Conservation, Fishin Stories, Tarpon Tales

Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Transacting Value Podcast. Now, you may remember this as SDYT the podcast. We've since changed our name, and that concludes season 2 of this podcast.

 

And now officially the fourth of July 2022, We're opening up season 3 with episode 1 of the transacting Value Podcast. With a good friend of mine, he's an outdoorsman, he's a Star Wars fan, he's really just a supremely awesome dude.

 

His name is Robert Baloo. We'll get into that in just a second. But first of all, if you're new to the show, either as SDYT the podcast, or currently, as the transacting value podcast, welcome.

 

I'm Porter. I'm your host, If you're a continuing listener and you've made it through this name change and you've made it to Independence Day now, early July 20 22, then welcome back.

 

Folks here domestically in the United States and around the world may or may not recognize what it means to have freedoms and to be free quite in the same perspectives.

 

Honor may not be defined the same way. Initiative may not be guided by the same principles and tenets. However, those are our 3 core values for the month of July here on the podcast, and we're gonna talk about all of them.

 

So folks without further ado, Let's turn it over to Rob, BUT FOR NOW, I'M Porter, I'M YOUR HOST, AND THIS IS THE TRANSACTING Value Podcast. Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Transacting Value Podcast again on Porter.

 

I'm your host, and we're talking honor initiative and freedom as our core values for the month of July. With a good buddy of mine. Rob Baloo, Rob, what's up, dude? Guy, what's going on, man? Happy fourth of July.

 

Yeah. I appreciate it, man. Happy fourth. Happy fourth. You guys got big plans? What are you thinking? Oh, I mean there's probably gonna be a barbecue. I'm probably gonna eat a bit more than I should and then probably pass out early.

 

Yeah. That's definitely the best part of the culinary festivities of the day. I'll tell you what, man, this guy took a steak salted both sides, and then put it in a broiler.

 

Couple minutes each side flipped it, whatever. It looked great. K? That was the intro to his real. And this was only like 30 seconds, so it was just bits and pieces that you saw. Well, then somebody played off of it.

 

And they took a steak and brined it. They used pickle juice, random seasonings, put it in a ziplock bag in the fridge overnight. And then cooked it on the grill, it looked better. I've never brined a steak before.

 

It looked better. Yeah. It was unbelievable. It looked Fantastic. Yeah. How are you guys prepping your meats? Because that's a big deal. You know, honestly, most of the time we're just using, like, you know, there's a marinade.

 

You know, my wife makes a a an extremely nice marinade that I I don't know what she even puts in it, man, because I'm I'm not privy to that secret.

 

Uh-huh. Yes. Yeah. You know what I mean? But oh my gosh. It's I mean, we're just marinating it overnight really and then throwing it on the grill. It's to die for. Is it steaks? Is it chicken?

 

Is it pork, fish? What what's this good with? Just just steaks. Oh, okay. You know, because there's just 2 of us, and we don't normally make a lot of food. Sure. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, you know, just a little bit.

 

I will say though on this past memorial day, we went to a barbecue at her brother's house, and, man, he had they're like filet mignon cut -- Sure. -- from, like, fresh market or something like that? I'm gonna tell you right now, Josh.

 

I don't know what he did to him, but they were like meat cupcakes. Oh. Alright? Like like almost like almost cut it with a spoon. Jeez. Tender. Yeah. Oh my. Oh my gosh, man. It's like it's like something you had to experience.

 

It sounds like it. Yeah, man, we actually was Memorial Day weekend, barbecued chicken. Right? Pretty standard staple on the grill. Brind them for 2 or 3 hours before I put them on the grill and put them smoker.

 

Right? No sauce, no nothing. Just brine some seasoning and then put them on the grill. I used a little bit of charcoal and a lot of bit of oak logs. That's it. Right? Some water fluid on the charcoal to make sure it was going.

 

And then -- Mhmm. -- made a a little stick log teepee to trap some of the heat, and then torched it. And waited till the logs got going, and then leveled it all out, put the rack on the wood, and then cooked over the wood.

 

No, man. Game changer, man. Yeah. But you have a nice a nice smoky flavor in that? Yeah. And I gotta tell you Oak's not my favorite.

 

Like, I'm not even a big bourbon fan just because of the flavor usually is pretty oaky. This was delicious. I think the brine help stayed moist. I didn't even add anything as it was cooking, but unreal.

 

I'm definitely a big smoker fan over propane. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah. I was gonna say you did I I heard from somebody that if you use lighter fluid on the brickettes and on on your charcoal -- Yeah.

 

-- because they if you get like a hint of that, like, lighter fluid tastes in the meat. Could you experience that?

 

Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes, especially because I don't really know what I'm doing. I just I just put it on there. Let it set for a couple minutes. Yeah. Sure. It's just eyebrows, you know. And then, yeah, it's cheaper than waxing.

 

I'll tell you that. I I was I was wondering why there was a a part of your beard up the middle there that seems pretty clean. Yeah. You get too close, 1 time, you know? But, yeah, no, I've definitely gotten that taste on occasion.

 

I found letting it set for a little bit longer, just having a bit of patience helps because fumes dissipate, so it's not all trapped in the smoke. But what we're talking about stuff to eat, there's also stuff to do.

 

Right? So I assume from what you said you guys are gonna hang out with family and relax? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fireworks? Oh, you know, tell you right now, hot take. I'm not that big into doing fireworks myself.

 

I mean, I I love making things blow up just as much as any other man does. But, you know, it's like, it always feels like you go out. Like like, you go out as as like a a regular person, and you you spend so much money on fireworks.

 

And then it seems like they're always gone too quickly. Yeah. Right? Like, I feel like a hundred dollars of the fireworks should set me up for, like, a good long while. Yeah. And I feel like I like 4 or 5 things off and I'm done.

 

And I'm like, oh, that was it. Yeah. It's like 16 all over again. Yeah. Exactly. What about watching shows though? Those can be fun. You know, there's there's a chance we might go down here to Finetian Gardens in in Leesburg.

 

I think I think they're doing a fireworks show. We might go down to the Venetian Gardens and check that out. Might actually take the boat out there and you can you can put your boat in.

 

You can go and you can watch fireworks from on the water. That'd be cool. You know, as as long as our 1 of our afternoon daily afternoon showers here in Florida, don't crop up.

 

My my end up doing that. That'd be a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. So for any of our listeners, again, talking to talking to Rob Barlew, quite quite the outdoorsman.

 

Right? So you're on Harris chain of lakes, I think, in Florida there. Right? Yes. Yes. Harris chain of lakes. So Very big, very big area. Yeah. I mean, I've heard they connect basically East Coast to West Coast, like, Gulf to Atlantic.

 

Not so much gold to Atlantic. However, they do connect to the Atlantic Ocean. If you went out through there's just a series of of canals. We want to connect all the lakes in the chain.

 

Those will eventually lead you to the Saint Johns River and then you can take the Saint Johns River all the way up Florida to Jacksonville and out into the Atlantic up there in Jacksonville.

 

So you're telling me Daytona Southwest to Tampa Bay is basically an island.

 

Pretty much, yes. I mean, honestly, it all connects. Whether it's man made or natural, I'm not a hundred percent on that. Supposedly, there's places in it where it's like you can just barely fit a boat through, like a larger boat.

 

When I grew up here, the people that I grew up next to actually made that trip once a year, they had like a like a 24 or 25 foot boat had like a cabin on it.

 

Yeah. And once or twice a year, they would just literally cook their boat in the water here on Lake Eustace and go to Jacksonville.

 

Whoa. They just they just go. I don't know if it took them a week or 2 weeks. It was just like their vacation trip.

 

That'd be cool. They just cruise down the waterways and yeah. Have you done anything like that? No. I've I've never done anything quite like that. I've been on some trips kinda like that in the Everglades.

 

I don't know if you know or not, but if you go out there, they have these these structured called chickies. No. We don't. They're pretty much like big docks out there with roofs on them.

 

Uh-huh. They're just scattered throughout the everglades. And if you check-in with, like, the Ranger's office, you can reserve a chickie, and you have to have, like, a permit and all that stuff.

 

But you can reserve a chicken for however many nights, and you can put your boat in there at the boat ramp, like, let's just say flamingo.

