MANATEE — As the end of summer nears, hours of being stuck at a school desk loom on the horizon for Manatee County teenagers. But the owner of Around the Bend Nature Tours is offering to ease students back into an educational mood while giving them a final taste of the summer beach.
Karen Fraley has two more dip-netting tours this month near Coquina Beach. For $15 a person, tour participants wade with their guides in the shallow grass flats along the southeastern edge of Anna Maria Island, searching for crabs, fish and a number of other creatures that call the shallow water their home.
Long-handled dip nets are provided and a plethora of sea life can be found by dragging the nets through patches of sea grass. When critters are discovered, they’re placed in a floating bucket and then taken to a tub on land where they can be safely studied before being released back into their habitats.
A common find on these trips are aggressive blue crabs.
“We love him, he’s great, but we don’t want to handle him because he won’t let go,” Fraley said.
The more uncommon finds are some of Fraley’s favorites, including sea horses and starfish.
And then, to keep things interesting, there are the unknown creatures. All catches are released, she said.
“About 50 percent of the time we find something that we don’t know what it is,” she said. “And a lot of the time it’s a fin fish.”
Fraley, a former preschool teacher, and the guides who assist her are certified either by the Florida Master Naturalist Program or the National Association of Interpretation, which certifies national park guides.
Heather Feikema, who homeschools her three children in Manatee County, said that of all the field trips they’ve been on, dip-netting was the best. “Within a week we bought our own nets,” Feikema said. “The things my kids learned is stuff they remember; it’s more than I can teach them from just reading a book at home.”
Around the Bend nature tours can be found on the web at www.aroundbend.com and offers a number of other tours, including visits to bird nesting sites, walks through mangrove forests and tours of native American historical sites.
Fraley has scheduled tours for Wednesday and Aug. 25. Admission for children younger than 15 is $7.50 and a group of up to 15 people can hire a guide for $120.
