Police Organizational Question(s)

[Ren]

Will do, once I get caught up on current reading...

I'm actually thinking about going the consultant angle after all, but works as a professor or teacher at a local marine Bio/Oceanography School and does related research on the side...keep his hand in without the authority or combat training. So even more normal-ish, except for his giant...brain.
Trying to decide if I want to add drunkard and/or womanizer...maybe not above sleeping with his students...

[Paynesgrey]

Heh.  Travis does both, with great enthusiasm.

Almost forgot.  You can read the books in pretty much any order you like, with the exception of The Lonely Silver Rain.  It's the last book of the series, and has some events you need to have read some of the others to appreciate.

[Serack]

I wrote up a whole long post with links to articles and pictures and stuff and I have no idea what happened to it.

I was born and raised in South Florida and even worked in the everglades for a summer when I turned 18 so I might have some input you might find interesting.

One detail:  The department of Water Management is a very well funded part of the FL hierarchy.  They are pretty much the biggest land owner in the state because the state keeps acquiring wetlands in attempts to restore them to a more natural state after the major projects of the 30's 40's and 50's wrecked a lot of the natural water flow in the state.  With this in mind, it's possible that a person dealing with the everglades and such might end up bumping into some officials from that department.

Florida has a huge problem with tropical pets that got out into the wild and are flourishing.  Some examples:

• There are an estimated 100k Monk Parakeets (aka quakers), and I've seen them in colonies of about a dozen nested in the palm trees on the coastline and elsewhere. 
• The canals and ponds are loaded with 5' long iguanas that swim around and eat the vegetation.  I caught one a couple summers ago while fishing with my cousin and brought it home to tease Mrs. Serack
• telling her how we had a new pet.  She didn't appreciate the joke too much. 

Recently the popular aquarium Algae eaters have become very popular in the waterways.  These armored fishies commonly grow over 18" in the wild and are wrecking the ecosystem along with many other fish that have gotten free from their owner's tanks.[/li]
[li]Huge Pythons have become such a problem that this summer the state has even started issuing licenses for hunters to kill them.  There have been interesting things happening with the Gators and Pythons fighting for dominance of the food chain.[/li]
[/list]

On top of all this, there are some interesting characters living out in the swamp and other rural areas of the state.  I remember an article about some guy that owned a significant tract of land out there for over 40 years and refused to sell his land to the state for a crucial water project because he was happy living in his tin shack and didn't want to live anywhere else even after the offered like 2.2 million for it.

[Serack]

Some other thoughts...

geologically, Florida has been entirely and partially submersed on multiple occasions over the geological record.  I have a large collection of shark teeth that I found in Gainesville which is currently at an elevation of over 180'

Up to 10k years ago Florida still had a lot of impressive megafauna (giant critters).  This wasn't just limited to Wholly mammoths, but there were giant plant eating ground sloths with 18" long claws, thickly armored armadillos the size of VW bugs, 240lb dire wolves, 8 foot long beavers (found only in FL), and many other impressive critters that died off around 10k years ago.

[Ren]

Great stuff Serack! Thanks! Good to have a mix of threats, I also need to look into Marine life, both old and new, as a the major parts of the story will center around aquatic-based events.

[Serack]

Great stuff Serack! Thanks! Good to have a mix of threats, I also need to look into Marine life, both old and new, as a the major parts of the story will center around aquatic-based events.

My favorite shark teeth that I find are megoladon .  The biggest I found was about 3 inches long but some lucky shark teeth hunters find them just barely over 7 inches long.  Here's a pic of one that measures 6.92"



These sharks are estimated to have grown to around 60 foot long. (the great whites grow to around 25') and lived as recently as 1.5 million years ago. 

