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Florida shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea

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Florida shrimpers race to get battered fleet back to sea


FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — The seafood business in southwest Florida is racing towards time and the weather to save lots of what’s left of a serious shrimping fleet — and a life-style — that was battered by Hurricane Ian.

The storm’s ferocious wind and highly effective surge hurled a pair dozen shrimp boats atop wharves and houses alongside the harbor on Estero Island. Jesse Clapham, who oversees a dozen trawlers for a big seafood firm at Fort Myers Seashore, is making an attempt to get boats again to sea as shortly as doable — earlier than their engines, winches and pulleys seize up from being out of the water.

One in every of two shrimpers that did not sink or get tossed onto land went out Sunday, however the victory was small in contrast with the duty forward.

“There’s 300 individuals who work for us and all of them are out of a job proper now. I’m certain they’d slightly simply mow all these things down and construct a large apartment right here, however we’re not going to surrender,” mentioned Clapham, who manages the fishing fleet at Erickson and Jensen Seafood, which he mentioned handles $10 million in shrimp yearly.

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The corporate’s fractured wharves, flooded workplace and processing home are situated on Predominant Avenue beside one other giant seafood firm, Trico Shrimp Co. There, a crane lifted the outrigger of grounded shrimper Aces & Eights — step one towards getting it again within the water. Throughout the yard, the large Kayden Nicole and Renee Lynn sat side-by-side within the parking zone, stern to bow.

Shrimping is the most important piece of Florida’s seafood business, with a worth of just about $52 million in 2016, state statistics present. Gulf of Mexico shrimp from Fort Myers has been shipped all around the United States for generations.

Now, it’s a matter of when the fishing can resume and whether or not there’ll nonetheless be skilled crews to function the boats when that occurs.

Deckhand Michele Bryant didn’t simply lose a job when the boat the place she works was grounded, she misplaced her dwelling. Shrimping crews are at sea for so long as two months at a time, she mentioned, so members usually don’t have properties on land.

“I’ve bought nowhere to remain,” she mentioned. “I’m dwelling in a tent.”

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Richard Brown’s scenario is simply as precarious. A citizen of Guyana who was engaged on a ship out of Miami when Ian hit southwest Florida, Brown rode out the storm on considered one of 4 boats that had been lashed collectively alongside a harbor seawall.

“We tried to battle the storm. The traces had been bursting. We stored changing them however when the wind turned all people was on land,” he mentioned.

There’s no technique to catch shrimp on a ship surrounded by grime, so Brown is staying busy scraping barnacles off the hull of the Gulf Star. “It’s prefer it’s on dry dock,” he mentioned — however he’s no extra certain what to do now than on the top of the storm.

“It was terrifying – the worst expertise,” mentioned Brown, who’s greater than 2,160 miles (3,480 kilometers) from his dwelling in South America. “I used to be simply pondering, ‘You could possibly abandon the ship.’ However the place are you going?”

Seafood fleets alongside the Gulf Coast are used to getting worn out by hurricanes. Katrina pummeled the business from Louisiana to Alabama in 2005, and the seafood enterprise in southern Louisiana continues to be recovering from Hurricane Ida’s punch final 12 months. However this a part of Florida hasn’t seen a storm like Ian in a century, leaving folks to surprise what occurs subsequent.

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Dale Kalliainen and his brother adopted their father into the shrimping enterprise and owns the trawler Night time Wind, which landed amid a cell dwelling park close to a bridge. He mentioned excessive gas costs and low-cost imported seafood took a chunk out the business lengthy earlier than Ian did its worst.

“There was 300 boats on this harbor and now there’s perhaps 50,” he mentioned. “It’s going to be in all probability years earlier than this enterprise is even near being again to what it was.”

Clapham, the 47-year-old fleet supervisor, has spent his complete life on shrimp boats. The business already operates on a skinny margin and wishes assist recovering from Ian, he mentioned.

“These boats exit and catch $60,000, $70,000 value of shrimp a month, however it prices $30,000 to $50,000 to place gas on them and groceries and provides, and then you definitely’ve bought to pay the crew. And typically these boats’ (catches) don’t even pay for all the things,” he mentioned. “We take cash from one boat and get one other boat going and ship ’em again fishing simply to maintain going.”



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SpaceX launches 21 Starlink internet satellites from Florida, lands rocket at sea (photos)

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SpaceX launches 21 Starlink internet satellites from Florida, lands rocket at sea (photos)


SpaceX launched 21 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday morning (Dec. 23) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft — 13 of which can beam service directly to cellphones — lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today at 12:35 a.m. EDT (0535 GMT).

The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after launch on the SpaceX droneship “Just Read the Instructions.”

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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a droneship after launching 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 23, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)

It was the 15th liftoff and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Eight of those flights have been Starlink missions.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage continued hauling the 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, where they will be deployed about 65 minutes after launch.

Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

Monday morning’s Starlink launch was the 129th Falcon 9 mission of 2024. About two-thirds of those flights have been devoted to building out the Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which current consists of more than 6,800 active satellites.



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3 most underrated signees in Florida State football's 2025 class

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3 most underrated signees in Florida State football's 2025 class


Florida State football had an embarrassing 2024 campaign where it finished with a 2-10 record. This is not the expectation of what the Seminoles are all about.

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Head football coach Mike Norvell understood the urgency as he could not allow the program to snowball into a laughing stock after a productive 13-1 season in 2023. Norvell was heading into a pivotal sixth season with his job on the line.

As a result, he went out and hired a ton of new coaches on his staff, including Gus Malzahn, Tim Harris Jr., Herb Hand, Tony White, Terrance Knighton, and Evan Cooper. This was uncharted territory for Norvell since he had never had to fire multiple coaches like that.

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Nonetheless, we were wondering how the Seminoles’ 2025 recruiting class would play out with new coaches as well as the struggling year in 2024.

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The recruiting class did well, and it finished with the 20th-best in the 247Sports Composite rankings (prospects can still sign in February). In this article, I want to highlight three of the most underrated signees from Florida State’s 2025 recruiting class.



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U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida

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U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida


Noah Kent is heading home.

The 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up is transferring to Florida, he announced Saturday. The sophomore at Iowa, whose hometown is Naples, Florida, entered the transfer portal earlier this month, and he made his decision to join coach J.C. Deacon and the 2023 national champions come next fall.

Because of NCAA rules, Kent won’t be eligible to compete for Florida until the 2025-26 season, but he can finish his sophomore year with the Hawkeyes. This fall, he placed in the top 13 all four tournaments, his best finish being a T-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic.

And, of course, he has a tee time at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring.

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Kent will essentially be the fourth member of Florida’s 2025 signing class, which ranked second in the country on signing day. He’ll join a talented roster that includes Parker Bell, Mathew Kress and Jack Turner, though with new NCAA roster limits coming, there’s bound to be some unprecedented roster turnover in college golf before the start of the 2025-26 season.



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