It took about half an hour for the small fiberglass tour boat to make it from the oyster-encrusted dock at Cedar Key to the small island known as Seahorse Key.
About a dozen passengers, clad in windbreakers and lap blankets, sat quietly, bobbing in unison with the gray waves of low tide. An osprey, clutching a fish in its talons, watched the boat from the channel marker it was using as a perch.