NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.

The John’s Pass Village Weekend Getaway Giveaway (“Sweepstakes”) runs from 12/5/11 and ends on 12/24/11. (“Sweepstakes Period”). This Sweepstakes shall be subject to these Official Rules, and by entering, each entrant agrees to abide and be bound by these rules and the decisions of the judges and Sponsor.

Eligibility: This Sweepstakes is open to legal U.S. residents residing who are 21 years and older as of the first day of the Sweepstakes Period. Employees (and their immediate household or family members) of Businesses in John’s Pass Village, Members Business of The Johns Pass Merchants Association, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, prize providers, promotion and delivery contractors and/or public relations companies associated with this Sweepstakes, are not eligible to participate. A potential winner may be requested to provide proof that all eligibility requirements are met. Void where prohibited and outside the above counties. This Sweepstakes shall be governed and enforced pursuant to Florida law.

How to Enter: Registration is free. Limit 1 entry per person.. You must provide all information requested on the registration form, and your contact information must be accurate. Registration is free. Incomplete entries will be disqualified. All entries must be received by the close of the Sweepstakes Period. Limit one entry per person; duplicate entries from the same person will be disqualified. Any attempt by any entrant to obtain more than the stated number of entries using multiple/different, identities, registrations, or any other methods will void such entries and that entrant may be disqualified. All received entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned.

Winners and Notification: On or about Wednesday, January 4, 2012, Sponsor will select two potential winners in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received. Winners will be announced on Johns Pass Villages Facebook page at www.facebook.com/johnspass. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries. Sponsor will make all final decisions in any and all issues related to this Sweepstakes, and its decisions shall be final and binding in all respects. Sponsor will attempt to contact potential winners by phone. A winner will be disqualified and an alternate winner may be selected by random drawing from among all remaining entries if (1) a winner does not claim his or her prize within 72 hours of the first notification attempt; (2) a winner does not fulfill the eligibility requirements; (3) a winner does not adhere to the Official Rules.

Prizes and Delivery: Prizes: Two separate prizes will be awarded. Both of which consist of accommodations, of at least 2 nights in a local hotel/resort, Gift Certificates including but not limited to Food, Wine, Attractions, Excursions, Shopping at local merchants in and around John’s Pass. Both packages are Valued at $1,000.

Each winner is solely responsible for any applicable federal, state and local taxes in connection with winner’s prize. Prize substitutions are not allowed, and prizes are not transferable. Only Sponsor may elect, at its discretion, to substitute a prize of greater or equal value due to lack of availability for any given reason. Prizes are awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied by Sponsor. All expenses not specifically provided for herein are the responsibility of the prize winner. All properly claimed prizes will be awarded, but in no event will Sponsor award more prizes than are provided for in these Official Rules.

By entering this Sweepstakes, each entrant agrees to release, waive and hold harmless Sponsor and its affiliates, subsidiaries, parent corporations and advertising and promotional agencies, and all of their officers, directors, shareholders, employees and agents from any and all injuries, claims, damages, losses, costs, or expenses of any kind (including without limitation attorney’s fees) resulting from accessing the Sweepstakes website; submitting an entry or otherwise participating in any aspect of the Sweepstakes; the receipt, ownership or use of any prize awarded; preparing for, participating in or traveling to and/or from any prize-related activity, or any printing, typographical or other error in these Official Rules or the announcement of offering of any prize. Neither the failure of Sponsor to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provision of these Official Rules or the failure, delay or omission by Sponsor in exercising any right with respect to any term of these Official Rules, will be construed as a waiver or relinquishment to any extent of Sponsor’s right to assert or rely upon any such provision or right in that or any other instance.

By accepting the prize, each winner agrees, where legal, to allow Sponsor and its agents and licensees to use their names, voices, photographs, likenesses and any information provided on the entry form, in any medium of communication, including advertising, promotional or other purposes, without additional compensation.

Sponsor: John’s Pass Village Merchants Association

For 30 years, John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk has offered festivities for the whole family at the annual Seafood Festival. This year’s event will take place on Friday, October 28 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, October 29 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, October 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Admission to the event is free.

New this year, the festival will open at 4pm on Friday, with food vendors, artists and crafters. At 6pm festival organizers will unveil the base for the long awaited Florida Fishermen Lost at Sea Memorial and Church by the Seas’ Reverend Weller will do a blessing of the fleet at the bell tower next to the boardwalk entrance. Artist, Rob Epstein will be working on the “Hand of Fate Memorial” sculpture throughout the weekend event in his temporary studio on John’s Way. A free concert & street dance will top off the evening with The New Tropics playing from 7-9pm, also at the bell tower.

Another first for the 30 year old festival is that when the festival powers up, it will rely on alternative energy. The entire food court area will be powered by two Solar Powered Generators. Each 10-kilowatt unit has the capacity to power a 1,200-square-foot house for at least 19 hours a day and potentially 24 hours with more conservative use. The portable solar units, two compact systems of 10 solar panels and a battery on a 22-foot hitch trailer, will replace multiple gas generators that have been used in the past, at a lower cost.

The many features of the event include an Art & Craft Show with 60 local and regional artists, tons of fresh local seafood, a Blessing of the fleet, an Environmental Area, more than 150 unique shops, live music throughout the village, a street dance, fiddler crab races and a children’s area. A children’s Halloween costume contest will take place on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Windworks and trick or treating will take place throughout the hours of the event. All children’s costume contest participants will receive a prize.  Also on hand is EA Sports MMA Videogame Announcer and Hollywood Reporter also known as “Mr. Hollywood” Shannon Rose, who will be signing autographs and Emcee for the event.