 

And you can journey out into the Everglades, journey as far as your chicky, whatever. You get there. You can set up a tent. You can tie your boat up to it.

 

And you can pretty much camp there on the chicky in the middle of the everglades. That'd be cool. Yeah. I'll give you it's it's probably a better winter trip. Oh, really? Because of -- Yeah. -- because of humidity or what.

 

Bugs -- Oh. -- because of the bugs. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Well, so setting up something like that, like for an individual or family or group outing or something, Is that something you can just go online and apply for?

 

Or does it take a process? Pretty much. You you just have to go if you just go on there and just Google the Everlades NASH part.

 

There is links on that website. You can go in there and you can get the permit to go out and, you know, reserve your checky and That would be cool. I imagine a lot of places like that.

 

Let's just say in Florida or really even the majority of the Eastern Seaboard in the States is being developed, man. Like price of land is appreciating even though the real estate market is starting to crash.

 

Right? Like, it's it's coming back down to reality, but land is never going to devalue the same extent as buildings are. Are you finding in some of these areas that there's a lot of development and or developers coming in?

 

Man, well, I'll tell you right now, we're just here at our our Fair City of Leesburg. I'll just tell you, man, in that in that year since you've been here, we have probably had another 3, 400 homes built in the area.

 

Whoa. Because I work for the city. So I'm I'm kinda privy to a lot of this, you know, like you're working with the contractors and stuff and we're pushing things in the ground for this new stuff.

 

They're just about to complete a big subdivision down off 27 called Lake Denham. There's another subdivision going in off of radio road. There's another subdivision going off going in off of 44.

 

Mhmm. There's another subdivision going on down 27. Like down toward Royal Highlands and stuff like that. And then the villages obviously is just coming down like the middle of Florida.

 

Yeah. They're huge. Though the city actually supplies gas and electric to a new section of the villages that just got built out, there's like another I think there's like 1400 homes in that section.

 

Right. And then they have another section coming in on the backside of Leesburg. It's gonna be like another 3 or 4000.

 

It's growing at a rate that I I mean, I just don't I don't think we we can sustain. Like, the the traffic here now in Leesburg is getting ridiculous. Are you seeing a lot of construction and road expansion and all that?

 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're they're trying to keep up with it. But do you know how road construction goes. Yeah. You know, like by the time they finish it, it's already outdated.

 

Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. Mean, I 4 has been under construction for 30 years. So I hear that, man. Even up here in Virginia, there's a highway called 64 We're expanding 64, we're adding a median.

 

But I mean, the good thing is you get lane closures during rush hour. So it really helps you bring communities together. Yeah. Do a parking lot. Yeah.

 

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, man. But, I mean, if if you go online and you look, man, there I mean, you can just go on a Google like, what state has the most 1 way you hauls, it's Florida. The number of people moving here now is out of control.

 

I feel. You know, as a person who, I guess you could technically consider me a native even though I wasn't born and raised here. I mean, I've been here for, like, the last 31 years. Wow. So pretty close. Yeah. I mean, pretty close.

 

It's kinda crazy. I mean, it used to be that, you know, we'd have the snowbirds come in, and then know, in the summertime, all the snowbirds would leave, and it's like, oh, yeah, this everything kinda empties back out.

 

Yeah. Ruth stress. And a lot of people that are now just staying year round It's great.

 

Yeah. So for any of our listeners, if the village seems like a foreign concept, picture a retirement community with a bunch of golf carts, probably more golf carts than vehicles, like street legal vehicles.

 

I remember that. Yep. And but fully sustainable funded basically their own post office. Actually, they do. I think they have 2 post offices, which accounts for 2 different zip codes. And you've got I don't even know how much acreage.

 

I think it's a couple hundred thousand acres. It's it's probably even more now. It's substantial. Supposedly, now this is hearsay, so don't quote me on this 1. But supposedly, the village just plans to go down to like Highway 50.

 

Whoa. Yeah. Supposedly. I do know of areas out here that the village has that the village has purchased that hasn't been developed yet. But it's in but the village has the land. They're just waiting for the building to catch up to that.

 

There's a con there's apparently apparently there's a construction company out here that has a 30 year contract with the villages for land clearing and development. A smart move. 30 years. Yeah. Smart move.

 

Walk them in. Yep. There you go. Speaking of locking in, did I understand that you recently got married by the way? Congratulations. I I did. Yes. I liked it, so I put a ring on. There you go. There you go. Oh, smart call, man.

 

I'm I'm happy for you. You said that you weren't born in Florida, where were you born? I was born in Georgia. Kinda right across the border. But I was born in Albany, Georgia, and my parents moved down here when I was 3 years old.

 

And then I've pretty much been in Florida all the rest of the time. I've gone to other places and visited and stayed for, you know, sometimes months on end.

 

I used to go to Kentucky a lot and stay there for a couple months at a time. But, you know, my mailing address has never pretty much not been Florida.

 

You know, there's a lot of things that Governor DeSantis is doing in planning and integrating now. I think that even in the last 30 years is going to have more longer term benefit.

 

I think, for example, but that he signed into state law to start teaching financial literacy in high schools, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I did see that. Have you heard anything good, bad, or indifferent about that?

 

Is it that big of a wave? I don't I really don't know, to be honest with you. I haven't heard much about that. The the new cycle has been dominated by other things here. That 1 kinda sucks through the wayside.

 

Our recent the controversies with Disney and everything else like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They've kinda kinda dominated the news cycle. So while I I saw that story, it was kinda it's kinda pushed to sideline.

 

I imagine so, yeah, so for everybody else, Disney, the theme park has been its own sort of special governmental jurisdiction. For, what, 30, 40 years, something like that, maybe longer?

 

Yeah. Yeah. At least longer probably. Yeah. And in that process, they've been able to, you know, get money, fund, finance, do whatever they needed to do concerning zoning or rezoning.

 

Without much approval or disapproval from the state. That's no longer the case. They have essentially outlived those freedoms, you might say, And so Florida as a state is now restructuring that deal.

 

But for the majority of Central Florida, Disney has an impact. They're area of influence is almost the entire center of the state, not just Orlando area, coast to coast, more than south.

 

I mean, you're talking about an entity that employees just just in this Orlando in that Central Florida area that employs something like 76000 people.

 

Yeah. 76000 people. And that that deal they have, I guess, it's it's not gonna go into effect until next year.

 

Oh, okay. Is when it's supposed to run out if there's 1 thing I've learned in this country lately is that you can say whatever you want to, then the court's like, no.

 

Yeah. And then they just and then they just get paused. It's funny you mentioned that it's not just federal courts, or municipal, or whatever courts.

 

Now, that you've got to take into account, you almost got to factor in social courts, Right? Social media, like TikTok opinion and all this stuff is actually swaying some policies.

 

Yeah, the court of public opinion is powerful. Yeah. You give in to fear, you give in to hate and anger. That's how it goes. You know, you gotta be careful. Well, we're talking about Disney.

 

Have you ever been? Before or as a kid? Oh, many times many times. Okay. I was actually I was there April the 20 seventh. Oh, this year? Yeah. This year. Oh, okay. So, yeah, even more recent. How do you see these changes?

 

We talked about the Everglades. We talked about Disney, obviously. We talked about local to your area. We talked about social media briefly, but how do you see these things changing over the next 3 to 4 decades.

 

Right? You have kids adopted, biological, you've got Niece' nephews, whatever happens in the future? How do you safeguard the things that you've got now, the nostalgia of the memories, the places, the cultures for them?

 

You have to try and take responsibility for things now. I feel like lately with the way our political climates have been, there's a big segue into this.

 

It's it's either black or white, right or wrong, us or them kind of deal. To where if you if you care about preservation on things, you might seem 1 way or the other.

 

I don't feel like that's personally true. Mhmm. I feel like that if you think, you know, let's just say caring about your environment is a thing that's more commonly associated with liberal agendas, if you will.

 

Sure. However, the the resounding amount of outdoorsmen are mostly conservative. It just doesn't jive right. Yeah. You know what I mean?