As far as modern sharks go, the Florida coast has a lot of shark bites per year but the vast majority of these come from black tip reef sharks and similar.  Most of these sharks are exclusively interested in eating fishies and occasionally get distracted by a flash in the water they aren't sure what it is and take a nibble and then leave the swimmer alone because it's not another fish.  Their upper and lower jaws are loaded with teeth that are shaped a little like razor sharp nails and are designed to grab a fish and hold on.  Other sharks only have this type of tooth on the lower jaw, and their upper jaw is loaded with teeth that are serrated like a steak knife (I have literally cut my finger on a 3 million year old megoladon tooth, just barely running it down the blade and although the biggest, these teeth aren't the nastiest looking).  The Bull shark is an example of a shark with this type of dentition and it is responsible for a huge percentage of all fatal shark bites.

I used to volunteer at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and a graduate student I was talking to there said that there are 2x as many doctorates in marine biology as their are jobs, which makes for a tough job market, which might help you with your character's origin, although I'm not sure how much education your going to blow on his marine background...  They always liked to say that we know less about the bottom of our oceans than the moon, and it's harder and more costly to go down there to boot. 

[Ren]

Yeah the tough job market is one of the reason I have never pursued my kids dream dream to get into Oceanography/Marine Biology. I still have a fascination for the Oceans, due in large part to having grown up with the "Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" though sadly I've only ever been scuba diving twice, though I have snorkeled a few times. The highlight of my childhood, and I wish I could remember it better, was meeting Jacques Cousteau when I was a lad of maybe 8 or 9. He was and always has been on of my Heroes and definitely one of the coolest guys who ever lived. For him alone I will never bash the French...
One of my lifetime/bucket list goals is to go swimming in all of the Oceans and Seas before I die...so far I've managed two oceans and the Gulf of Mexico...8P
The idea for this series at least partially stems from that love of the Undersea World and I already have a fair amount of knowledge already and thankfully there is the internet to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and memory.

I plan to include a Megoladon at some point int this story or at least at some point in the series, I have a certain fondness for the big boys after a long-ago Shadowrun campaign I ran that involved a Christmas Vacation to Hawaii where the characters went shark-hunting...and caught a Megolodon...good times!

[Snowleopard]

There are several books out that include Megs in them.
There's Meg and I think the sequel is Trench.
Frankly I'm not much fond of these - the writer writes all woman as b*ll busters
really NOT nice ones, including the heroine or rather the hero's woman.

I remember the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, Renfield - loved it.

[Serack]

I plan to include a Megoladon at some point int this story or at least at some point in the series, I have a certain fondness for the big boys after a long-ago Shadowrun campaign I ran that involved a Christmas Vacation to Hawaii where the characters went shark-hunting...and caught a Megolodon...good times!

I think your gonna need a bigger boat

[Ren]

That was the same game the that convinced the groups dumb-as-a-rock troll that "Jeep-Hunting" was  a sport in Hawaii, so he would go hunting Jeeps with a giant steel spear.

As an fyi; I have decided to make the character a professor at the U of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. Teaches Marine Biology, Oceanography and some Marine-related History & Archaeology (read, Treasure-hunting) courses on the side. Also does part-time and consulting work for the Fish & Wildlife Service as well as occasionally getting called in for consultations by a School friend who is a Lieutenant with the Miami Police Department. One of the other primary characters is a National Park Services Ranger. With his friend in the MPD and work with the FWS he gets the clout he needs in most cases and ability to conduct independent investigations. I originally had the other primary character be a local priest but I may elevate the Lieutenant to take his place. I'm trying to minimize the number of primary characters to three or so, but have some decently-detailed secondary and other supporting characters.

[Ren]

One advantage to doing research for a book...you get to learn all kinds of cool stuff! Like the Dogfish Shark species is actually venomous...which handily fills a need for the story...

[Snowleopard]

Yeah, or the blue-ringed or is it blue spot octopus.  A little bitty guy is highly venomous.
Once saw some film shot by some brothers in Indonesia.  They'd found this teeny little
octopus and were letting it slide from hand to hand just above the water.  Then they put it
back and went on.  Fast forward to several months later when they're looking at the footage
and someone says - oh yeah, by the way - that cute little octopus is as poisonous as all get out.
Brief pause for a retro-active heart attack.

[Ren]

Actually that Octopus is mentioned in the James Bond movie "Octopussy" and I believe it is the blue-ringed octopus.