Parking for the festival is available both in John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk and off-site. Parking within John’s Pass Village is accessible from the 129^th and 131^st Avenue entrances to the Village.  Free additional parking is available at Madeira Beach Middle School with free shuttle service to and from John’s Pass Village sponsored by www.FreeBeachRide.com. Relax and Ride with ease, “Free Beach Ride” is designed to give back to the community. 100% FREE. The drivers work solely for tips, and can pick up guests at their homes, accommodations, restaurants, shopping centers, and anywhere else. The carts themselves are 100% electric, environmentally friendly with zero emissions.

The Seafood Festival is organized by the John’s Pass Village Association. Sponsors include City of Madeira Beach, John’s Pass Village Association, St. Petersburg Times, Bright House Networks, Cox Media, Travel Resort Services, Windworks, Vino Florida, Friendly Fisherman Restaurant, Hubbard Properties, www.FreeBeachRide.com and Budweiser.

For more information, please contact Suzanne King at 727-322-5217 or SuzFest@gmail.com, or visit our website at www.JohnsPassFestivals.com.

THE PIER AQUARIUM ANNOUNCES MOVE TO MADEIRA BEACH
John’s Pass Village to Be Home of Marine Discovery Center & Aquarium

St. Petersburg, FL (April 19, 2011) – The Pier Aquarium’s Board of Directors today announced a major relocation, expansion and re-branding of the 22-year-old aquarium in its new location at John’s Pass Village on Madeira Beach. The new 11,500 square foot facility, which more than triples the current exhibit space, is scheduled to open by the end of 2012.

In its new home, the attraction, now called the Marine Discovery Center & Aquarium (MDCA), will be designed to bring the public together with state-of-the-art marine research, innovation and technology that is being developed by the St. Petersburg Ocean Team and other marine related agencies and organizations. Four major new exhibits will be premiered – Science on a Sphere, Planet Water, Ocean Today and Climate Change – as well as the addition of larger live exhibits and an expanded Touch Tank.

“By marrying cutting-edge technology with live marine exhibits, MDCA will entertain and engage our visitors and create appreciation for our planet’s marine environment, above and under water,” said Board Chair and USF Professor of Marine Science, Mark Luther, Ph.D. “We will show visitors a world they cannot see anywhere else.”

MDCA will occupy the first and second floors in John’s Pass Village, adjacent to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and the new Hooters restaurants. 

“The Marine Discovery Center & Aquarium is a wonderful addition to John’s Pass Village, already a great shopping and dining destination,” said Patricia Hubbard, CEO of Hubbard Properties which owns the building. “We can now offer our visitors, and especially our local families, a full day of quality entertainment in one convenient waterfront location.”

 “With direct access to both the bay and Gulf of Mexico, MDCA will serve as an expanded resource for teachers and students for tours, projects and special programs. Currently, more than 30,000 students participate in our education programs,” said MDCA President & CEO E. Howard Rutherford.

Rutherford said master planning and naming opportunities are in development. A $3 million capital campaign will be announced later this year.

Contact: Emily Stehle, APR
Office: (727) 803-9799, ext. 207
Cell: (727) 688-7993
estehle@pieraquarium.org
www.pieraquarium.org

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By Katherine Snow Smith, Times Staff Writer
Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg Times

ST. PETERSBURG — Sorry St. Petersburg, the Pier Aquarium has deeper waters to plumb.

Faced with dramatically declining attendance, an uncertain future at the Pier and failed attempts to relocate in downtown, the aquarium is leaving after 23 years and is moving to John’s Pass. The non-profit marine research attraction plans to open in 10,000 square feet by December 2012.

“We will have three times the exhibit space. It’s going to be a much more interesting and exciting experience,” said Mark Luther, chairman of the aquarium’s board and a professor at USF’s College of Marine Science. The renamed Marine Discovery Center and Aquarium will showcase the marine science and technology in the area with interactive exhibits. The current aquarium is 2,200 square feet.

The Pier is slated to be demolished in 2012 or 2013 to make way for a $50 million makeover. Since the talk of changes began, residents have been unsure of the attraction’s current status. Add that to a dismal economy and extremely cramped quarters and aquarium attendance has dropped from about 175,000 people in 2005 to around 85,000 last year.

“I was hopeful they would maintain a presence downtown,” said St. Petersburg City Council member Herb Polson. “But you’ve got to strike when you can and if they got a good offer in a waterfront setting I hope it works well for them. It will be our loss..”

“I know nobody ever came to me and said, ‘We’re reaching a point where we’re going to have to leave,’ ” said council member Steve Kornell. “We’re the hub of marine science research in the whole Southeastern United States. I think we should have an education component for the Pier.”

The aquarium has considered seven different downtown venues including BayWalk, the St. Petersburg Museum of History and a city-owned facility next to Al Lang Field, Luther said, but the rates or availability never panned out.

Aquarium officials announced in May that it would move elsewhere downtown. A later survey of members, sponsors and donors found there was support for a location at the beaches if downtown didn’t work out. With $700,000 in grants and donations in hand, the aquarium will try to raise $3 million more for the new space.

Luther thinks the new facility will still draw many residents from St. Petersburg and throughout the area as well as more tourists.

“It caused me great concern moving away from downtown, but the reality is the Pier is going away,” he said, “and we don’t want to be the last ones to turn the light out when they leave.”

The BATS Taxi Company Story . . .