 

Because if you're if you're an out if you're an outdoorsman, you consider yourself an outdoorsman in addition to enjoying our national resources and enjoying time out in the wilderness in God's creation with your friends and family, you should also want to take the steps you can to preserve the things that you enjoy for your children, your grandchildren.

 

Mhmm. I don't see wanting to protect the things that you love as being a liberal thing.

 

Right. I mean, I don't know. You can tell me if I'm if I'm off base on that or not. I don't necessarily consider myself 1 or the other in the political party system. I have some views that I skew more conservative on.

 

I have some views that I skew more liberal on. It it is what it is. You know, the 1 thing that I don't think has a political agenda is, you know, protecting the outdoors and what you enjoy doing in it.

 

Well, being outside is just something that's always been with me. My father was a professional fisherman. His idea of babysitting for me was being 2 months old in a car seat in the back of a boat.

 

Alright. So so, like, I had I had no choice When I was born, like I was barely I think I was barely a month old and my father had already purchased a lifetime Florida fishing and hunting license for me.

 

And the eighties were a different breed, you know?

 

Yeah. So, like, you know, I had I had no choice in the matter. Like, I was gonna I was gonna be in this 1 way or the other. So, you know, and it's just something that I've grown up with.

 

I've my dad has a had a photograph of me at 18 months old falling into the water making a cast with a rod and reel. Like casting? Yeah. No wonder you fell in. You just you just went with it.

 

Yeah. Exactly. Good Lord. I mean, it seems like most people nowadays, like, I wouldn't consider an 18 month old old enough to do anything hardly. You know what I mean? But apparently my dad was like, nope, you're good enough.

 

Get get out there. It's literally just been something that I've always been steeped in. It's always been a part of me. It always will be a part of me. Well, I think that's the catch right there.

 

I think you just said it basically that politics is for policy changes. I think character is for future people changes. Where and how it gets instilled. You know what? Let's take a break for a second though.

 

We'll come back and we'll talk a little bit more about Honor, and freedom and and how those things have impacted your ability to balance your own goals maybe with what happens in life and how you've got to adjust and adapt.

 

And, you know, sometimes you don't always land fish, so maybe we'll get into some cool fish stories too.

 

More often than not, you don't land the big fish, actually. Yeah, I hear that. I pulled back an awful lot of water and empty hooks. But we'll dive into that here in just a second. Everybody sit tight on the transacting value podcast.

 

Folks, I'm Porter, host of the transacting value podcast. You're being personally invited to increase empathy worldwide through shared values. Hey. But why do you say it like that? That's not what we talked about.

 

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The least we can do is invite them out to hear more of the content that they enjoy while still reminding them that season 1 and season 2 of the podcast are still listed under the old name as DYT the podcast.

 

Friday, that makes sense, Porter. Just tell them that if they go to YouTube and search survival dead y t, they can find all the old videos in playlists.

 

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I look forward to helping you create your custom item. Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Transacting Value Podcast. Again, I'm Porter. I'm your host. I'm sitting here with Rob Baloo. We're talking about conservation efforts.

 

Waterways, preserving trees, preserving the environment is 1 thing. Preserving ways of life and cultures and customs is another, preserving what makes you feel nostalgic for future generations is totally another.

 

But all of them require some sort of conservation and active effort TO ENSURE THAT THERE'S CONSISTANCY.

 

FIRST OFF TOLL OF OUR LISTENERS WELCOME BACK. PRIMARILY THOUGH, Rob WHAT'S UP DUE WELCOME BACK. THANK YOU, Yeah. You're welcome. Been an illuminating day.

 

Been an illuminating day. Is it because the sun's up? Yes, actually. Very hot here in Florida. I imagine, man. I see your fan going in the background. I'll tell you I'm a little jealous you guys got some palm trees though.

 

I'm a big palm tree fan. I mean, yeah. Got a couple of couple of really nice palms out here. They they make some kind of berry that I'm not quite sure what you can use it for, but they smell delicious.

 

I'm not too familiar with that either. But for our listeners where we left off, essentially, the last point we made was how divisiveness of politics aside, the definition of politics, the application of politics.

 

Is that it's meant to focus on policy, guiding principles for the legitimacy and legislation of how certain things play out at a federal level.

 

If you want to, like in this case, have a conversation about different topics that requires political input at least on mass media has gained political input.

 

It doesn't have to get political because we're not impacting policy. We're just having a conversation. And that's when character comes more into play. How you guide the legitimacy for decisions for future people, not future policy.

 

How you impact the lives of future people, not future policy. That's where we left off. And so to bring us back full circle, Rob, I'm curious, man, We talked a little bit about conservation as it applies to the environment.

 

And you had mentioned the everglades and chickies and being able to camp out for a weekend or so, for example, if you were to take from where you are either by hard road, asphalt road, or waterways, let's say, down to the Everglades.

 

Are they still over the last 3 decades or so that you've been on them, the same condition that they have been?

 

You know, they aren't. Things have changed. And it's just a fact of life. Right? As society moves forward, as progress marches on, things are going to change.

 

I feel like it's how we deal with those changes that sets us apart from generations past. For instance, there's a you're familiar with the Crystal River Homasas area. Yeah. Right? Florida.

 

The nature coast, as it's called, the West Coast. I recently read a a book. It's called Lords of The Fly, which is a it's it's about the hunt for the World Record. For anyone who's not familiar, Tarpon, it's a it's a large oceanic fish.

 

They're completely silver, covered in gigantic scales. If you hook 1 on a rod and reel, they jump famously jump. I mean, like I said, once again, Google is your best friend.

 

If you Google just tarpon, there'll be so many pictures you can look at that are Fantastic. So many great videos. But, you know, it's it's a fish that literally you can catch them in some of these backwater areas around the coast.

 

Where they're 5, 6 inches long. And then that same fish in a few years will be 40 or 50 pound. Jeez. And then in a, you know, in a few more years, we'll be up over a hundred to a hundred and 50 pounds.

 

I believe the world record was like up over 200 pounds. It's caught off the coast of Africa. Tarping into 200 pound range have been observed.

 

You know, I mean, like, they're they're a gigantic fish. Yeah. I mean, easily over 678 foot long, monsters out there swimming alongside. Not predatory towards people. Yeah. But, you know, they're just they're a giant fish.

 

They're a majestic fish. They're very long lived fish. And, anyways, this book is about the hunt for the world record tarpon. Because I guess in the in the in the seventies, eighties, time, it became like a like a race.

 

Almost like the moon race, you know, to be who see if we get to the moon first. Sure. You know, this became like a race among outdoorsmen see who could catch the biggest tarpon.

 

And the area out by Homasassa, Crystal River, that area there, back in the seventies eighties, it used to be a gigantic place for migratory fish.

 

Like these tarpon, they're a tropical fish, When the weather starts warming up, they migrate up the coast from the keys, and up around the coast of Florida, and then out into the gulf.

 

You can catch them up in the panhandle on this migration. There's people who've seen them out like Louisiana, even Texas Way. You know what I mean? As far as their migration.

 

Right. But there's there's a quote in the book that says, you know, like in the eighties that you could go out there And, man, it looked like you could walk across the backs of all the tarpon that were out there.

 

Jeez. 1 guy talked about being on plane which is, you know, running the boat as fast as you can for 30 minutes and you just never stop seeing fish.

 

Contrast that to today now here in 20 22, our tarpon migrations have become somewhat lackluster even.

 

How do you qualify that? I mean to the point now where it's like you go out there and you're lucky to see, you know, just on a let's just say a regular day with a tarpenter in migration.

 

You know what I mean? You have a window now of a few hours in the morning time. You might see a pot or 2 of fish that's like 5 or 6 fish per pot.

 

You know what I mean? You know, contrast that to someone saying like, man, it looks like I can walk across the back to these fish and they eat Yeah. Because I'm I'm picturing like a flats boat just skimming over these fish.

 

Right? Exactly. Exactly. And but but so part of me is skeptical that that just sounds idealistic, not actualistic. I mean, maybe it is who can say I wasn't there in the 80. Well, yeah. Yeah. Tuchet.

 

But However, I mean, you know, these gentlemen the the gentleman that are being quoted in this book and that are giving information are are people who in the fishing world, especially the fly fishing world are, like, you know, kind of revered names.

 

Uh-huh. You know what I mean?

