Shuttle Gone, Space Coast Looks to Eco-Tourism

Orlando Sentinel: Kayaking in the Mosquito Lagoon on a moonless summer night reveals blazing stars and comets — not in the sky but in waters thick with "bioluminescent" plankton. When mullet jump out of the water, they look like rockets shooting off. Though the mullet themselves aren't that visible, they churn up a trail of liquid pyrotechnics, and their splashdowns trigger more sprays of light from the jostled plankton.

It's a startling and compelling display. And it could play a role in shoring up Brevard County's economy as thousands of better-paying jobs and a reliable stream of tourism vanished with last month's retirement of the space-shuttle program.

"We have to think along those lines," said Elisabeth Mahan, co-owner with her husband of A Day Away Kayak Tours. "There's no other option on the plate."

North Brevard County has its popular Cocoa Beach, cruise ships that dock at Port Canaveral and other seaside attractions.

Now county, city and chamber-of-commerce leaders are ramping up programs and marketing to capitalize on tourism lured by the attractions of nature, including roseate spoonbills at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, redfish in the Indian River and sunrises at Canaveral National Seashore.

Mahan thinks the timing to push eco-tourism is right, as the nation has a growing appetite for the outdoors. In her sixth year of business, the number of customers has increased by an average of more than 30 percent annually and topped 7,000 last year.

"If you had tried this 15 years ago, it wouldn't go. It wasn't in the front of the American mind-set," Mahan said. "Now we live in such an electronic age, sitting in front of computers for hours. People are sick of the electronics, sick of concrete, and outdoor eco-recreation has become cool."

Eco-tourism is definitely not passive, air-conditioned and bugless, especially at the aptly named Mosquito Lagoon. It's also not always cooperative; the bioluminescent plankton are best during the summer, peaking in August but sometimes taking a night off. Like fireflies, the tiny organisms naturally secrete chemicals that mix and create light.

Yet on a on a recent muggy evening, 20 kayakers paying the adult price of $34 and dousing themselves with bug spray happily paddled out at sunset to hunt for bioluminescent hot spots. Their no-pain, no-gain attitude is common.

Marcia Gaedcke, president of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce, recently joined a Canaveral National Seashore nighttime sea-turtle-nesting tour, routinely booked to capacity far in advance. "To be honest, it was almost miserable at the start," Gaedcke said of the mosquitoes and heat.

But those irritations were forgotten when aloggerhead turtle climbed out of the surf, dug a hole, laid 100 eggs and returned to the sea. "Oh, my gosh, how cool is that?" Gaedcke said. "It was such an experience."

In short, Brevard leaders say they are beginning to better appreciate a notion counterintuitive to longtime residents that people will come and spend money for adventure not in spite of having to sweat and swat bugs but because they get to.

"We are a destination, and our challenge is to starting acting like a destination," Gaedcke said.

Laurilee Thompson, owner of Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant in Titusville and outspoken advocate for eco-tourism, said space shuttles were a "free gift" to north Brevard's economy. "Having the shuttle launches guaranteed that no matter what happened, we wouldn't have to spend a dime on marketing, and we would still fill up the hotels," Thompson said.

But when the shuttle program ended in July with the final Atlantis mission, much of that gift was taken away. Tourism spending for launches and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center has been nearly $50 million annually, according the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

Now, more marketing of eco-tourism is becoming evident in very different ways. For starters, the newly rebuilt and much taller Max Brewer Bridge at the edge of Titusville is getting praise as a gateway and an awesome place to view Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is stirring excitement by proposing to finally open the St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge to the public, which could link other public lands into a huge conservation tract and bird-watching mecca along the St. Johns River. The emerging St. Johns River-to-Sea Loop, a bike trail of more than 250 miles through five counties, originally was planned to travel only a few miles into north Brevard County.

"When we saw that, we said the southern end of the loop needs to run through a city, and it needs to be Titusville," Titusville Mayor Jim Tulley said. "We worked hard and got the route changed so that Titusville is part of the loop."

Even folks who long made their living with the space program are trying to find a new way with the eco-tourism push. Dean Pettit was laid off two weeks ago after 31 years at Kennedy Space Center. At 52, he immediately went full time managing a website he created, spacecoastoutdoors.net, as a guide to the best- and least-known nature recreation.