BATS: The Early Years

Jerry and I moved here from Vermont in 1980. We had a hard time finding a job when we moved here. Jerry was in graduate school earning his masters degree in Public Administration and I was a student at St. Pete Jr. College. I worked at a convenience store and Jerry worked at a gas station.

We started a van service to Tampa Airport. (We started with $800, a prayer and a distinctive logo that stood out.) The $800 belonged to the IRS and we got it through a mistake in our taxes and eventually had to pay it back! Our attorney came up with the “catchy” Beach Airport Transport Service that became BATS. Our first office was in my sister’s beauty salon on St. Pete Beach!

BATS City Transit

In the scheme of all this, Jerry saw that the public bus service contract was up for bid in St. Pete Beach. We won the contract with a ridiculously low bid and had the bus contract for over sixteen years: BATS City Transit. We saved the City of St. Pete Beach some $6.8 million dollars during this time.

BATS: Birthing the CAB and Town Car business

We had a van driver by the name of Jamie Fiore who worked for us. Jamie frequently talked with us about starting a cab company. (He was a cab starter at Tampa Airport.) After a time we decided we could start another company, with a family loan we started the cab company, which is Bay Area Taxi Service, Inc. At one time we had some five different companies within the transportation realm. It was only natural we would eventually have an executive town car service (Bay Area Town Car Service).

BATS: The people and drivers behind the company

Our children Rene and Jerry II grew up in the cab business literally… their playpen, and their swing were all part of the office. It was not anything for a driver to come in and pick up a crying baby while Jerry or I were on the phones or dispatching! The driver’s saw us through two pregnancies and watched our children become young adults. In doing so they became part of their lives.

They became part of science projects, participated in Rene’s outstanding “vocal performances”, and attended Jerry’s Little League games, to name just a few of the activities of our children. Some drivers became dispatchers, mechanics and general managers! Our drivers became our extended family.

We often worked some 60 to 80 hours per week each during those difficult years. We had family members that came and went but we stuck it out. We remember “very well” eating a lot of spaghetti!

BATS: You are part of our history and our future!

We appreciate the lean times and we appreciate all of you who made BATS possible. We hope that this small history lesson of the company for which you are part, gives you some insight as to our fortitude and longevity in the industry.

Jerry & Carol Vallee

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BEACH TROLLEY – Hop on the Suncoast Beach Trolley and you can explore all of the unique beach communities from Sand Key to Pass-A-Grille. Enjoy the sights at John’s Pass Village or just take in a beautiful sunset! The trolley runs every 20-30 minutes from 5:05 a.m. to 10:10 p.m., Monday through Sunday, including holidays, with service until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

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Sea of sadness: Remembering all the fishermen lost in the gulf
By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bill Renney was 10 years old when the Gulf of Mexico erased his father.

On March 29, 1943, Sam Renney took four men fishing on the Miss Detroit, a 37-foot cabin cruiser. When he didn’t return, young Bill didn’t worry. Authorities were rationing gas in wartime and he had probably run dry, his mother told him.

The next day, a fishing boat found a gas tank and a charred life preserver — but no sign of the rest of the Miss Detroit or her crew.

Sixty-seven years later, Renney still wonders what happened to his father. Dozens of other people bear the same sad burden, pining for loved ones who died or vanished while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

A group of John’s Pass Village merchants has been raising money for a memorial to the Tampa Bay fishermen who have died in the gulf waters. They want to pay homage to the dead but don’t know how many there are. While the true number is unknowable, we wanted to get as close as possible.

The St. Petersburg Times reviewed newspaper archives and arrived at a disquieting number: at least 142 since 1933.

Fifty-five percent were recreational fishermen.

The other 45 percent were professionals, including longline fishermen who knew how to lean into waves standing at 45 degrees while their boats spooled out 2,500 hooks on 10 miles of cable. But their experience could not save them from explosions at sea or the rogue waves fishermen call “widow makers.”

Of 142 known local fishing-related deaths, the bodies of 87 — nearly two-thirds — were never found. The absence of a body can leave family members with a thin hope that their loved one is alive somewhere, which exacerbates the anguish.

Tourists who know the island communities for sand beaches and tourist-trap shops may not be aware that a sizeable commercial fishing fleet still exists. An estimated 100 commercial boats unload cargo in Madeira Beach, according to the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, bringing tons of fresh fish and hundreds of jobs to the area.

In the late 1980s, SOFA erected a sign honoring fishermen who died or were lost. For about a dozen years, the sign greeted shoppers entering the boardwalk on John’s Pass Village.

Then in 2000, John’s Pass underwent renovations.

Like so many fishermen swept to sea, the sign disappeared.

• • •

Up and down Gulf Boulevard, signs link Madeira Beach to its founding occupation. The Friendly Fisherman. Dockside Dave’s. Madeira Beach Seafood Company.

The Church by the Sea served as a beacon for fishermen, who used the light on its steeple to guide themselves home.

But accounting for the fishing community’s maritime tragedies — those who didn’t make it home — is not easy. The U.S. Coast Guard declined to release a list of names of fishermen who have died at sea. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also didn’t have a comprehensive list.

But an archive search of the Times and Bradenton Herald turned up 142 fishing-related deaths over the past 80 years. Most of the fishermen are from Pinellas County, mainly Madeira Beach, though some left ports in Citrus, Pasco, Hillsborough and Manatee counties.

The stories are harrowing:

Nov. 17, 1933: The Xios, a sponge boat, left Tarpon Springs with a crew of four. The boat and crew were never seen again, though another boat reported seeing smoke in the area where the Xios may have been located.

June 27, 1948: Hazel, a fishing charter, departed Cedar Key with 15 people aboard. Thirty miles out, there was an explosion from the engine room. Thirteen people died.