 

You know, they're kind of like the, you know, the pioneers of the of the of the sport. In saltwater fly fishing. Even the last few years, you know, people have said that the the consistency of the tarpon has been down.

 

You know what I mean? As far as them showing up, Another example, you can look at satellite imagery of an area on the East Coast of Florida called Mosquito Lagoon.

 

Uh-huh. Mosquito lagoon in the I mean, even in the mid aughts, you know, o 0 06:07, even up to I mean, gosh, I was going out there in, like, 20 11:20 12, you know what I mean?

 

There was just massive grass beds everywhere, you know, just green sea grass. Fish everywhere. Whereas contrast that now to today, I mean, you're lucky if you find any grass.

 

In the mosquito lagoon. It's mostly all sand. From what? A lot of it is from chemical runoff, landscapers and whatnot, you know, as as progress and development comes up on the on the edges of the lagoon.

 

You know, people wanna have that oceanfront waterfront property. You know what I mean? You build these large homes there and then people have to take care of the grass to make sure it looks all nice and green.

 

The pesticides and everything else that you throw into the water, you know, the people or it just gets dumped in the water.

 

Maybe you apply it before rain and it just gets washed into the water. Sure. Like Mosquino lagoon is not a title area.

 

It's literally a lagoon. And so that stuff just sits in there. You know what I mean? It doesn't get swept out with the tides and refreshed. You just kind of sits at it's like a big pond, honestly, or I guess closer to being late.

 

It's not a it's not an all at once scenario. You know, it's years and years and years and years and years of this has contributed to where we're at now. Yeah. I get that. I get that.

 

We had some spots when we were growing up as kids, namely my older brother and I, we'd go out with dad on a weekend or whenever we were with him and don't know if you're familiar with a place called Ankelokee or Chasowitz here.

 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Aerapika. So we would go out there, namely more around Ankelokee, but And I remember there was this place dad used to call it the batcave. Right? We had to park on the side of the road.

 

It was a 2 lane lime rock crushed type road. We park on the side of the road, you walk on the ditch on the side of the road, out into the sawgrass, and then you would get back to these mangrove trees that grew over the trail.

 

And I'm I'm saying trail loosely just that it was people that had walked the grass down. Okay? Yeah. And so he called it the bat cave. Anyway, so you walk through the bat cave and you would get back to these these lime rock pits.

 

So the water was super ultra filtered, super clear. But once you got out past those pits, it was mangrove saltwater. It was on the Gulf Coast. So, you know, fish crabs, whatever.

 

It was its own beach. I was little. Right? Maybe a grand total of like 3 and a half feet tall. So I couldn't tell you exactly how far away it was from the truck to the water. But I remember going out there was the coolest thing.

 

Right? We had egrets and herons, and we had obviously all sorts of crabs and sea life in the water by the time you got there and ospreys. Now you have 2 story homes, 3 story homes, the back cave is gone.

 

The lime rock pits are closed. You know, everything's filled in. It's not the same anymore. You could get cabins out in Arapika. On the water that basically fed down from the Swani or in from the Gulf, then now you can't.

 

They're they're not there. Just like you said, people have built houses and and and things have changed. The sawgrass flats aren't there anymore. And if they are, the animals that were there aren't even there anymore.

 

Right? Aside from some fleas and some roaches, sea roaches and whatnot. But like, you know, they're not going anywhere. But like the the environments totally changed, man.

 

I can't speak to the waterways so much. We were never out on any more than like a canoe or a jumbot. It's totally different, man. Everything It's like the deforestation of the coastline, just not a forest.

 

Well, and like what you touched on is is really like my like my overarching fear, I guess, you'd say, for the future. Yeah. How how old would you say that you were at that time frame?

 

When you would go out there with your dad. Oh, around then? 7 or 8. 7 or 8 years old. Right? And going out there, I mean, can you just try and think back when was the last time you experienced that sense of wonderment?

 

Yeah. And joy. Like, the ex the exploration and seeing, you know, this area that's just like, wow. This is so beautiful. Like, when's the last time you experienced that?

 

I mean, in its own rights and settings, I've been around the world on a few different deployments now that if Compared to seeing some of that scenery, like that, but I can tell you specific to that area.

 

I've never been anywhere since then.

 

Where it was the sort of mental, emotional, first mover advantage. And that's what I'm saying is that, like, you know, there's still places in the world that you can go and you can get that sense of wonderment.

 

A big 1 to me is Colorado. Recently in the last 4 or 5 years, I started going out flying up to Colorado and spending a week, 2 weeks out there every year. Mhmm. You know, trout fishing out into the into the wilderness pretty much.

 

And, I mean, you know, there's places you get out there where shit, you feel small. You know what I mean? Like like you're reminded that in the grand scheme of things, you really don't matter all that much. Yeah. You know what I mean?

 

Like like you look at this, you know, you look at the at the terrain and just the the expanse of wilderness. And you're, you know, and you're like, if if no 1 touches this, it's going to look exactly like this. In another 20, 30 years.

 

Right? Minimum. That's a place that I've I've experienced that that same sense of, like, joy and exploration. It's like, you know, like you walk out and do a new area. For instance, I'll just I'll just give you an example.

 

There's a place up there called Cheesman Canyon. Okay. That you you park in at, like, a trailhead. And it's like a mile and a half hike into the canyon. Right? And you're just kind of walking through woods and kind of walking uphill.

 

You know what I mean? It's fun because you're like, oh, man, this was like a cool hike through the woods. And then you come out into the canyon and you're on a on a like you said, like, it's a trail.

 

Mhmm. It's pretty much just an area that people walking has worn down. Yeah. Sure. Right? And it's about as wide as both of your feet put together. Oh, man. And to the left of you, it's like a 200 foot drop to the river.

 

God. Like you're just on the side of a canyon. Yeah. Right? And there is there's not a cell tower in sight, obviously. There's nothing out there, but just rugged wilderness. Can't help but be struck by the natural beauty of it.

 

Mhmm. Right? I mean, you can be down there fishing in this river you know, picking your way amongst the rocks, and look up, and there is a herd of Bighorn sheep making their way along the other side of the canyon.

 

If you're in the right time of year, you can hear Elk bugling in the area.

 

You know, I mean, you can be driving to the trailhead and see moose crossing rivers by the by the road. Wow. You know what I mean? I mean, wild. Exact that's the best word for it. It's wild.

 

Well, so that means that kind of freedom, you can't recreate. Exactly. And like you said, contrast that here to Florida where with our development and people wanting to move here, those natural areas are quickly dwindling away.

 

I mean, I might not be the most eloquent person. I might not have the most facts on all of it. But, you know, I feel like everyone can do their part to try and protect these natural areas.

 

There was recently a big thing happening down the upper glades where 1 of the the sugar companies down there, the sugar cane wanted to, like, dump runoff into the everglades.

 

And that was like a big deal. They're like, this is going to ruin the everglades. This runoff and these chemical laws, it's going to it's going to vastly affect the natural ecosystem.

 

There's already things that are affecting the ecosystem in in the everglades, Fermi's Tythons are 1. If you heard about that and you're I have. Yep. Yep.

 

You know, then that's just people wanting to be, I don't know, unique, whatever, getting these snakes, once the snakes get too large to be, you know, to be housed in a tank inside your house, they're just like, oh, let me just drive it out into the wilderness and just let it go.

 

Tooth a snake. Well, now you have a an animal in the everglades that grows to be in excess of 15, 16 foot long that will actually eat an alligator.

 

Right? An animal that has no natural predator here in the in the ecosystem they've been dropped into. They've flourished in this area, and other things, other native animals have had their populations go down as a result.

 

Yeah. I remember I remember hearing something similar to that. I think it was a grey wolf population in Yellowstone was the study at the time.

 

But same sort of circumstance, not related to Burmese pythons, but related to having to adapt to their environment. There was a super -- Yeah. -- drastic decline in their population. Until they made a few changes, obviously.

 

And then, foxes, animals, birds, other smaller woodland creatures made a comeback in the meantime, and then it balanced itself back out. But I I think that's sort of the thing. Right? Everything wants to And you know what?

