Once again we had a great meeting. The sea's layed down tremendously as usual on a club meeting night, so some of us fished and the rest of us were at the meeting to learn about the Florida Currents.
Our guest speaker and new club member for the night was Arthur Mariano, Oceanographer from the University of Miami. He clearly defined the Florida Currents more known to us as the Gulf Stream. Below is a brief summary from his website regarding all the research that has been done.
The Florida current can be considered the "official" beginning of the Gulf Stream System. It is defined here as that section of the system which stretches from the Florida Straits up to Cape Hatteras. The Florida Current was first reported by the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he discovered Florida, (Galstoff, 1954) The Florida Current receives its water from two main sources, the Loop Current and the Antilles Current. The Loop current is the most significant of these sources and can be considered the upstream extension of the Gulf Stream System.
The Florida Current has been shown to have a mean transport of about 30 Sv in historical literature (Schmitz and Richardson, 1968; Niiler and Richardson, 1973). This value has been confirmed in numerous studies and has stood up to modern scrutiny. More recently the STACS study confirmed this value with the finding a mean transport of 31.5 Sv at 27°N in the straits of Florida (Molinari et al., 1985; Leaman et al., 1987; Schott et al., 1988; Lee et al 1985; Larsen and Sanford, 1985). Researchers used undersea cables, current meter moorings and a Pegasus profiler, and all three methods produced transports that were within 1-2 Sv of each other. There has however, been demonstrated that this current is subject to both seasonal and interannual variability. These changes are significant and can amount to as much as a 10 Sv difference between high and low values along the eastern Florida coast (Schott et al. 1988). Most of this water appears to originate in the Gulf of Mexico. Early estimates of inflow through island passages in the Florida Straits are only about 3.5 Sv. (Schmitz and Richardson, 1968) Later estimates are much larger with Schmitz and Richardson (1990) reporting a total of 28.8 Sv for five key passages, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica and Windward. Wilson and Johns (1996) found an influx of 17.5 Sv and note the presence of strong outflows in these passages as well. Flow through these passages is highly variable and may in part account for the considerable variability of the Florida Current.
Check out Authur's website for the complete data at:
http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/florida.html
Skip and Bobby also told us about new regulations regarding swordfishing that may affect recreational anglers. I don't have the e-mail here with me, but will post it later today. This is something we will have to continue to watch.
- This is the last month of the Swordfish Tournament. Go to the website or stop by Bobby's to read about the rules.
Club Member Drew's tournament is right around the corner. Check out his website for more info at http://www.fullmoonadventuresinc.com/
Due's will be collected for all members that joined last year at the next meeting if you can stop by Bobby's before than. Skip also mention that they have plans of throwing a member only tournament that should be lots of fun!!!
*Keep reporting your catches on the site. THE WINDS ARE LAYING DOWN!!! And from the reports that last couple nights, they are definitely chewing. We will also be getting all the reports from the first half of the year onto the site.
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