Oct. 30, 1983: Tony Lathan, a promising outfielder in the Boston Red Sox farm system, was shark fishing off Bradenton when the boat took on water and sank. Lathan, 21, couldn’t swim. Two teammates in the boat survived.

Aug. 24, 1984: Tomisene Washington and Larry Griffin left Cedar Key to go fishing. Griffin, 28, was never found. Partial remains of Washington, 31, were found 10 days later — in the belly of a tiger shark.

• • •

At 5:18 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2000, Whitney Taggart disappeared from the Blue Chip 50 miles west of Venice Inlet. Four crew members told the Coast Guard they were below when Taggart, the 41-year-old captain, went overboard.

“If you want to know suffering, tell me somebody is off the boat,” said his sister, Jane Taggart. “It’s the most horrible thing I have ever been through in my life.”

Her brother was a lean man with shoulder-length, twisting blond hair.

Taggart, 43, is still carrying the pain of the loss.

“The mind plays evil games with you,” she said. “When did he take his last breath? What was he thinking? What happened?

“You want some answers. You want a body. You want some evidence.”

The family held a wake on the beach two days after the Coast Guard called off the search.

Jane Taggart could not bring herself to attend, and has yet to memorialize her brother in any formal way.

• • •

All the deaths occurred in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

“You think it’s like the Atlantic Ocean, where you get big rollers and swells,” said Bob Spaeth, an owner of Madeira Beach Seafood Company. “Here we get closer-together waves, but higher.”

The difference, said University of South Florida oceanographer Bob Weisberg, is shallower water created by the Continental Shelf — which extends as far west of Florida as the state is wide.

“Twenty-five miles offshore it might only be 100 feet deep,” said Weisberg.

When high winds come over the shallow Continental Shelf — and water reacts to the hard ground bottom — seas have nowhere to go but up.

“Deeper is safer,” Weisberg said. “Waves are not feeling the bottom. In deep water, those waves tend to be not as steep and they tend to be longer.”

“If you ride down the front of a wave, the bow digs into the wave in front of you,” said Mark Hubbard, who runs the charter boat business out of Hubbard’s Marina in John’s Pass Village. “You have no time to recover from one wave to the next.”

But Weisberg said fishermen bear some of the blame.

“A lot of times you have boats that are not in the best of repair,” Weisberg said.

For years, Richard Wabberson fished in a 69-foot boat, the Missy Cindy, out of Tarpon Springs.

“I’ve seen a lot of boats I wouldn’t cross the river in go offshore,” said Wabberson, 62.

On March 20, Wabberson’s son, John, 23, fell over the side of the Missy Cindy. Wabberson searched for 18 hours but never found him.

Now Wabberson, who said he captained boats for 35 years on seven continents, lives in Georgia and fishes swamp flats.

“I have no desire to go offshore ever again,” he said.

• • •

March 13, 1993: Gene Ippoliti was sitting in his long johns on the captain’s chair of the Mary C sipping coffee. A mate they called Shorty was rousting up breakfast in the ice box, where the crew had stashed groceries and 450 pounds of grouper. It was a windy morning, the sun shining.

Then something slapped the boat upside down. “I woke up underwater in the dark,” said Ippoliti, 48. “I was starved for air.”

He saw a light spot in the water. His window. The wave had blown it out.

On the surface, he tasted diesel fuel. Groceries floated by. He grabbed some cheese and biscuits and stuffed them in his sleeve.

He tried to scale the upside-down hull. Too slippery. Neither Shorty nor another mate, Tim Floyd, were anywhere in sight.

“I knew they were done,” Ippoliti said.

As he scanned the floating rubble, he saw a long lid of the boat’s ice box float by. A competitive swimmer as a child, he jumped at the chance for a life raft.

“Mark Spitz couldn’t have caught me that day,” he said.

For the next several hours, he fought waves. They broke over his head and pushed him under. Between them, he took deep breaths and thought about his 6-month-old son, Derrick.

“I talked to God. This is what I said: ‘It’s Gene again. I know I only call you when I need you. I’m not going to bull—- you and say I’m going to go home and be a priest because I’m not. Just let me go home and kiss my kid again.’ ”

That afternoon, a Coast Guard plane passed directly overhead — and kept going. Twenty minutes later it reappeared to the north.

If he was not rescued by nightfall, he would no longer be able to see the waves before they broke.

“I just felt like, ‘Damn, I’m dead.’ It was total gloom and despair.”

The ordeal ended after six hours when a Coast Guard helicopter came to him and lowered a basket. Once on board, the crew put him in a neoprene suit and gave him an apple.

The winds that capsized Ippoliti’s boat — known forever after as the “no-name storm” — killed at least 171 people, most of them on land.

A month later, another boat found Shorty, whose real name was Loring Bryant, 42. Floyd’s body was never found. A joint seaside service was held for both fishermen.

After a year away, Ippoliti agreed to captain another boat, but had to return after three days. “It was just total paranoia.”

He has since returned to commercial fishing, but has no illusions about the gulf’s dangers.

“You think it’s never going to be that bad. But on any occasion it will kill you. As soon as you get offshore and it’s over your head, you are in peril.”

The common-law rule called for a seven-year waiting period before a person could be declared dead.

That standard has since been replaced by a law presuming death after five years if diligent efforts have been made to find the person. But legal authorities will make exceptions when there is reason to believe death occurred sooner.

“If someone sees a miner walk into a mine three minutes before it collapsed, he could probably be declared dead without much waiting around even if the body is never recovered,” said Bruce Howie, a Clearwater lawyer.