 

Maybe there's even a a natural law about this. I can't remember off the top of my head anybody more knowledgeable in science, feel free to comment on this episode on Spotify or something and and put it up there.

 

But There's a natural law, I think, that says everything tends towards the state of equilibrium or wants to, at least. And so how much time that takes though? Who knows? Right?

 

But the amount of relative devastation humans, let's say, can have on an environment before humans need to stop completely or or not as much, so the environment can recover is an exponentially longer process than it took to get to that level of detriment.

 

It's like Elon Musk refers to often. Colonizing Mars and SpaceX and solar energy over basically natural resources, right?

 

Where it's a matter of time that humans degrade the environment to a point that's unrecoverable. Yes. I think to that same end state, it's a matter of timing before humans do something about that.

 

Right? It may not be our generation. It may not be our lifetime at all, but it could be. Well, I mean, hey, if you want if you want a simpler metaphor for it, I mean, look look looking at you here, I see you don't have this issue.

 

But for you know, other people in the in your in your listenership that might be approaching that middle age and you know packing around a few more LVs than you want to.

 

I mean, you know, think about how easy it is to gain that weight, and then how much harder it is to get rid of it.

 

Oh, so You know what I mean? Yeah. That's that's kind of what it is like it's so easy to make the changes to the environment.

 

It's not easy to revert the changes. That's true. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's true. But then it takes a conscious effort to maintain it as well. Exactly. Yeah. Alrighty, folks. This is Porter with the transacting Value Podcast.

 

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Oh, so You know what I mean? Yeah. That's that's kind of what it is. Like, it's so easy to make the changes to the environment, it's not easy to revert the changes.

 

That's true. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's true. But then it takes a conscious effort to maintain it as well. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I I agree 100 percent.

 

You know, like they said there was a there was a big social media campaign regarding that stuff that I was talking about the Everglades. That stopped a lot of that, dumping of stuff from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades.

 

Florida organizes a python round up you know, every year they pay people money per snake that they turn in to try and remove members of the population to try and keep the numbers in check just recently here in in our area, they passed some sweeping changes to the fisheries laws.

 

And as far as what you can take what areas you can cheat fish in and whatnot, you know, to try and mitigate some of the progress and the increase in people that are now fishing.

 

Because the outdoors have seen a marked growth here in Florida in the last couple years as far as fishing licenses being sold, boats being sold, and just people on the water.

 

So, you know, they've taken some steps here lately to to mitigate some of that and try and protect our natural resources.

 

But once again, I feel it's everybody's if you enjoy these things It's your responsibility to honor what you what you love and to, you know, to help it continue to be a viable resource.

 

Well, I think that's how it goes with any relationship. Right?

 

If you sort of honor the integrity of it and the loyalty behind it and the trust you're given within that relationship, then that's how you maintain its integrity and and maintain its worth and its value for other generations to look at and and try to embody not to get too metaphorical here, but I agree, right?

 

And and people to plants is the same consideration as people to people from that perspective. I mean, for instance, like, you know, I I get I don't really I don't necessarily keep a lot of fish.

 

I I do a lot of fishing, not to not to toot the own horn, but toot toot. I I tend to catch a lot of fish but I rarely rarely, if ever, keep any fish to bring home to the table.

 

You know, I have a lot of people that ask like, oh, man, why? You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're out there. You're catching all these fish. Why don't you ever bring anything home?

 

At at this point in our civilization and whatnot that? Like, you know, I don't need to keep these fish in order to eat. Right? Oh, I see. You know what I mean? Like these like these fish are not necessary for my survival.

 

Mhmm. You know, I've got a refrigerator full of stuff right now that I have any. When I go out and I catch, you know, a couple of redfish, I don't need to keep those fish in order to eat.

 

Mhmm. You know what I mean? So I just let them go because that's a fish that you know, your son might end up catching. Right? Yeah. That's a fish that someone else's son might end up catching.

 

That's a fish that if if you get your enjoyment out of it, you you enjoy the fight, you enjoy the the puzzle of putting together, you know, fishing and and putting together the where the fish are, what they want to eat, the weather, the tide, all that stuff.

 

You get to put this puzzle together that ultimately culminates in you catching. Fish, you've got your enjoyment out of it.

 

A big thing that I I don't necessarily agree with is we have a lot of we have a lot of charter cabins around here. You know, you have a lot of charter cabins that make their living, guiding people to catch fish.

 

Sure. Right? And I a hundred percent support that because I think the more people that are involved in fishing and enjoy fishing the easier it is for people to wanna protect our natural resources.

 

Oh, yeah. Right? Yep. You get you get the word out. You have people that have great experiences in it. You automatically wanna text something that you had a great experience in.

 

Sure. Right? But my my issue is that a lot of these people, you know, that are come from out of state or whatnot, you know, they come, they catch fish, they want to keep the fish to take it home and eat it.

 

And while I get it and there's obviously limits in place for people to do that and that's considered sustainable by people who have much more education than I do.

 

To to what end is that is that keeping? Really? You know what I mean? Like, what what what fulfillment are you getting out of the fish after you done the whole deed. Once again, I'm gonna clarify that is a personal opinion.

 

Sure. Yeah. Because I mean aside from not being hungry, Right? The activity once once you get them into the boat, the activity is over. I suppose that depends on your perspective. I mean like you brought up in the beginning.

 

Is it necessary to encourage a love for the environment for future generations? No. Because you can get food at the store. At least here, or in a developed country, you can get food at the store.

 

For these said future generations to be able to eat, so killing the food you catch, not necessarily. However, if what you're teaching is how to fish, how to clean, how to eat, how to survive will ensure.

 

Right? Yeah. But finding a balance between the 2, right? Like it's a I guess a more extreme parallel if you're gonna go you mentioned Elk before.

 

If you're going to go hunt an elk, to clean it, to eat it, to pack it out, to take it to wherever you got to go, whatever, not just to hunt it. That's an irreversible hunting trip, but that's the difference between hunting and fishing.

 

Hunting, you're not catching and releasing because if you do, something else eating what you just killed? Yes. So really you've limited your options in terms of a release game and future sustainability.

 

But yeah, concerning fishing, man, everything changes. Would it make a difference to the rest of the country as a country if like we said, the bottom island of Florida disappeared?

 

And There was no more tourism coming to Florida. No. No. They'd adapt over the next few decades and they wouldn't notice.

 

You know, you amputate a hand, you figure it out. But it changes everything having it. Encouraging that level of sustainability and that level of education and awareness, it's not necessary to kill everything that you catch.

 

Right? So what we're talking about encouraging that level of character and decision making and discernment for future generations, your kids, other people's kids, whoever, are you as a future older adult compared to now?

 

What advice do you give them? How do you build that kind of character and discernment? It has to be education.

 

And, you know, I mean, I'm not talking education into, you know, the crazy, you know, like crazier things that are more divisive like let's just say climate change. Sure. It's just it's just education on on on minuscule things.

 

Like, you know, if you're out there, like, you don't throw your trash in the water. You'd be surprised at how many times you're you're out there And I mean, I've been miles away from the shoreline and you snag a beer bottle.

 

You know what I mean? You snag up, you see plastic bottles out there floating sign of the times, I guess. But, I mean, I've been out there miles offshore and seen a, you know, a face mask -- Oh, yeah. -- floating in the ocean.

 

You know what I'm saying? And like, now I know that Obviously, you can't mitigate this completely because the Florida wind is the Florida wind and hurricanes and all that stuff. It's gonna sweep things out to sea regardless.

 

You know what I mean? I just know it's not all coming from, you know, by chance being swept into the water. Right? You know, education on, you know, what the fish and wildlife has has deemed as the appropriate limits.

 

There's been a few stories, not necessarily from Florida, but in other you know, in Florida and in other places, about people getting caught with 234 times the legal limit of fish.

 

I think there was 1. It's it's in a different state, but these people were caught with like a hundred and 6 crappie when like the limit is like 50 team. Jeez. And you're like, oh, yeah. Well, at least you caught those guys.

 

And it's like, yeah. But the damage has been done because the fish are already dead. They're already gone. Yeah. You're not putting bait. Yeah. Like, I mean, it's going to take 2 or 3 years for that number of fish to replenish.

