Mangroves are like miniature forests that grow in the shallow salt marshes around the islands.
Some grow in smaller clumps like in this picture and others, like in the next picture, sprawl over acres.
Looks
like a farmer's field that you could walk across but, you can't. While
mangroves are a great place for birds to roost on the tops, down below
live all manner of fish,
crabs and alligators.
I've heard a couple of versions of a story from Key West's "bad old days". . .
About thirty years ago, a drug smuggler named Bum Farto,
(no
kidding), got caught by the cops and agreed to rat out a few of his
gangster friends to keep himself out of prison.
But just before the
trial, he disappeared and has never been seen or heard from since. . .
.
. .One version of the story says he grabbed the money, changed his name
and moved to South America somewhere. Another version says his gangster
friends caught up with him, did him in and at low tide one dark night,
tied his body to the roots of a mangrove patch. So, when the tide came
back in, so did all those hungry critters and, as quick as you can say
"bon appétit", there went the evidence.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
mangroves
Labels:
bum farto,
key west,
key west the blog,
mangroves
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