A fisherman whose boat vanishes could be seen as having died, Howie said, provided there is no competing set of circumstances that would also explain the same set of facts.

“If the fisherman’s boat is found drawn up on the shore of Costa Rica and the fisherman had withdrawn his wife’s life savings from their joint account just before leaving,” Howie said, “there is a countervailing, equally reasonable inference that he didn’t drown in the gulf.”

To declare a Florida resident dead, a person with legal standing (such as next of kin) must file a petition with the circuit court in the county of the person’s last known address. Any potential creditors or anyone else with an interest in keeping the person alive must be publicly notified.

If a judge determines that death has occurred, he or she issues a final order stating that a death certificate can be produced. The date of the order is considered the date of death. Then claims such as life insurance can be made.

• • •

Feb. 25, 2005: The Gulf Coaster, a boat captained by Mike Costello, pulled out of a marina at Bay Pines. Costello, 29, and his mate, John Molina, 42, planned to spend several days at sea fishing amberjack. They sought that fish because grouper season had been pushed back — part of recent government restrictions on commercial fishing.

For years, efforts to shorten seasons, set trip limits and cap maximum allowable catches for the year had divided the fishing community. Recreational anglers supported them; commercial fishermen said they threatened their livelihood. Occasional fistfights broke out on the docks over the issue.

Some of those efforts have succeeded and are now in place. In 2005, they were just getting started.

Costello had told his mother he needed to take one more trip to make ends meet. On Feb. 27, Costello reported that he was 73 miles west of John’s Pass, in an area fishermen call “the Elbow.”

He would head back home soon, Costello told his brother. When the Gulf Coaster did not return Feb. 28, the boat’s owner called the Coast Guard.

On March 1, they found remnants of the boat and Molina’s body 58 miles west of Anna Maria Island. Costello’s body was never found.

His mother, Shirley Costello, blames the closures and restrictions for tempting fishermen to press their limits, to go out when they otherwise wouldn’t, to pick the wrong side on judgment calls they used to get right.

Five years after the accident, Shirley Costello, 56, has not sought a death certificate. Her son was unmarried, had no children and no life insurance.

A part of her doesn’t want one anyway. Without a body, she said, she can never be certain.

“Ninety-nine percent of me knows. One percent of me says someone picked him up and he has amnesia and doesn’t know where he is. There will always be a slim possibility because nobody ever found him.”

• • •

Efforts to memorialize local fishermen aren’t new. In the late 1980s, Spaeth, the fleet owner who also directs the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, paid for a sign at John’s Pass Village. It consisted of two heavy planks mounted on posts near the boardwalk entrance, with gold-embossed lettering that read, “John’s Pass, Dedicated to Fishermen Lost at Sea.”

The shopping center underwent renovations in the late 1990s, and the fishermen’s plank sign disappeared.

But now, a group of business people want to enhance John’s Pass Village — with its touristy shops and restaurants — with a real memorial to fallen fishermen.

For the past few years, the John’s Pass Village Association and the Outdoor Arts Foundation have been raising money for a 6-foot-tall sculpture to go in front of the boardwalk. The Hand of Fate depicts a sea-green hand rising out of the waves cradling a fishing boat.

The engraved names of fishermen from the greater Tampa Bay area will fill a 3-foot base beneath the statue. The group says it has raised nearly half of the $50,000 needed to produce the sculpture by Seminole artist Robert Bruce Epstein.

Mark Hubbard, 46, is a driving force to create the Florida Fishermen Lost at Sea Memorial. His family owns John’s Pass Village, and he runs the fishing charter out of Hubbard’s Marina.

The Hand of Fate, Hubbard said, is as much a warning as a memorial.

“It’s a big wave and a boat getting ready to be crashed,” Hubbard said. “Its message is to be careful out there. You are at the mercy of the Gulf of Mexico when you go out there. You have to have your game on, because you won’t get second chances very often.”

A year ago, the planners put up a website inviting people to submit names of lost fishermen. About a dozen people have.

• • •

Questions swirled after the Miss Detroit vanished in 1943 with all aboard, including Sam Renney, a Gulfport police officer.

Dorothy Renney’s original theory — that her husband ran out of gas — had some staying power. The Coast Guard rationed gas carefully during World War II. Perhaps the stranded boat had been run over by a freighter.

Or else it had struck a mine. Maybe a German U-boat had sunk it.

Renney’s 10-year-old son, Bill, knew submarines were on the horizon. One time, he had climbed a tree and seen one.

Dorothy Renney simply set one less place at the dinner table. She never had a sit-down talk with her son about what may have happened.

He wondered if his father had been taken as a prisoner of war in another country. Over time that theory stopped making sense.

“If he was alive, then he would have gotten word back,” Renney said.

Seven years after pieces of the Miss Detroit were found in the gulf, a court awarded Dorothy Renney a death certificate. Though her husband had no life insurance, the ruling allowed his widow to sell their modest home.

From time to time, Sam Renney came up in family conversation. His wife remembered the way Sam cleaned fish in the back yard. He always threw the heads and tails to a ring of cats that formed around him.

Bill Renney is now 78 and retired from Ford Auto Co. He lives with his wife in Parrish.

About a year ago, he came across the Florida Fishermen Lost at Sea website.

He thought of his father, then clicked the submissions button on the site and began to type.

The boat Miss Detroit, captained by Sam Renney out of John’s Pass, disappeared on a routine fishing trip and never returned. Pieces of the boat were found in the following days but no bodies, there were 5 people on board.

