150 tons of coral rock stolen is Islamorada

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300,000 pounds of live rock stolen in Florida Keys

300,000 pounds of live rock stolen in Florida Keys - Today's Top Stories - MiamiHerald.com

Photos By CAMMY CLARK
cclark@MiamiHerald.com
ISLAMORADA -- Law enforcement officers in the Florida Keys are investigating a $1 million underwater heist -- of rocks.

Sometime in the past 18 months, Miami boat captain Neal Novak told investigators someone stole about 300,000 pounds of decorative live rock he had planned to harvest for salt-water aquariums and reef tanks at his aqua farm three miles offshore of Islamorada.

''As far as I know, this is a first in the Keys,'' said officer Bobby Dube, spokesman for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission for more than 20 years. ``We've caught people bringing in live rock, but not stealing from someone's aqua farm.''

The live rock -- made by placing rock on the ocean floor where it becomes home to coral and plant life -- sells for about $3 per pound wholesale and $8 per pound retail, making his loss approximately $1 million to $2 million, Novak said.

''It's a pretty good haul if someone gets away with it,'' Dube said. ``Unless we get a tip or lead, it will be a tough case to solve.''

Novak, 51, said he is devastated.

''I've lost my livelihood,'' he said Tuesday from his home in Cutler Ridge. ``I put over $100,000 into the company and now I might have to go bankrupt.''

Novak, a captain for TowBoatU.S., said he started the live rock harvesting company in 2005. It took six months to obtain a federal permit from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a one-acre leased aqua farm.

Karrie Carnes, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, where the aqua farm was located, confirmed Novak had a permit.

''It's fishy nobody saw 300,000 pounds of rock being removed,'' she said.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office is investigating along with FWC. The crime is grand larceny of farm animal aquaculture species, a third-degree felony.

Novak said it took him 2 Ž½ years to place the rock in the 20 feet of water.

The rock -- a high quality Florida aquifer rock that looks like Swiss cheese -- was acquired from a Homestead quarry. He bought a flatbed truck to transport the rock and a special boat designed to hold the large amount of weight. The boat also contained two salt water holding tanks to transport the live rock.

When taken from the quarry, the rock is light yellow, white or brown. After three to five years in the clear, mostly nutrient-free water off Islamorada, the rocks turn purple and are full of life.

''Coralline algae, feather dusters, sponges -- all kinds of life grow on them,'' Novak said.

The last time he checked on the aqua farm was about 1 Ž½ years ago, when he took a sample.

''I should have checked on them more, but I had to care for my parents,'' he said.

In the meantime, he set up his home for the sale of the live rock, purchasing five tanks that could hold a total of 1,400 gallons of salt water. He planned to sell the harvest on the Internet or to pet stores and other aquarium suppliers.

Novak said he never thought anyone would steal 150 tons of submerged rock in an area used by recreational divers near about seven other aqua farms.

He discovered the theft May 13, when he and his wife made the trip to the aqua farm to begin the harvest. The rocks were not insured.

''About 30 to 50,000 pounds are left, basically just rubble left in the sand,'' he said. ``That's all I have left of five years of work. It's financially ruined me.''

Anyone with information about this case should contact FWC, the Sheriff's Office or Crime Stoppers of the Florida Keys. Tipsters may remain anonymous and may receive a reward if their information leads to an arrest. Tips can be submitted online at TipSubmit or called in to the Crime Stoppers hot line at 1-800-346-TIPS.
 
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"seven other aqua farms"
Let's see. Where would I look first?
 
Florida Keys News
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Business's missing coral a mystery
By TIMOTHY O'HARA and ROBERT SILK Citizen Staff

Million-dollar heists usually take place in banks, jewelry stores or tony mansions. But Florida Keys authorities are trying to figure out who, if anyone, stole $1 million worth of corals and sponges and their resident algae and invertebrates from the sea floor.
A South Miami-Dade County marine life collector claims someone stole 300,000 pounds of "live rock" totaling $1 million from his "aqua farm" off Islamorada, according to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office press release issued Tuesday.
Neal Novak obtained two federal permits for the one-acre site off Alligator Reef from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. His plan was to sell the harvest to aquarium keepers through an online business called Rock'n Live Rock Inc.
From early 2005 through December 2007, Novak placed the rocks as a nursery. For the next 18 months, he tended to other details, such as readying five 1,400 gallon aquariums.
When he returned to Alligator Reef on May 13, he said he was amazed to see everything was gone.
"I kept checking the GPS to make sure it was correct. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. But the GPS doesn't lie," Novak said Tuesday.
The Sheriff's Office has asked the public for help in finding who stole the live rock. Detectives and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers speculated that removing the rock would have required several barges, a boat equipped with live wells that woule be able to take the weight, as well as other large, specialized equipment.
An Upper Keys live rock site operator, however, is not so sure Novak's investment was stolen.
Tavernier-based marine biologist Ken Nedimyer, who tends his two sites twice a week, contends the area could be covered in sand from storms and hurricanes that have brushed the Florida Keys in recent years.
"It could have absolutely disappeared," Nedimyer said. "It could be right or within 10 feet from there just buried under several feet of sand."
Novak dismissed the suggestion. His permit required him to plant on hard bottom, where there was only a thin layer of sand above it, he said.
"It is physically impossible for 150 tons of rock to settle into 6 inches of sand," he said.
Storms, he added, are an unlikely culprit. They might unstack the rocks, but they won't move them away entirely, he said. Besides, the Upper Keys didn't see a hurricane in 2008, he said.
Passing tropical storms and hurricanes, however, have created sandbars and beaches off the Keys, as was the case during the 2005 hurricane season. Sand blanketed many reefs. And last year, the city of Key West lost about 10 feet of sand from its beaches throughout tropical storms and hurricanes Fay, Gustav and Ike.
tohara@keysnews.com

rsilk@keysnews.com
view.aspx






Here's another article on this that makes more sense than someone going out to Alligator Reef and taking that much coral without being seen. That site and around it has fisherman on it as well as divers everyday. I don't see it myself FWC would have seen something.
 
The whole thing sounds strange. "Aqua Farms" just sitting in the open ocean? Are they clearly marked? I just dove Alligator Reef in February, I don't remember seeing any signs or special buoys or anything.
 
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For $1,000,000.00 they certainely could have been stolen!! -- Figure 500,000 tops for hot rocks. It would only take the proper equipment and contacts to fence it. Of course I am sure the other people in the same buisness in the same area would not do such a thing.
 
Probably snuck in there at night and carried it away in a jon boat. That's what I think.


I am gonna go with the "buried under the sand" story. That sounds much more plausible.

Phil Ellis
www.divesports.com
 
I blame Obama. He shared the rocks.
 
I just heard they've caught the gang that did it. People have said it was pretty obvious all along that it took a coordinate effort among many individuals along with some nature talent or abilities.

Some of the suspects:

reef_animals.jpg

486860037_acaaf7e372.jpg


The Gangs Method of Operation

Some of the gang are claiming the evidence is just a load of poo... :D
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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