 

Because, you know, you might think, oh, I see plenty of fish out there. But you know, to really replenish what's being taken out of there, it takes a while.

 

Because just because let's just say a fish lays a million eggs Right? Mhmm. A million fish don't make it adulthood out of that that brood. Sure. You know what I mean?

 

That hatch. You know, I mean, let's just say that something like only maybe 10 percent makes it to adulthood. That's a lot less than a million. Sure. And then that's distributed over area too, not just within 1 ecosystem.

 

Exactly. That's over the area of, let's just say, the Gulf Coast. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, think that the, you know, the 1 or 2 things that you do, like, they don't you just get all that it's all cumulative.

 

Well so Okay. So we're talking primarily inland waterways, tributaries, whatever. Right? We're not talking like deep sea exploration or like random navies compressing their trash and then dumping it into the ocean.

 

We're talking more inland, more localized type waterways, right? That's what I would more say I'm dealing with just because, you know, like I said, it's things that you can teach people locally You know what I mean?

 

That, like, each person can can do their own part. Sure. Yep. This little thing, because like I said, as far as, like, do you really need to keep the fish that you caught today? Did you have a great time? Did you make memories?

 

Do you really need to keep those fish? Or can you release those fish so that you have, let's just say, the limit right now where I'm at is 2 Redfish per person, 4 people to go out on a boat, you all catch your limit.

 

Right? That's 8 Redfish. I mean, do you guys need to keep all 8 of those fish?

 

Right. Or can you release let's just say half of them and and only take 4 Yeah. You know what I mean? That's 4 more fish than that let's just say this next spring have a chance that breeding and making more population.

 

Yep. It's just little things like that. And I think that we've we've come into this era where we're like, you know, yeah, like, do what you want.

 

Like, it's your right. Do whatever you want. You know, I I don't think we take a lot of time to think about, like, but should we though?

 

That's a whole another level of awareness right there. Exactly. I know. Could you and should you are 2 different things despite the similar spellings, man. 100 percent, I agree.

 

And you could attribute that to anything. Right? Like you're talking conservation in terms of wildlife and waterways. But let's take the same principle that you just said. Here's a point. We talked about governor DeSantis.

 

He's the Florida governor, at least for right now. Past this law was attempting to get more traction on teaching financial literacy in schools. We talked about that a little bit ago. Yes, yes, we did. Yeah, but it's the same principle.

 

Right? Let's talk about financial literacy as a parallel, or you don't have to and I will. But the point being, If you have this much money per month, that doesn't mean you have this much money available to you.

 

Those million eggs for example, the 90 percent that go away and don't make it to adulthood is the same amount of money you've got going to bills. Other expenses, revolving debt, consumer debt of whatever kind. Generally speaking.

 

Right? So now out of that let's say a hundred dollars a month that you thought you had available, it's actually 5. That's all you've got. Right? Is the same 10 percent of eggs that make to adulthood to your analogy earlier.

 

So understanding if this is more your flavor and sort of more country living isn't your vibe. Think about it in the same regard. Right? Like you've got x amount of money cash flowing every month.

 

What comes in, vice, what goes out. But until you stop to think about how much is coming in, how much is actually going to what needs to be spent, and how much am I superficially spending?

 

Until you start to control your cash flow, you can't make any positive changes for the better because the more money you spend over the course of say a decade, less money you have saved to do something with a decade later.

 

Yeah. And I think a lot of that stuff translates pretty directly to conservatorship when it comes to the environment.

 

Taking care of the environment doesn't just have to be this more, I guess, trending in the US anyways, liberal consideration. Like you said, there's plenty of Republican people who value the environment.

 

But the way it gets publicized, is not the same perspective as say a a liberal perspective -- Yeah. -- towards the environment. But the principle's the same. Right? Take care of what's yours.

 

It should be. It should be. That's for sure. Right? But could it be or should it be, man? We're back there. But you know, like, it's so interesting to me at least, namely because I have a relative social ineptitude, I think.

 

But it's so interesting to me to understand the concepts behind the constructs because they're common to so many people that treat them differently.

 

Like values for example. Right? I'm not as avid of a fisherman or an outdoorsman as you are.

 

But here we are, however long we've been talking about wildlife and conservation from your perspective, experience and expertise compared to mine, and we're still able to have a conversation.

 

We've talked about politics 3 or 4 times, haven't yet argued about it.

 

I haven't even heard you raise your voice. There's no need for any of that. Right? Like the concept behind the construct can still be similar. In that regard. So when we're talking about how do you save the environment?

 

Well, let's talk about finances. It's not about donating to a campaign cause. Right? It's about illustrating the fact that if you learn how to manage your money, you can learn how to better manage your life.

 

If you learn how to manage the environment better, you can learn how to better create an environment or cultivate or maintain or sustain. And I think that's something that is not as widely publicized either.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, even in Florida, you know, sure you've got 4 h in some areas, which if you're listening, Further out around the world, 4 h is a essentially, agriculturally centric organization, breeds that level of understanding primarily but rodeo farming, those types of things.

 

There isn't anything like that in, say, high schools, fishing game, education, conservation awareness. Is there? No. Not really.

 

No. Not really at all. Well, so what do we do about it? TikTok videos and Instagram reels? To be honest with you. Yes. I mean, I feel like sometimes that's that's the biggest flaw is that we Well, okay, I'll I'll put it to you way.

 

This is an example that I I saw that kinda makes sense. Going back to, like, your money, like you said, like donating to a call and stuff like that.

 

There was a a committee made to their goal was to spread cancer awareness. Okay. Right? Sure. And so they went around, people donated money to them, you know, blah blah blah.

 

They had, you know, fundraisers and balls and all this stuff like that. And then someone finally asked them how much they had contributed to cancer research. And the answer was nothing, because they were just to raise awareness.

 

I would say you have to look at like where you're if you're if you're gonna donate to to a conservation place, you know, look at what they're doing for the environment versus what they say they're doing.

 

If they're just raising awareness, they might not actually be really putting anything back into the actual environment.

 

They might just be letting you know there's an issue. Kinda like that. If you remember that commercial a while ago and it's like, oh, I'm just a security monitor.

 

I just monitor if there's a threat. Yep. You know what I mean? Yep. But, yeah, man, as far as getting the message out there, I mean, you know as well as I do. The current city of today is is in the social media realm.

 

Great. It can be a bit fickle, but, I mean, you can reach infinitely more people with a viral TikTok video than you can with a letter being sent out or something posted somewhere.

 

Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. So I'd say that, yeah, that's the way we need to go.

 

But, you know, we need to make the kids aware of it now on on social media that there's, you know, things that they can do just to help out. And because I I feel like most kids today, they wanna help out.

 

They wanna be a part of something. Well, we look at all the challenges that are on TikTok. Everybody wants to come people wants to, you know, show off them doing this challenge. Right? Yep. There's a social aspect to it.

 

I mean, what if we could do something along those lines with conservation? I mean, that would be that would reach millions of people. Oh, yeah. Especially with the right hashtags, the science behind it will do the work for you.

 

Exactly. So much of this stuff when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it. It's a bunch of stuffy older people. You know what I mean? That meat and and argue about things and then nothing gets done.

 

I mean, if you look at people that are in the the demographic let's just say, 16 to 25. Right? So much of their world now versus when we were that age revolves around your phone.

 

And what's going on online. I feel like that's the place where we need to be reaching out and try and teach these things. We well, let's say 15, 20 years ago.

 

Alright? When we were that age, I guess earlier on around that age we were looking at Friday night's social gatherings as going to the mall. Alright? Remember like Square, you go to the mall, you go to Gaters dockside, whatever.

 

You go do something but it's physical, it's in person. Yeah. And so if you wanted to reach somebody over the last couple decades prior to these ones, you go to the mall. Or colloquially to Lake County, you go to Walmart.

 

But -- Yeah. -- you know, you you go to the mall and that's where you find kids. Just hanging out doing absolutely nothing. Just hanging out at the mall. Right? You're not shopping for clothes, you're not doing anything productive.

 

Lord knows, but you're hanging out at the mall. Okay? So if you need to find somebody, you go to the mall. If you need to figure out what people are talking about and what they're interested in, you go to the mall.