It’s far from a eulogy. But in 67 years, it’s the first time he has acknowledged his father’s death in any public way.

“There is no grave,” he said. “No headstone. Nothing. This would at least be something to let people know that he did exist.”

Times researchers Mary Mellstrom and Shirl Kennedy contributed to this story. Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.

• • •

Learn more about the Florida Fishermen Lost at Sea Memorial by visiting the website www.floridafishermenlostatsea.com. You can submit information about fishing-related fatalities of Tampa Bay area residents through the website, or by calling Mark Hubbard at (727) 393-1947, ext. 418.

Last modified: May 02, 2010 12:32 PM]

Copyright 2010 St. Petersburg Times

By Emily Nipps, Times Staff Writer

The explosives were in place. TV cameras and crowds gathered to watch the first blast of the old John’s Pass Bridge. Wildlife officers, construction workers and bridge demolition experts stood by with walkie-talkies. “Ten … 9 … 8 … 7 … “ “A dolphin! There’s a dolphin!” screamed Ann Weaver, as several fins popped up near the bridge. The countdown stopped. At the time, August 2006, bridge workers didn’t know this woman. Maybe just another coastal resident who wanted to be a hero. They had no idea how intimately she knew these dolphins, or how devastating an underwater blast could be for her and 255 of her closest research subjects.

• • •

Few places in the world are as rich with marine life as the John’s Pass area. Some believe it’s because of the elaborate canals within the residential islands, ripe with little fish and crustaceans. It’s warm, shallow and friendly, with easy access to the Gulf of Mexico.

Paradise for bottlenose dolphins.

Ann Weaver, a 58-year-old animal behaviorist who moved here in 2003, saw opportunity in the John’s Pass bridge project.

Having studied dolphins at five sites around the world, she applied for a federal permit in 2004 to study the effect of bridge construction on local dolphins. Funded by a federal grant, the study will be filed with the U.S. government and go before scientific journals to be considered for publication.

Her research uniquely looks at a dolphin population before, during and after such construction.

“Humans are constantly doing things to the coastline,” Weaver said. “But it’s usually not until after the fact that we go, ‘Gee, we don’t have as many manatees as there used to be here.’ “

In 2005, she and her husband, John Heidemann, 58, set out on five years of detailed and painstaking documentation of the dolphins. A dozen times a month, they head out on a little powerboat and run the same six miles from their Isle of Capri home through Boca Ciega Bay up to the Tom Stuart Causeway.

They asked the St. Petersburg Times not to reveal specifics of the route, or the signal they use to alert dolphins of their boat.

After five years of riding the same route, writing a column about dolphins for a neighborhood paper and engaging her community, Weaver is well known for her work. Sometimes boats follow her and her husband. Sometimes they peel off and follow the dolphins.

Following or approaching dolphins is illegal without a permit, Weaver pointed out. It also interferes with her research.

“You have to live and let live,” she said.

Which is harder than it sounds when you begin recognizing the dolphins on first glance, knowing their triumphs and heartbreaks, and calling them your “kids.”

• • •

Weaver has identified about 255 dolphins who pass through the area, about half of whom are “resident” dolphins, while others come and go. She has about 62,000 photos of them — jumping from the water, cuddling with one another, close-ups of their fins and markings. Proof that they are who she says they are.

She named them, beginning with letters of the alphabet or combinations of letters. When she ran out of letters, she came up with names like Doodle, Candle, Schnoz, Midface, Oyster, Fugazi and Q-Ball. Sometimes it takes her years to figure out the sex.

They appear to recognize Weaver, flipping and jumping to show off, peering at her curiously when she wears a funny hat. She coos at them, laughs and yells “Higher!” when they leap through the air, playfully admonishes them when they disappear too long or act shy.

She never touches them or helps them.

“A good scientist would never do that,” she said.

Even when Juno got tangled up in fishing line, which dug into a fin, Weaver would only take notes. She was both fascinated and relieved when he showed up one day, free of the wire.

Weaver was devastated when Split had a baby and then watched the baby die the next day. Split pushed the dead baby around for a week, keeping other dolphins away. Then Split went into a depression and got dolphin pox before snapping out of it a year later.

In five years, Weaver has been exposed to an underwater soap opera that no one else in the Tampa Bay area has seen.

“It would be easy to make this stuff up,” she said.

But her copious notes, spreadsheets, photos and professional reputation back her up. She has logged analyses of dolphins and primates all over the world. Her 25-year career includes intense studies of whale behavior and the peacemaking skills of capuchin monkeys, but she does more conventional academic work, too. She teaches doctoral students statistics at Argosy University in Sarasota and recently published a book on the topic.

Still, it boggles the imagination to hear her speak of a pack of teenage dolphins all wearing sea grass “jewelry,” and a group of bulls breaking up from a huddle and playing “football.”

“You never want to anthropomorphize,” she said.

With animals as complex and sensitive and intelligent as dolphins, it’s difficult to create that distance. Even for a scientist.

• • •

The new $77 million John’s Pass Bridge was completed in December, more than four years after demolition began.

Few know how much care went into protecting wildlife, mainly manatees. State regulations require a wide safety zone around demolition sites, where a manatee cannot enter within 30 minutes of an explosion.

Sound or shock waves can easily deafen dolphins and manatees, which rely on hearing for safety, finding food and pretty much everything else. If the explosion is close enough, the shock waves can rupture an animal’s organs.

That’s why, on that day in August 2006, Weaver panicked.

“She thought she was helplessly watching an impending disaster,” said Bruce Hasbrouck, an environmental engineer assisting with the bridge project. Actually, workers already had stopped the countdown when Weaver screamed.

