become toxic for humans to eat. Yet it still is a very large food source for us, so what does that say about the state of our health?

This is just one small part of a much larger problem in the oceans and I could go on and on about the issues at hand, but I think you get the gist of it. Everyday we wake up we need to be mindful of the role we play on this planet and be proactive in taking care of Mother Earth so we will have a beautiful tomorrow.

What are some of the things you do to help make a better tomorrow?

Thanks for stopping by!

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ~Unknown

All photos above in the slide presentation were taken by Maria Vidaurre, Bahamas.