Franko Maps, Florida Keys Coral Reef Fish ID-Card

Franko's Florida Keys Coral Reef Creatures Identification Guide
At last, after years of thinking about it Franko has explored and dived the Florida Keys, and made a map and fish identification guide for the The Conch Republic." This is one of Franko's best looking products, probably because of the memories of South Florida and the Florida Keys from his visits there. The map side (side 1) of this (H x L) 6" x 9" (15.24cm x 22.9cm) card is a beautiful mini map showing the southern end of Florida from Miami to Key West. The main roads are show, with the most prominent features. Those features, of course, include Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and the Lower Keys, and Key West. The map shows the viewer how to go from Miami South on Highway 1 to Key Largo, where the Highway name becomes Overseas Highway." Starting north of Key Largo the map also shows the main diving and snorkeling sties of the entire Florida Keys. Having visited and gone out on diving boats as well as snorkeling and kayaking in a variety of Florida Keys sites, Franko can say with authority that he now know why the Conchs" (people native to the Florida Keys) and all of the dive operators consider this to be the diving capital of the world.

The number of sites and the accessibility make this THE world-class diving and snorkeling destination. It is indeed difficult to do it justice with a description or a Franko Map. Because it is so fantastic. Franko love's the Florida Keys. Islands, U.S.A." is a unique and wonderful place, and the fact that you can just drive to it (as opposed to having to fly in, such as all Caribbean and Pacific islands) makes it accessible to limitless numbers of people. The Florida Keys are definitely a world class destination. Also on the map side is a world globe and a compass rose.

The coral reef creatures' side of this map (side 2) is similar to my Caribbean reef creature's guides, since in general they share the same array of coral reef creatures, including corals and sponges. Franko shows over 100 species on this waterproof Florida Keys Coral Reef Creatures Identification Guide. Note on side 2 that the heading says, Florida Keys Coral Reef Creatures, plus it says in Spanish Criaturas Del Arrecife De Florida Keys. When Franko was touring and exploring the Florida Keys he couldn't help but notice, just as he does in everyday life in California, that a large number of visitors and workers were speaking Spanish. In other areas where he has produced maps and reef creature identification guides (such as St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Cozumel, Mexico), he made his products bilingual. In fact, even his Guam fish card is bilingual with Japanese and English, and he has a French-English custom reef creature card for French Polynesia. It seems only right that he show the names of all of these creatures (criaturas) in both English and Espanol. Special thanks to his daughter, who teaches Spanish, for helping with the translations and accents.

He would also like to point out a creature that he could not help but place on this map, and that is the manatee (manati). Franko loves the manatee (as does everyone). What a wonderful and special creature Florida has! The manatee is a great representative of the love and respect that he hopes to inspire with his Florida maps and coral reef creature's identification guides. Card is printed on laminated plastic so that it is stiff, shiny and waterproof. It has a hole for a lanyard, so you can actually take it diving or snorkeling. Card makes a great gift idea.