Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
January 2014
Along the Coast
Volume 7 Issue 1
Along the Coast
‘Snowbirds’ of the shore arrive Sharks, manatees return to area waters
By Steve Plunkett Delray Beach dog owners, like any nonresidents, will pay $165 a year to bring their pets to Boca Raton’s new Bark Beach. But Boca Raton officials wondered if they should do something extra for their northern neighbors, especially given that Delray Beach nixed the idea of a dog-friendly beach the same time Boca Raton approved its pilot program.
Marine animals are coming south to Palm Beach County seeking warmer weather and water — ocean snowbirds, if you will. Blacktip and spinner sharks are just starting to show up offshore in their annual migration south from the Carolinas. And manatees are traveling south from north Florida to warm up in subtropical lagoons. Ninety percent of the migrating A rare olive ridley sharks, which travel in huge turtle comes ashore at Lantana numbers within Beach. Page 19 eyesight from the shore, are blacktips and 10 percent are spinners, said Stephen Kajiura, Florida Atlantic University professor, who researches sharks. They started arriving in late December and will peak in midto late January. Most will be gone by late February, he said. Last year, the large numbers of sharks thrilled local photographers and tourists, who snapped photos of the sharks that clearly could be seen tumbling in waves rolling onto shore. The previous year was even better. “We saw 15,000 sharks in Palm
See DELRAY on page 12
See SHARKS on page 11
Kim Bates and Dominee Banks, vet techs at Imperial Point Animal Hospital of Delray, with dogs Ruby and Tikea, talk to Boca Raton resident Sophy Salsburg, with Shelby, on the dog beach at Spanish River Park. Photos by Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star
Park has gone to the dogs
Tailwaggers and owners lap up beach time
Delray dog owners get no special treatment from Boca
By Steve Plunkett Friday the 13th was a day of firsts for city resident and pet owner Darlene Ward. It was the first official day she could take Toby, her yellow Lab, onto the city’s new Bark Beach. Ward and her pet were also the first to hit the sand. And Ward was first in line two days earlier to buy the first permit Boca Raton issued. “He’s been jumping in the waves,” said Ward, who arrived before the beach opened at 7 a.m. “I’m so excited.” Bob Davidson, one of two park rangers assigned to the 300-yard-wide stretch of dogfriendly sand, confirmed Toby’s celebrity status. “That’s the inaugural legal dog on the beach,” See DOG BEACH on page 12
Quincy, an Australian Labradoodle, plays with a tennis ball.
By Cheryl Blackerby
Briny Breezes
Librarian succession: Exit laughing, enter laughing By Ron Hayes
Lu McInnes has closed the book on more than two decades as Briny Breezes’ town librarian. And Donna Clarke is checking out her new job. “I’d talked about retiring,” McInnes says. “I knew I’d had it too long. People
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said, ‘Oh, you do such a great job, don’t go.’ But then when Donna came along, she had everything you need for it. I chose her.”
The heart of home
Janua
The ArtsPaper The Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival gears up with fresh leadership.
n Briny passes historic land use plan.
Couple keep the charm intact in their renovated Gulf Stream cottage. Page H1
On a recent Wednesday morning, the two women sat at a table across from the bodice-ripper shelf and chatted about what the little town’s little library was, and what it might become. The room was appropriately quiet. Donna Clarke (left) is taking over the The women laughed a lot. helm of the Briny Breezes library from Lu See LIBRARY on page 19 McInnes. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Airport upgrades
The area’s international airports offer a mix of ways to make travel easier. Page AT1
More sand delays Beach renourishment projects slowed by weather. Page 21