Articles tagged with 'Stewards of the Keys' | Florida Keys

Terence “Terry” Helmers, known as a real-life “Aquaman,” is a Florida Keys volunteer extraordinaire. His underwater specialty, as a volunteer and as both a NOAA- and national parks-authorized diver, is mooring buoys.The retired information technology...

Mill McCleary, executive director of the 1,300-member Reef Relief organization based in Key West, knows how to effectively utilize advocacy and organizational skills to create tangible impacts through clean water and healthy ecosystems.This year, McC...

Sue Cooper, a Florida Keys paddleboard guru and author of the “Millionaire in Flip Flops” book series, is also the face of Lazy Dog Adventures, known for its slogan, “We do more in a week than most people do all day.”But don’t let that tongue-in-chee...

Cindy Lewis, director of Keys Marine Laboratory on Long Key, is a woman of diverse talents.

Artist Taylor Hale, a Florida Keys native raised in Key Largo, has come home. Recently moving back to Key Largo after living in St. Augustine, Florida, Hale is known for his stunning ethereal works of clouds and surreal scenes of the Keys' natural wo...

Billy Litmer, founder of Key West's Honest Eco tours specializing in wild bottlenose dolphin­-watching and nature charters, grew up in landlocked Edgewood, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, Ohio....

Mike Goldberg of Islamorada and Dave Vaughan of Summerland Key have earned recent global recognition for their work on coral restoration in the Florida Keys. Both men were previously profiled as Stewards of the Keys for their dedication to preserving...

Tom Sweets, now the executive director of the Key West Wildlife Center, decided to become a New York City fireman after arriving at his office near St. Vincent's Hospital and witnessing the horrific aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001....

John Mirabella, owner of off-the-beaten-path Castaway Waterfront Restaurant & Sushi Bar in Marathon, could well be called the "Lionfish King" of the Florida Keys.

Brian Vest, founder-president of the Conch Republic Marine Army, a nonprofit organization created to restore Florida Keys marine habitats, has taken more than 4,000 volunteers to the Keys' backcountry....

Danilo Alayon is a fifth-generation "Conch" born and raised in Key West, an avid diver, a self-taught artist and proud grandson of the creator-painter of the island's famed Southernmost Point buoy.

Captain Matthew "Matt" Bellinger grew up in Sandy Springs, Georgia, studied marine science at the University of Tampa, traveled as a divemaster after college and clearly remembers the aha! moment that prompted his move to the Florida Keys....

George Bellenger, who co-founded Key West Eco Tours with wife Carla in 2006, believes that even a five-minute commitment helps to preserve the Keys' natural backcountry and dense mangrove islands.

Marine artist Lisa Lee Herman, owner of Gallery of the Arts Islamorada, is known throughout the Upper Keys for her gyotaku - the ancient Japanese art form for traditionally recording a catch.

Erin Muir, a sixth-generation Upper Keys native, is a descendant of two founding Florida Keys families - the Albury and Lowe families that settled in the Keys in the 1860s - whose roots run as deep as those of the mangroves lining the island chain's ...

Autumn Blum, the founder of Stream2Sea reef-safe skin-, hair- and body-care products, is a part-time Key Largo resident, an avid diver and a cosmetic chemist who developed sunscreen products billed as the world's only ones proven safe for saltwater a...

Florida Keys residents are as deeply rooted in the island chain as the surrounding mangroves, choosing to live among the Keys' natural wonders and striving to preserve their satisfying lifestyle.

Captain Dave Dipre, Marathon-based operational captain with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Division of Law Enforcement, oversees 32 patrol officers and operations from Key Largo to Key West.Dipre's love of the Keys runs as de...

Mark Hedden, executive director of the Florida Keys Audubon Society and artist-in-residence at The Studios of Key West, is perhaps the Keys' best known "bird man.His recent "South of Southernmost" photography exhibition documents scenes from fragile ...

Ken Nedimyer, an Upper Keys–based director of Reef Renewal Foundation International, is globally recognized as a father of reef restoration, creating strategies and techniques to rebuild coral reefs around the world. The organization oversees restora...

Allyson Gantt inspires others to care for the Florida Keys' two national parks and their unique environments. She's overseeing a year of activities for Everglades National Park's upcoming 75th anniversary of its founding Dec. 6, 1947.A National Park ...

Jordan Budnik, executive director of the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center in Tavernier, has already achieved at age 29 what she hoped to accomplish perhaps in her pre-retirement years.The Atlanta native landed her first full-time job in t...

Harry Appel co-owns Big Pine Key's eco-friendly, boutique Deer Run on the Atlantic, the Keys' only designated "Four-Palm" Green Lodging Property earning the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's highest designation for protecting the state...

Jeanne Selander oversees the Monroe County Sheriff's Office Animal Farm at the Stock Island Detention Center - believed to be the United States' only facility of its kind on jailhouse property - and the care of 150 animals including 17-year-old Mo th...

Sarah Fangman, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is a Minnesota native whose impressive career as a marine scientist has spanned the United States. She's conducted more than 600 dives in Keys sanctuary waters, holds a U.S....

Captain Samantha "Sam" Zeher, solo captain and one of only a few Florida Keys women who are charterboat owner-operators, believes in captaining her own fate.Zeher, 33, operates KeyZ Charters, an eco-tour operation specializing in wildlife tours out o...

This month Elena Muratori celebrates 25 years with the Florida Park Service. With two decades of working at John Pennekamp Coral Reef and Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical state parks, she's one of the longest-serving stewards at any Florida ...

Rob Oliverio traded life as a road warrior - a corporate manager in his early 20s, launching House of Blues openings in Boston, New Orleans and Los Angeles - for life as an eco-entrepreneur and owner of Key West's Mellow Ventures, with backcountry ec...

Kelly Grinter estimates she's rescued and released more than 20,000 injured birds since she founded the Marathon Wild Bird Center in 1995.The wild bird sanctuary at Marathon's Crane Point Hammock Museum and Nature Center has 11 habitats, about 40 per...

Florida Keys artist Dan Davis of Layton, owner of the online Florida Keys Ocean Gallery, uses the ancient Japanese art of gyotaku to create prints from fish he catches in Keys waters.Davis also educates art lovers about the need and ways to preserve ...