She called Hasbrouck a few days after the first blast and was relieved to learn that so many regulations and precautions were in place to protect manatees and her dolphins.

Over the years, Hasbrouck and Weaver talked at least once a month, and sometimes daily at the time of explosions or installation of pilings. Weaver never got in the way, Hasbrouck said. She only wanted information.

“She’s a good scientist,” he said. “Scientists have a hard time just collecting data, and she obviously has a lot of pride and satisfaction in what she does.”

Bridge builders in Florida are required to consider environmental factors on all projects, but Hasbrouck could not recall any that were so dolphin-centric.

“John’s Pass definitely has the highest density of them that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve done a lot of these projects,” he said. “The contractors said they saw them literally daily. They were starting to recognize them as well, by their markings and personality.”

With the bridge finished, Weaver is nearing the end of her studies. Her analysis, data and findings will be filed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The conclusion on whether the bridge affected the dolphins is complicated, but if it had to be simplified, it would be this:

It wasn’t so bad.

“I think we can conclude that they slowly got used to it,” she said.

At times, such as when the construction was the heaviest and loudest, the dolphin population dropped. But most of the dolphins returned, including some new ones.

Weaver wonders what the numbers will look like in the coming years, now that the bridge is finished, and she also has concerns about how the oil spill might affect the gulf’s food sources, which would also affect the dolphins.

She has applied for a federal permit to study the dolphins for five more years.

Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8452.

[Last modified: Jan 23, 2011 11:30 PM]

 Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg Times

When he was 17, he bought five rowboats and 40 cane poles from the concessionaire for $150. He bought his first charter boat after the war, and in 1954 established the first gulf coast half-day fishing party boat. In 1956 he began a marathon 18 hour fishing trip for hard-core anglers, and in 1971, he established overnight weekend trips to the far offshore fishing grounds.

The Eighth Avenue Pier became known as Hubbard’s Pier, until Wilson moved his operation to John’s Pass in 1976. Wilson Hubbard fulfilled another vision in 1979, with the opening of the Friendly Fisherman Seafood Restaurant, which still serves the freshest seafood available.

Party boat patrons can also enjoy eating their own “catch of the day” cooked at the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant for only $4.95 including “all the fixin’s”.

A true visionary, Wilson Hubbard was instrumental in the building and development of John’s Pass Village and the Boardwalk. In 2004, the second generation of the Hubbard family took over ownership of Hubbard’s Marina fishing operations, with Mark Hubbard as president and general manager.

Mark Hubbard’s Sea Adventures – Wilson’s youngest son, Mark, established Hubbard’s Sea Adventures, a Dolphin-Watching Nature Cruise operation that offers narrated tours of local environments, wildlife, and history. Wild pods of bottlenose dolphin, and endangered seabirds in mangrove island rookeries are now observed from a respectful distance, and hunted only with a camera.

Mark’s commitment to environmental education prompted him to create a new, more in-depth nature cruise of Upper Boca Ciega Bay Estuary. Visited by many Pinellas County school children annually, Hubbard’s floating classroom, Environmental Explorer, enables students to observe native wildlife in its natural habitat, explore and understand wetland environments, and discuss current environmental issues with the ship’s on-board naturalist.

Mark Hubbard, like his father, likes to keep one foot in the future. A forward looking company, Sea Adventures was merged with Hubbard’s Marina in 2004. It maintains a staff naturalist, updates cruise narration regularly to include current research, and encourages staff and visitors to make comments or suggestions on ways to improve the company and its cruises.

When Panfilo de Narvaez, a red-bearded, one-eyed conquistador, sailed into Bahia de la Cruz (now Boca Ciega Bay) in 1528, large kitchen middens of thriving settlements dotted the shoreline. Beyond the shore, elevated middens kept thatched sleeping quarters above seasonal flood levels, and high ceremonial middens with timber framed temples topped with effigies rose at the opposite end of the village.

Narvaez, and the Europeans that would follow brought disease for which the natives had no medicine or immunity, and ushered in an age of unprecedented greed that would change the face of Florida forever.

Back in the early part of the 19th Century, Florida was kind of a sore spot for the rest of the South. Then only a territory of the United States, Florida was a lawless land – a rugged terrain of pine woods, swamps, and mangrove tangled islands where folks could just “disappear”. Southern planters were particularly upset, because some of the folks that were disappearing South of the Georgia border and into the wilds of Florida were the planters’ runaway slaves.

Escaped slaves found refuge among the displaced Native American people who had been chased from their homelands and escaped to Florida, forming a mixed tribe band known as the Seminoles, or “wild ones”. Southern planters put increasing pressure on General Andrew Jackson to eradicate the Seminoles, and enable the capture and return of escaped slaves.

President Jackson, by 1830, gave his full support to a plan to remove “Indians” from the state, and began transporting Seminoles to a holding prison on a local key to await ships that would export them to reservations out West. Seminoles banded together to resist relocation efforts, and Jackson launched Florida neck deep into the Second Seminole War.

A crazed determination to eradicate Seminoles and populate Florida with White settlers led to desperate policies like The Armed Occupation Act of 1842, which gave homesteaders 160 acres of land, so long as they agreed to farm some of it, and (most importantly) fight the Seminoles should the need arise.

