7/28/2003: 1951 Chevy Truck-Raft

[Clodfobble]

To match their house?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Sweets

Why must it be bright blue

1. Hides better in the ocean.

2. In the communist worker's paradise, you paint things in the color that you have enough of. Sometimes not enough of.

[Bloozer]

What happened was they were just out for a 3 hour tour.... a 3 hour tour.

Skipper: "Holy crap little buddy, we're getting pulled over by the f***ing coast guard!!!"

Gilligan: "I knew we shouldn't have left the island... Skipperrrrrrrr!!!!!"

(my gawd, I seem to have lost my mind, hehehe...) -Bloozer-

[Aliantha]

Welcome to the Cellar Bloozer!

Nice way to begin your stay with us.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They'll never give up trying to escape the socialist utopia.

[ZenGum]

So I, try, kiss America, Hi,
Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was ...dry?
Them good ol' boys were dodging Castro and tides. Sinking?
This'll be the way that I die.
This'll be the way that I die...

[xiphos]

obviously you people don't live in Florida. I know this picture was taken a while ago, but immigration is becoming a real problem where i live. it is bringing in gangs, which grafitti everything, and now you can't walk into a gas station w/out worrying about getting shot. and now the neighborhoods are really bad because the cubans are too damn lazy to get jobs, and also because they are illegal.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's not unique to Florida, xiphos. When we attract illegals from countries where they are not happy, we're also going to attract illegals from countries where they are not wanted.... or should I say are wanted, by the law.
That's the bottom line with illegals, you don't know what you're getting.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xiphos

obviously you people don't live in Florida. I know this picture was taken a while ago, but immigration is becoming a real problem where i live. it is bringing in gangs, which grafitti everything, and now you can't walk into a gas station w/out worrying about getting shot. and now the neighborhoods are really bad because the cubans are too damn lazy to get jobs, and also because they are illegal.

Don't tell it to Radar, he is helping them come here.

[Elspode]

I wonder if John Deere thought about sponsoring the '51 Chevy pickup guys for refugee status? With the color of the truck and accessory tarp, it should have been an advertising coup.

"Nothing floats like a Deere..."

[richlevy]

Allen said Grass’s "greatest frustration was that he was stuck at sea and he was not able to land in Miami and drive up to the beach."

I think even the most die-hard anti-immigration redneck would have wanted to see that.

Of course, now that he's in the US, you know what's going to happen. He's going to start a company selling car-boat conversion kits and lakes are going to be filled with floating Fords and Buicks.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Don't tell it to Radar, he is helping them come here.

yup, and then he'll explain how they don't have to pay income tax too.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by LabRat

I've hardly been the environmentalist around here, but WTF is with them SINKING the two car/boats that this family had? They couldn't have just sent 'em to a junkyard for crying out loud? For some reason this really pisses me off.

Wow, a little late in answering your question LR, but they sink all kinds of things to create man-made reefs which support a great deal of sea life. I know up here there are a few that were sunk bout 10 - 15 years ago and they are great success stories about the marine life that is living in them and the fishing that goes on around them as well. Course they are all stripped of anything toxic..... but just sayin.

[Aliantha]

There is an argument that 'artificial reefs' only serve to collect fish so they're easier to catch rather than providing new environments for them to live in.

It's a contentious issue atm though. There seems to be equal evidence for both sides of the fence.

[classicman]

Ali, you really piqued my interest on this topic with your counter argument. I have volunteered with these projects several times and know people who work on them well. They all told me the same thing - fish numbers overall increase with the added artificial reef. I understand that they are potentially biased, but I did a little research today as well and the overwhelming evidence points to an increase in both fish populations and in fish species.

The Effects of Man Made Structures on Nearby Resident Fish Communities
Researchers: William Alevizon, J.C. Gorham and several graduate research assistants.

Project Number and Duration: R/LR-B-20, 1985 - 1987

Question: The classic debate over artificial reefs is whether the reefs increase fish numbers or merely concentrate fish in one place. Could a carefully controlled study of the impacts of artificial reefs on the fish communities in a Florida marine sanctuary help move this debate in one direction or the other?

Project: Researchers counted and identified the fishes living in a flat, sandy habitat in two six-hectare (14.8 acres) study sites in Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. Next, they built two artificial reef groups, each consisting of 12 small PVC- and concrete blocks, near the sites. They then censused the fishes in the study sites every three months for one year.

Results: Of the five most abundant species - green razorfish, Hemipteronotus splendens, pearly razorfish, H. novacula, rosy rasorfish, H. Martinicensis, slippery dick, Halichoeres bivittatu and the sand seabass, Diplectrum formosum -- researchers saw no change in the total numbers of adult and juvenile fish on the sandy habitat, or in the proportion of one species to another, in the pre- and post-reef censuses. The researchers next took the project a step further, building a large artificial reef at the center of one reef group. Nine months later, numbers of all but one of the most common species had increased 100 percent - yet numbers remained unchanged on the natural reef group. Both the earlier and later results appear to demonstrate that, at least in this case, artificial reefs resulted in an increase in fish stocks rather than a concentration of existing stocks.

Impact: By demonstrating one scenario in which artificial reefs did not have a negative impact on surrounding fish populations, the results provided support to public and private efforts in Florida to develop new artificial reefs and enhance existing ones. Through studies such as this one, artificial reefs are coming to be seen as more than just convenient 'fish attractors' In a report on the project, Alevizon wrote, "...The rational use of manmade reefs may substantially extend our ability to protect natural endangered systems, by providing the option of increasing available suitable habitat."

There were several more that all concurred with this conclusion and only one that countered it.

This led me to wonder if it was different over there versus here?