4/7/20 Report - Beaches Closed But Some Have Access. In The Field: Points. Calusa Fish Farming. Gold and Tides Up.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Beautiful View of Fort Pierce Beach.

As you've seen the past few days, I featured some items that are not metal detector finds, but are still great finds.  In fact they are better than most metal detector finds if you really appreciate old items.

With the beaches closed, some people are hunting elsewhere, even if it is their own yard.  Below is the plowed field where points and other items I recently posted were found.

Newly Plowed Field With Plenty of Space for Social Distancing.

Photo by JamminJack.

And here is another find by JamminJack's buddy.

Another Nice Arrowhead Find.

Photo sumbitted by JamminJack

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Source: See FloridaMuseum link below.

The mighty Calusa ruled South Florida for centuries, wielding military power, trading and collecting tribute along routes that sprawled hundreds of miles, creating shell islands, erecting enormous buildings and dredging canals wider than some highways. Unlike the Aztecs, Maya and Inca, who built their empires with the help of agriculture, the Calusa kingdom was founded on fishing.

But like other expansive cultures, the Calusa would have needed a surplus of food to underwrite their large-scale construction projects. This presented an archaeological puzzle: How could this coastal kingdom keep fish from spoiling in the subtropics?

A new study points to massive structures known as watercourts as the answer. Built on a foundation of oyster shells, these roughly rectangular enclosures walled off portions of estuary and likely served as short-term holding pens for fish before they were eaten, smoked or dried. The largest of these structures is about 36,000 square feet – more than seven times bigger than an NBA basketball court – with a berm of shell and sediment about 3 feet high. Engineering the courts required an intimate understanding of daily and seasonal tides, hydrology and the biology of various species of fish, researchers said...

For more about that see https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/watercourts-stored-live-fish-fueling-floridas-calusa/

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If you remember the post I did not too long ago about what was closed and not closed, some people will still have access to the beaches even if they are closed to the general public.  Here is one sentence from that previous post.

People with private access, such as hotel guests, HOA and condominium residents and community association members can visit the beaches.

I do not know why a person who owns property next to the beach should  have access to a public beach when the general public does not.   I don't think they should.  But there will always be those that have access to the beaches when the general public does not, and it isn't limited to those mentioned above.  Park rangers detect where others are not allowed to.  Parks employees, police and wildlife officers, security guards,  utility workers and construction workers, and others will have access even when the beaches are "closed."
  

Local authorities will close park accesses, even if they do not have any real jurisdiction over the beaches.  The state owns the beaches from the high tide line down.  The problem is that unless you swim or arrive by boat, you have to cross land to get to the beach.  And as we know private homeowners will not permit that and local agencies will not always permit it.

By the way, the state also claims to the other waterways and the beaches or banks up to the mean high tide line.

The public pays for the beaches, most especially those beaches that are constantly renourished using public funds, yet hotels and beach clubs etc. often act as if they own them.

Right now the beaches are closed to fight the coronavirus.  Regardless of the legalities, or even the common sense of it all, people are complying because it seems like the right thing to do.

Still, as always, there will be some that will visit the beaches and get in a little detecting.  As I've said before, there is always a way.  It might not be easy, convenient, or even something you want to do, but there is a way if you really want to.

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Gold is now over $1700 per oz., well above levels of only a month ago.  Gold prices have been very volatile, as has the stock market.

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Funny how they are all claiming with certainty that the mitigation efforts are working, while at the same time claiming they can't say anything about the effectiveness of a drug being used widely for treatment even though it has been studied rather well in other countries and is currently being studied in robust scientific studies in this country.   How can you say the mitigation efforts worked without the same kind of scientific evidence they require for other things, including drugs.  Yes we all want to believe that our extreme efforts payed off, but maybe the pandemic naturally peaked out or slackened off for any of a variety of reasons.

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The high tides are now very high.  We are near a full moon.  As you probably know, Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

The surf is decreasing, today being around 4 - 6 feet.

Happy searching,
Treasureguide@comcast.net