 

Today, I don't think it's that different, where businesses do the same thing. Over the last, call it 3 decades primarily, You want to reach people, you want to reach kids, you put it on TV because that's where it was in the nineties.

 

That's where it was into the 2 thousands. It was more on TV, people transitioning away from malls. On on the grand scheme, at least in the States. So you go to where they are, you meet them where they're at.

 

Okay? Well, now there's such as it seems like such a hesitation overall for organizations, businesses, whatever, positive in application or negative in connotation to reach kids via social media.

 

It gets this weird, destructive kind of vibe, this negative pessimistic perception.

 

Well, I don't want to jump on Twitter. I don't have a Twitter. I don't want to get on Instagram. I don't have an Instagram. You're hearing it now. Worldwide with NFTs. In Web 3, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

 

Why would anybody do that? I've got the same picture already downloaded on my phone. Okay. People said the same thing, 19 95 to Bill Gates. I saw this on YouTube. 19 95 David Letterman is interviewing Bill Gates on the late show.

 

He says, Bill, tell me about this internet thing. I'm sure you've heard of it. And Bill's Bill's like, yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm familiar. He says, what's what's the appeal? Right? He said, well, here's the thing. This is a letterman.

 

He brings it up and he says, here's the thing, Bill. I just heard recently that you're gonna be able to stream, not like we know it today, but like to play a baseball game, being played, live. But on your computer, Bill said, yeah.

 

That's that's correct. That's that's the internet. And Letterman says, I mean, have you ever heard of a radio? He says, yeah. Sure. But there's there's a few small differences. They're not major, but there's a few small differences.

 

And letterman says, yeah, we'll say. Bill Gates is well you can play it however often and however many times you want. And Letterman says, yeah, okay. But have you ever heard of a tape recorder?

 

It's the same sort of parallel. Right? Nothing's changed. It's just a different method, a different mechanism, a different medium, you might say. For being social, where we're in the 19 95 of NFTs of Web 3 of the Metiverse.

 

Potentially, it could all fail just like the Internet could have then. But based on the application and drive and conscious effort to make it better consistently, chances are high, it's gonna succeed.

 

It's got the potential to it. It's the same thing with reaching kids. Right? As companies and businesses are more hesitant to reach don't have an Instagram.

 

I don't wanna get on social media, clouds judgment that distracts people. Maybe so. But like we've also seen online that's where the money's that's where the attention is.

 

That's where the businesses need to go because that's the future. That's how people are communicating. Right? Like this now, we're not talking face to face.

 

We're on a video call. Yeah. What's the difference? But you got to be able to meet people where they're at. If we had to rely on just talking to each other face to face by being physically together in the same space.

 

Nobody'd ever talk to each other. Nobody'd stay in touch with families anymore. You've got to adjust and adapt to be able to, I guess, metaphorically evolve with the times.

 

Right? So I got a question for you. You mentioned Colorado and your your trout expeditions every so often we're talking about migratory patterns of wildlife.

 

Does that ever change to account for changing environments, they go somewhere new, shrinking environments, they go somewhere more plentiful pull like, you know, little foot in his family moved type stuff.

 

That's a that's a great callback right there.

 

Thanks, man. I mean, just before I say this, can I just ask, was there anything more traumatic as a child and little puts mom dying? Bambi was a close second for me. I mean But I But littlefoot had a bigger arc and a bigger impact.

 

So I mean, wow. Yeah. Just just wow. I mean, that was like a great move that you started out by ripping your heart out of your chest immediately. That's it. Yeah. And I mean, that that defined a generation.

 

You're you're right about that. Yeah. But, yeah, man. I mean, that's what the main you say side effect is, of our footprint that we put on on the on the nature, is that animals change their habits.

 

They change where they go. It's been hypothesized that, you know, bringing it back to what I was talking about, the tarpon that came into the home of that area.

 

There was something that brought those fish there. Something that's changed and because of that now they don't come back in such great numbers.

 

Right? When they make the migration, the Tarpon still make the migration. They just don't make that pit stop at Homassassa any longer. Not any longer, but in as great a number as they used to. Something happened.

 

The same thing happens out west and, like, you know, there's not Colorado area, but out on the on the West Coast of the country, you know, you'd have sea run steelhead you know, it's a a form of of trout salmonid that would you know, they they come in from the ocean and they travel up I mean, you've seen the you've seen the nature documentaries.

 

You know, they traveled up the river. You know what I mean? To spawn.

 

Yep. You know, it's a it's a thing that's hardwired into their, you know, into their brain. They go back to the area they were born. So what happens when we dam off a river and those fish can no longer make it to where they need to go?

 

Where their brain tells them they need to go to procreate. What do they do? They change. They go somewhere else, or they just die and we lose that generation, that population.

 

That's the result of us. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's true. Right? You start picking and choosing I mean, look at the supplement game throughout the fitness industry. It's the same sort of thing, I think.

 

Where once you start meddling with natural, I guess, equilibrium and chemicals, deficiencies is 1 thing. Right? Medical conditions is 1 thing. Don't get me wrong. Medicine in it as an industry is totally necessary.

 

But once you start tweaking, Little pieces, you're going to get unforeseen consequences that then you also have to supplement to bring those levels back up to reach some level of equilibrium.

 

And and when it comes to nature conservancy, it's definitely a similar consideration because the more variables that people start to move around or change or just indirectly even impact, the more variables you have to account for and try to address and balance back out.

 

For sure. Mhmm. A random question that I have. Sure. Who just popped it on Grain. Have you ever heard of someone who despite being in phenomenal physical shape, has an unforeseen incident happened and let's just say dies.

 

Right? Yeah. But say you have a -- Yeah. -- a weightlifter that all of a sudden, you know, their heart just fails.

 

Right? You have a runner that all of a sudden their heart fails. People who for you know, if you're on the outside looking in, like, or you looking at them, you might like these people are in almost peak physical condition.

 

Right? Like, they're as healthy as you can possibly be. But at the same time, they're not helping.

 

Could that be because of the supplements and whatnot that we're now putting in, you know, what we're saying is necessary for your athletic or fitness goals. Yeah, man. It's it's the chemicals dumped into the watershed. You know?

 

It's the same principle. You can't be 70, 75, some odd percent water and not expect it to be poisoned over time. The more chemicals you add to it, you know, like, if art mimics humanity humanity mimics nature, in my opinion, Okay.

 

And so the thing about it is you look at Ronnie Coleman, for example, He was mister Olimpia in a few different years, and then he wasn't anymore.

 

He was not an Olympic athlete because his hips and his back and his knees gave out, and now he walks with a walker or crutches and takes dozens of joint supplements and rehab and physical therapy, and his life is nowhere near the affluence that it was.

 

Great dude, I'm sure, all sorts of experiences. Right? Watches things on Netflix or YouTube. But, like, that's exactly what happens. And then you look at powerlifters.

 

I don't wanna say all the time because I can't say to that frequency, but powerlifters die because of the amount of supplements they take, whether it's HGH, Dina Ball, whatever type of supplements to get bigger, right, as steroids.

 

The thing about these steroids, and I'm not saying all of them.

 

Because there are some that are necessary. You take a liver supplement. That's a steroid by definition. It may not be super synthetic to the point where it's doing as much damage, but it's accounting for the damage you've created.

 

And now it's supplementing a process you can no longer naturally do. Exactly. But the point being, these I'm using power lifters as an example, but you jump up to 350 pounds, maybe 425 or more in the off season.

 

The growing and shrinking of your body is gonna take a toll. And then your organs growing and shrinking to accommodate that level of stress. You don't need that much muscle to hunt and survive anymore. Now it's for show.

 

Maybe pride, maybe ego, but for the most part, show. I wanna be able to be bigger, faster, stronger, that's what you're gonna get, but here's what the risks are that it comes with. You know what? I don't wanna hear those things.

 

No. I'll be alright. I got plenty of time. Go on. Right? It's gone. No. It's cool. It'll it's not gonna last forever, but it lasts for now, and I'll worry about forever tomorrow. That's a future me problem. Yeah.

 

Okay. Well, the future is today compared to yesterday. I mean, just look at look at people look at all the people who, like, who seem to be, let's just say, living to very ripe old ages. Sure. It's always people who you'd never expect.

