Hey! Where did the Fish Bowl go?

OK, this one is weird.

Weird enough for me to push off a County Commission blog for a day.

So weird that I drove from Inverness to Homosassa on Monday afternoon to get a picture of something that isn’t there.

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Let’s go.

Back in April, someone sent me a photo of the Fish Bowl underwater observatory at the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. The photo, which is below, shows the Fish Bowl being prepared for repairs.

Notice that it’s resting on floats. Workers needed to raise the observatory out of the spring; the bottom half is usually submerged.

I didn’t give it a second thought. The Fish Bowl is 60 years old. I’m sure it needed a major facelift.

Here comes the weird part.

Friday afternoon, comes another photo of the same location. Except this one is of an empty spring. No Fish Bowl.

The person who sent it to me wrote: “The underwater observatory at the park sank while the contractor was working on it.”

Excuse me?

This person didn’t see what happened and only had third-hand knowledge. The photo seemed clear, though.

I started calling around. All roads landed at the feet of the Department of Environmental Protection’s media department.

Well, I had just read in the Chronicle a week ago that reporters were trying to find out about other stuff at the park, and getting the silent treatment from DEP.

I sent an email Monday morning to DEP’s media people, with the photo. 

“Can someone please confirm for me that the underwater observatory sank during repairs? And what is the plan to retrieve it?” I asked.

I said I’d be posting a photo and asked for responses by noon.

I received a reply within 20 minutes that they were aware of my deadline. And that was it. 

Meanwhile, I couldn’t trust that submitted picture. Someone could have photoshopped out the Fish Bowl. Plus, I had to see it for myself.

So, for the second time this month, I was a paying customer at the wildlife park. The last time was the day after Lu died. I just had to visit his lagoon, you know?

The walking path to the Fish Bowl is closed. But, even from my vantage, I could clearly see what today's photo shows: Spring, big floats…and no Fish Bowl.

There seem four possibilities:

— One, it sank accidentally. Just like the tipster said.

— Two, it was sunk on purpose for the repair work. 

— Three, it was removed for repair elsewhere. This seems extremely unlikely. The Fish Bowl weighs 180 tons. I doubt they loaded it onto someone’s pickup.

— Four, a perfectly logical explanation that once it’s shown to me, I’ll feel like a complete fool for bringing it up. (Wouldn’t be the first time.)

(Mike note: I received a response from FDEP. Turns out, the Fish Bowl did sink into the spring during a recent storm. The contractor is working to recover and secure the observatory so that repairs may continue.)

With Lu now in hippo heaven, that Fish Bowl is one of the remaining vestiges from the old Homosassa Springs Nature World Attraction (or Nature World, as we called it). Down the steps, visitors were submerged in the spring where manatees, fish, and other sea creatures swam just outside those windows.

Look, I’m not out for trouble. It’s really no big deal, so long as the structure is repaired and placed right back where it belongs for the public to enjoy.

And parts of Monday’s County Commission meeting aggravated me so much that I needed a break. Thus, the Fish Bowl blog.

So today, we have somewhat of a head-scratcher. A 180-ton structure has gone missing. Let’s all keep an eye out.

That’s all for Tuesday. Enjoy it, friends.

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