BY MARCY SHORTUSE AND LIZA STROUT - Don’t think of it as a ditch. Think of it as a linear retention pond, and you will be closer to the truth.

That’s the input from Lee County Department of Transportation officials when it comes to the ditches that line Gasparilla Road between 40th and 48th Streets. Many Boca Grande residents don’t care what you call it, they just want the standing water gone.

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - Island resident Carol Lindenbaum has a lot of prayers and good thoughts coming her way, as she recovers from a fall that occurred while hiking in Switzerland recently.

According to her site established by the family on the caringbridge.org website, Carol lost her footing and slid down a steep embankment of grass and rock while hiking near Grindlewald, Switzerland with three other couples from Florida. It happened very quickly, but luckily a man on the trail below witnessed the incident and immediately called mountain rescue airlift.

Boca Grande’s annual satellite tagging project will hold a Tarpon Tagging Challenge on Friday, Sept. 7.

This will be the third consecutive year that fall tags are placed on Charlotte Harbor tarpon in order to identify exactly when and where these tarpon migrate in the fall/winter.

Thanks to an executive order signed earlier this month, anyone can catch the non-native lionfish in Florida waters now, with or without a state fishing license.

The new rule, part of a year-long experiment to reduce the lionfish population, has a few stipulations.

BY NIKKI HEIMANN - For more than a year now, three island locals have happily volunteered their time with an amazing non-profit organization called Surfers for Autism. The name is pretty self-explanatory - members and volunteers of this program are dedicated to introducing children with special needs to the sport of surfing with a remarkable day at the beach full of joy, laughter and inspiration.

Their mission is to unlock the potential of people with developmental delays, while supporting advocacy for autism issues and scientific research. Their focus is to eliminate stigma through public awareness and education and to unite communities through volunteerism.