 

Right? Just a just a 4 instance, my dad lived to the the ripe old age of 85. Right? I mean, has there is there obviously people that are older? Yes. But I think 85, that's a that's a that's a that's a pretty good number.

 

My father didn't didn't pass away because of his body failing. It was it was his mind, and that's just something that happened Dementia is a is a terrible terrible thing.

 

But, you know, I mean, you see these people that live to like a hundred over a hundred. They're just normal people who just do normal things. Mhmm. Right?

 

It's like the people who do are the ones who are just living. You know, they aren't putting That's the argument. About it. It's Yeah. But that's the argument. Right? Like, you can live to be a hundred and 25 years old, hypothetically.

 

How remarkable was your life and you clearly took it easy and had it relatively stress free. That's that's the argument. Right? Only the good die young, so to speak. I think that's a misconception.

 

You mean to tell me in a hundred years you don't have any remarkable memories? Yeah. Exactly. Did you did you not make or let's say this, did you make a world changing society shifting impact on the planet?

 

Maybe not. Probably not. In fact, probably not. Until you're the 1 person that made it to a hundred and 16 that the world says, how'd you do that? Let's do an interview. You know?

 

And then you just changed the entire biological medicine industry. Exactly. You know, like, who knows where it goes? But but you're right, man, to your 0. 85 years old, especially now today is becoming not as old as it was 30 years ago.

 

Yeah. It's it's the you know, orange is the new black, so to speak. It's it's it's becoming a younger age. But in 85 years, think about all the fish he released. 9 minutes. About all the places he went.

 

All the memories, obviously, and skill sets that he gave to you guys, but that doesn't even include indirectly the amount of people that he was social with. That he reached with his titles, his awards, his records.

 

In 8 and a half decades, That's a long time. I think 5 years is a long time. And, man, I'll tell you, if you don't think 4 or 5 years is a long time, Go ahead and listen to military.

 

You know, I'm not saying there's anything against it, but A lot can happen in 4 to 5 years. You don't believe me. Go to school. Go ahead. Go to college. Yeah. You tell me how slow every class goes, but how fast every weekend's.

 

And it's the same because you look back on your life. Better case, you look forward on where your life could be, or maybe you look back on your life and think you made no changes.

 

Think you would serve everybody better if you weren't around. Maybe you look back on your life and you're like, I haven't impacted or changed anything for anybody.

 

If you genuinely believe that, obviously, I'm not a counselor either. Go talk to somebody, get help, or suicide prevention, hotlines, and groups. But if you legitimately think that that's the case, disorders, diseases, and things aside.

 

If you legitimately think that that's the case, think about everybody you've indirectly ever talked to or impacted. You said you remember things from 7, 8 years old.

 

You've seen pictures that have reminded you of things or taught you things indirectly when you were 18 months old, maybe even a month old you heard stories about. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you, man.

 

I forget a lot of stuff. I've got post its to find other post it notes up on my walls, so I know where to get things done and how to accomplish things in a schedule. Right? I've got 4 different whiteboards in here.

 

I forget a lot of stuff. There's a very real possibility that I'm not the only person that that applies to, and there's a very real possibility that people are gonna forget their accomplishments.

 

However, if you can honestly sit there and say that you remember something from 30 years ago, so vividly that you wanna recreate that memory and that sense of wonder and emotion for a future baby you or grandkid you or nephew indirect you?

 

How many indirect relationships have you built?

 

Over the course of 30 years, 5 years, 4 years, 85 years. You don't have to remember what you said or did. I mean, now we've got digital media to remind you, but somebody else may remember what you said or did. And you may never know.

 

You know, but it's that kind of an impact that can change things globally. It doesn't have to be a direct application of your talents to do it. So, yeah, man, I think 85 years is a long time to make a really substantial impact.

 

Whether we know it or not, somebody's learning something from us. Yeah. It kinda reminded me of that that quote that Tommy Lee Jones says in men in black.

 

You know, where he says he's like, you know, 500 years ago, we knew the earth was flat. But, you know, 50 years ago, we knew we were the only people in this on this, you know, in this galaxy.

 

Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. But I think he also said, these kinds of things happen around you whether you know it or not. It's only now that you're aware that you notice it and you can do something about it.

 

Exactly. Yeah. Well, that and that everybody likes pie, which I also agree with. Actually, I think that I think it's parfaits. Everybody likes -- Yes. -- I mean -- Yeah.

 

-- I mean, have you ever met somebody? Like, hey, man, let's get some parfaits. They're like, no, man. I don't wanna Park Bay. Part Bay's are delicious. There you go. There you go. It's it's because of the layers for anybody listening.

 

Yeah. I think it's so cool that nothing really changes that much, conceptually. Right? How it's applied? How it's understood? How it's interpreted? Sure. The words we use in our language is gonna change.

 

The point is there's so many things that change even in our Alexa even in our discourse and the way we describe things and the words that we use, let alone different languages in different regions.

 

And even though those things change, what we're trying to describe the level of emotion, the experience, whatever, we're still just trying to convey to somebody else.

 

Words that you use don't matter. You can tell me that you wanna start calling your arms legs, and That's fine. As long as I understand, whenever you say legs, you're talking about what I interpret to be your arms. Got it. I understand.

 

We can still have a common understanding despite those words or languages. Right? Those barriers so how do we raise awareness conservation? How do we raise awareness for wildlife refuge and sustainability, energy, or otherwise?

 

But to safeguard those memories that we've got from childhood, or to further those memories for future generations, the language I think is irrelevant.

 

The method I think is irrelevant. Making the effort I think is what matters. And then future generations will interpret it however we want. And it's a matter of somebody making the effort and giving it a shot.

 

And eventually, it'll catch on. How many videos have you searched for on YouTube? In your battle wrapping exploits in high school or whatever to find these inspirations and say, god, this is from 20 years ago. That's Yeah.

 

You know, but you never heard of it for the last 20 years until that moment. You never know what's gonna stick around, what's gonna last, and what's gonna click. So yeah. I agree, man. And the the awareness is is the biggest thing.

 

But I'll tell you, man, for the time being, I appreciate you taking some time out of your day so we can talk about all this stuff conservation in general because, obviously, it's undervalued, I think, and underrated as a conversational topic.

 

But also because we're able to inject a little bit of your perspective, a little bit of our value system, and then make it relatable for everybody else who maybe has never even been to Florida.

 

So I I appreciate you making the effort, man, and being able to sit down and have the conversation.

 

So thanks for coming on the show. Damian, I appreciate you having me. Yeah. Of course. And for anybody that wants reach out to you, send you a message, or or just follow your fishing exploits maybe.

 

You said you've got photos up on Instagram? How can people follow your travels in your adventures? It's at that guy Rob with 2 b's -- Okay.

 

-- on on Instagram. Alright. And for anybody listening, as we put up posts on the show, for this interview and advertise for this interview, I'll tag that Instagram profile, and that'll take you to Rob's profile as well.

 

If you wanna follow on which animals He's catching and which animals he's releasing. And we'll hold him to that and make him accountable for his own words, I suppose.

 

But, yeah, okay. Cool. Are there any other resources as far as conservation or saltwater fishing, fly fishing, anything like lords of the flies, for example, that you might recommend for somebody who's interested?

 

Well, I mean, if if you're interested in learning more about it, you can look at there's a couple of places. 1 of them is the the bonefish tarpon trust.

 

I believe it's bonefish tarpon trust dot com or the captains for clean water organization. I have no affiliation with either of those organizations, but those are just great sources of information.

 

Alright. Cool, man. Yeah. I'll make sure to make a note of those in the description for this interview as well so people can find those links or those websites.

 

If I can track them down, I'm sure they'll be able to as well. But for the time being, again, I appreciate it. And to everybody listening, I appreciate you guys taking some time out of your day to follow along with this conversation.

 

If you wanna join in if you've got any suggestions, critiques, or comments, feel free to send an email to survival dad y t at gmail dot com.

 

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Jump on Spotify or Anchor or Google or Apple Podcast. Anywhere you can hear your favorite podcast as they stream. I appreciate your time guys with that. I'm Porter. I'm your host, and that was the transacting value podcast.