Key deer country
Big Pine Key sits in the Lower Keys, the run of islands between the Seven Mile Bridge and Stock Island that the Monroe County tourism council sells on calm, seclusion and wildlife in the open. It is a small place, small enough that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gives driving directions by the only traffic light on the island.
That light marks the Nature Center of the National Key Deer Refuge, set up in 1957. Key deer are the smallest subspecies of white tailed deer and live nowhere but the lower Florida Keys. Poaching and lost habitat cut them to a few dozen animals by the 1950s. With the refuge, and endangered listing in 1967, the herd recovered, and the service estimates about three quarters of it now lives on Big Pine and neighboring No Name Key.
The refuge asks two things of visitors: do not feed the deer, and drive slowly from Big Pine west to Lower Sugarloaf Key, especially at night when deer move most. The rut starts in September and October, and spotted fawns show up from late spring through summer.
On the water side, the island faces Looe Key Reef, about six miles south, which the tourism council counts among the most vibrant reefs in the Keys. On land, Lower Keys menus run to freshly caught spiny lobster and conch fritters.
Bringing lobster home the legal way
If you plan to catch your own lobster, know that the FWC rules are strict. You must carry a measuring device, and the carapace has to be longer than 3 inches, measured before the lobster leaves the water. Spears, hooks or anything that can puncture the shell are banned, recreational traps are banned, and egg bearing females go back.
Lobsters must reach land whole, because separating tail from body is prohibited in state waters. The regular season runs August 6 to March 31 with a bag of six per person. The two day sport season in late July keeps the same six lobster limit in Monroe County and adds a ban on night diving.