"Titusville has relied for too long on the space center," said Pettit, who grew up fishing and boating in Brevard. "If I can help bring diversity to our economy, I think that's a good thing even when NASA starts up again."

Austrailian Travelers Surprised by Airport Body Scanners

Australian Business Traveller: A surprise trial of controversial 'millimetre wave' body scanners is taking place at Sydney International Airport from today until 19th August. The government says passengers will be given the option of standard screening or passing through the new scanner.

Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the technology was "perfectly safe" and was the first person through the scanner when it was switched on.

The millimetre-waves are about 10,000 times weaker than a mobile phone signal, and considered much safer than the backscatter x-ray scanners that are used at some US airports. There is not scientific consensus over the safety of the scanners, though. One study by Los Alamos National Labs argued that standards had only been established for radio frequency exposure up to 300 gigahertz, and millimetre wave scanners were above this range.

Even though the strength of the waves is extremely low, the close-to-terahertz radiation used by the scanners could damage DNA in cells.

This is the second time the scanners have been tested in Australian airports. They were previously trialled in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide airports in October/November 2008, with over 70,000 passengers volunteering to be "imaged" by the machines. The government did not say why it needed to re-test the machines following the initial trial.

What the scanners will show

The scanners detect metal and non-metal items under clothing, and then pin-points where the item is hidden using a generic human outline (above).

The government says the machines will not store any imagery of passengers (however, the US government also made this assurance, before saved passenger images were leaked to a tech blog by a whistleblower.)

Passengers not wanting to try the body scanner will proceed through standard screening procedures. Melbourne Airport will also hold a trial of the scanners, before they are progressively rolled out at Australia’s international airports.

The government gave no warning of the introduction of the millimetre wave scanners, and has instead been focusing on the introduction of backscatter x-ray scanners to be used only on incoming passengers suspected of concealing drugs internally.

Another type of scanner that emits no radiation at all, but simply senses emissions from the human body was recently tested at Sydney Airport.

America's Wackiest Fair Foods

Meal-Worm Covered Caramel Apples

MSNBC/Food&Wine: Cotton candy, corn dogs and candied apples once ruled the midway at the local fair, but visitors now want food that's exotic — as long as it's on a stick, or more importantly, fried. From health-defying anomalies like fried dough injected with Pepsi to squirm-inducing chocolate-dipped scorpions, the new sideshow is food. 

In 2005, the president of the State Fair of Texas, Errol Mckoy, asked the question, “How do we become even more famous for food?” His answer: Create buzz around new, never-before-seen items each year. McKoy founded The Big Tex Choice Awards to encourage the invention of over-the-top foods that have since included fried butter, chicken-fried bacon and fried beer. The competition quickly gained popularity among fairgoers, and vendors now covet the Big Tex trophy — which resembles an Oscar with a cowboy bobble head glued to the top.

The floodgates for infamous foods opened the second year, when fried Coca-Cola won for most creative entry. “By year two, we were needing to put a map in our daily visitors’ guide showing where the new foods were,” says Sue Gooding, the fair’s vice president of public relations, “The info booths were inundated.”

Innovators are sharing in the attention. “Year three, I had a vendor come up to me and say, ‘I feel like a star — I’m autographing visitors’ guides,’ ” Gooding says. Since then, Texas has been a trendsetter. If a food is distinctive enough to win the Big Tex, it’s likely to turn up at your local fair the following year. Fried beer is already omnipresent.

Fairs across the country vie to achieve Texas levels of fame for their own foodstuffs: The Florida State Fair sells a hamburger topped with fried ice cream, and Indiana’s State Fair serves a sundae that replaces the usual components with mashed potatoes, beef and corn “sprinkles.” Gooding traces the phenomenon of oddball eats back to loyal fairgoers who are looking for something to bond over. “They’re challenging themselves to ride the newest ride, see the most exhibits, spend the most hours at the fair,” Gooding says.

They are also daring one another to eat whatever’s fattiest, weirdest or most extreme. “It’s becoming a social event. You come out with two to three friends and you share,” she adds.

Still, eating the world’s most unhealthy foods is best reserved for once-a-year events. Gooding’s annual treat is a corn dog on a stick, a classic that probably also seemed bizarre when introduced at the Texas fair in 1942.

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