Fishy Taunt, Fishery Failure, Soon to Be Fish Storm

Let's start with the fun stuff today. These pictures were taken at the Haigh Quarry in July. I had a great day of diving with two of my brothers, my brother-in-law, and my nephew. There's a lot of territory to explore at this place, and tons of fish and other underwater surprises. I hope to get back there again some day, hopefully with the same group of dive buddies. Check it out at: http://haighquarry.com
I'm posting these pictures as a fishy taunt. I'm hoping to prod one of my brothers into loading his gear up and coming down to dive around here. Right now we wouldn't need the 7mm suits we wore up there. (Which we really didn't need that day either.)
In the wake of hurricane "Katrina" the U.S. Commerce Secretary announced a formal declaration of a fishery failure in the Gulf of Mexico. The value of the fish, shrimp, and oyster operations in the Gulf is estimated at $700 million per year. NOAA says there are 432 federally permitted fishing vessels in Alabama; 3,738 in Florida; 1,033 in Louisiana, and 351 in Mississippi. No word yet on how much in aid will be sent, but after "Ivan" last year the oyster industry got $9 million. I'm guessing this price tag will be at least double that.
Now "Ophelia" is beginning to move toward North Carolina. Most of the models suggest she'll head towards the coastline near Wilmington, NC. "Ophelia" maybe a weak hurricane as it moves roughly along a Wilmington, to Cape Hatteras line Wednesday and Thursday. Then its off like a rocket as a tropical storm into the North Atlantic. After a lot of beach erosion with this system it will be nice to see "Ophelia" become a fish storm and get out of the way.