Susan Cocking

MIAMI -- Two days before the season's first cool front and two days after the new moon, the Free Spool's charter customers failed to show up at Haulover Marina for their afternoon trip. But captain Dennis Forgione and mate Silvio Sotolongo already had filled the sportfisher's live wells with pilchards in preparation. It seemed a shame to let all that live bait go to waste.

So they invited part-time captain Leo Lombero to hop on board and headed out of Haulover Inlet on a marine version of a busman's holiday.

Since it was already mid-afternoon, Forgione decided to anchor on the Andro, a 105-foot-deep artificial reef only a short distance east of the inlet. Positioning the anchor so that the boat would sit up-current of the sunken ship wasn't difficult because seas were calm and there was very little current.

MIAMI -- Here in Florida, you can adopt a highway, a park, a manatee, a tree -- donating money and time to make sure the object or creature of your interest receives care and upkeep.

And now, you can also adopt a shark.

For $2,000, you can purchase a satellite tag to be attached to a bull, hammerhead or tiger shark, tracking its movements for up to a year while you follow it in real time on the Internet. And you also get to name your shark.

MIAMI -- Dropping to the sea floor off Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, I imagined my surroundings 90 feet down were like the surface of the moon -- but with a lot more color and life. A steep, rocky crater surrounded a huge sand pit that extended far beyond our 60-foot range of visibility. Unlike the moon, though, this landscape was dotted with schools of tropical fish and a cornucopia of soft corals undulating in the gentle current.

MIAMI -- In 1653, there was "The Compleat Angler" by Izaak Walton. In the 1960s and '70s, there was the "Fishing Encyclopedia" by A.J. McClane. Now comes "A Passion for Tarpon" by Andy Mill of Boca Raton, Fla.

MIAMI -- The Suwannee River Wilderness Trail might be a bit of a misnomer.

This 170-mile paddling route that winds from White Springs to the Gulf of Mexico satisfies the urban escapee's need for solitude; you can go days without seeing another living soul. But those who would like to exit the wilderness for a few creature comforts also can have it their way.

MIAMI -- If you spend more than an hour sight-fishing the flats with captain Pier Milito, you soon will realize why one of his clients nicknamed him "Bald Eagle."

MIAMI -- At 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, Michael Vivona has never excelled in sports. But that changed last weekend when the 56-year-old engineering supervisor for an Orlando television station earned a championship in an emerging extreme sport: underwater scooter racing.