Two of the Gulf Coast’s early “pioneers” that took advantage of this act were our “opportunistic” heroes Joseph Silva and John Levique. Levique settled along the mainland coast of Upper Boca Ciega Bay near the area now known as St. Petersburg’s “jungle district”, while Silva’s acreage was farther north, around present-day 38th Avenue. It is unlikely that either man had any intention of anything more than “subsistence” farming (if that), and both men were more likely to fish with the Seminoles than fight with them. Levach and Silva would probably remain only curious names on early plat maps, had it not been for one ill-timed fishing expedition.

Late in the summer of 1848, Levique and Silva sailed to New Orleans to sell a cargo of Green Turtle. Sailing home after bacchanal celebration in the Big Easy, they encountered a horrific storm, and decided to wait it out in a “hurricane hole” in some sheltered area along the coast. The hurricane had knocked down trees, rearranging the shoreline, and obliterated former landmarks.

John Levique searched for an entrance into Boca Ciega Bay. He was probably looking for Blind Pass, or even Pass-a-Grille, but instead he found a more northerly opening where there had not been one previously. Levach awakened a bleary-eyed Silva, and together they navigated through the new pass on the morning of September 27, 1848. Since that time, so the legend goes, the inlet between Treasure Island and Madeira Beach has been called “John’s Pass” in honor of it’s discovery, and maiden passage by John Levique.

John’s Pass has shifted south, some speculate as much as 5,000 feet, since its formation during the Great Gale of 1848. As Madeira Beach has enjoyed land building to its south, the north end of Treasure Island seems to be eroding. Barrier islands are naturally dynamic; the waves and wind constantly shifting the sand, eroding one shoreline and building on another.

Prior to the Armed Occupation Act, few people thought to make permanent homes on the “keys” as the barrier islands were then called. No bridges then spanned the mainland to the beaches, and the barrier islands were primarily utilized for hunting and fishing expeditions.

Prior to plume hunting, land grabbing, and the building boom, the barrier islands were home to a tremendous variety of wildlife. Deer, gopher, tortoise, sea turtle, alligator, small mammals, and great flocks of seabirds and shore birds made their homes among the varied habitats of the islands. Spanish explorers customarily used the barrier islands and mangrove rookeries to stock their shipboard larders with fish, roe, a variety of game, and tremendous quantities of both seabird and turtle eggs and carcasses.

Florida’s native people, as well as the early settlers only killed what they needed to eat, however a growing population of opportunistic white settlers and greedy plume hunters quickly depleted barrier island wildlife populations, and nearly drove island bird species to extinction. Nefarious plume hunters, like the despicable Chevelier, whose encampment is still known as “Frenchman’s Creek”, boasted of collecting tens of thousands of bird skins, plumes and eggs in one season.

Whole rookeries and generations of birds were wiped out overnight. Some species are still considered endangered, or threatened. The barrier islands, by the turn of the century, were nearly devoid of wildlife, and ready for development. Wilson Hubbard helped convince the city to permit building of a public waterfront boardwalk along John’s Pass in 1980, and was instrumental in the development of the larger community of John’s Pass Village.

Hubbard added quaint boardwalk shops over his Marina in 1982 and 1983. John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk has become a popular attraction, yet it retains the feeling of a rustic fishing village where people can still find humble lodging and enjoy Florida’s simple pleasures: discovering and collecting treasure, strolling along the waterfront, dolphin watching, nature cruising, and of course, catching and eating fish. New stores and entertainment attractions, and a new garage have opened recently, and a renovated boardwalk with more shops will be competed later in 2007. And Levique is remembered every year with a popular John Levique Days Festival at John’s Pass Village, this year May 14 & 15, 2011.

A VISITOR’S REVIEW OF JOHN’S PASS HOOTERS

Photo by NANCY AYERS

Kathleen McDole and Mark Hubbard of Hubbard Properties stand outside the site where a new Hooters restaurant will be located in John’s Pass Village.

MADEIRA BEACH – Move over, Bubba Gump. Hooters is coming to town.
The popular restaurant and bar chain best known for its buxom waitresses and spicy chicken wings will be opening at John’s Pass Village, Hubbard Properties director Kathleen McDole confirmed.
The restaurant will occupy 6,000 square feet of space on the third level facing John’s Pass in a location that was formerly home to four retail shops.
Buildout of the bar deck and interior work is already under way. A February opening is planned.
Hubbard Properties CFO Patricia Hubbard said the Hooters signing should be “a good shot in the arm” for the surrounding area, which has seen a number of retail tenants depart in recent months.
“We needed it – bad,” she said. “It takes up so much of our vacancy.”
Hubbard said she believes Hooters will be a good fit for John’s Pass.
“It’s casual, tank tops and flip flops,” she said. “People can come in off the beach and sit indoors or on the big deck outside.”
Originally, Hubbard executives had made a decision to divide the space up and rent it to retailers. That did not work out, Hubbard said, mainly due to the economy and, one by one, the stores closed.
Faced with the task of marketing the large amount of vacant space, the Hubbards decided last year to change the use and seek a restaurant. Getting the right tenant was critical.
The property had a spacious deck and gorgeous view of the water.
“We already had plenty of seafood places around. I thought we would want something like a Hooters that would be informal, and draw a good crowd locally,” Hubbard recalled.
After watching a Toyota commercial where salesmen for competing brands describe other vehicles as “almost as good as a Toyota,” Hubbard said she called her property broker and told him, “I don’t want something that’s ‘like a Hooters’ – I want a Hooters.”
A phone call to Hooters headquarters in Clearwater followed. The chain, it turned out, had been looking for a beach location for a number of years, but hadn’t found the right one.
“We could offer plenty of square footage, high traffic and a water location,” Hubbard said.
It took one phone call to reach a deal, she recalled. A number of months followed to work out the details.
Article published on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010
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