Our Freshwater fish!!

By age 7 Rick Marot had decided he wanted to be a Marine biologist, so his mother joined a book of the month encyclopedia club to help him gain knowledge of the field. He scoured every volume for fishes and creatures of the deep sea. Never wavering in his quest, he excelled in school and was offered scholarships to each college he applied to. Starting at Tulane University in 1971 his life took a turn when his father introduced him to his future wife, Charlene, who worked with him. On their very first date Rick told Charlene they would someday tell their grandkids how they met. She was an education major at FSU in Tallahassee. Rick gave us his ROTC full scholarship so they both could finish school together at USF Tampa. Just a few weeks after their decision to move to Tampa, Rick went scuba diving under the Skyway Bridge with some friends on Memorial Day weekend. An 18-year-old kid he had never seen enter the water after him with a six foot long, five band spear gun looking for Goliath Fish. The water was very cloudy and rough near the shore where they were diving. Unbelievably, the kid fired his gun at a shadow, which happened to be Rick. The spear went clear through Rick’s leg just behind his left knee, severing both the main vein and artery. Even worse, as Rick swam to the surface the kid pulled him back down by the attached steel cable thinking he had a big grouper. Rick was able to swim over to a rock where he grabbed the cable with the spear Sticking out of both sides of his leg and pulled the diver up to the surface. As Rick’s blood turned the water solid red the kid froze in fear when he realized what he had done. Rick felt the blood leave all his extremities and slipped into unconsciousness and fell forward into the water. Fortunately, one of the boys on shore swam out to rescue him and they got him to shore where they had to flag down a car to call and get help. When the ambulance finally got there, about 45 minutes later, they measured his blood pressure at 14 over 10. At Bayfront Medical Center Charlene and Rick’s parents were aghast as Rick was wheeled into surgery with his leg all black and swollen. They were all told it probably couldn’t be saved. Rick’s guardian Angel intervened, and a world class surgeon was on call and managed to splice the artery and vein back together in a six-hour surgery. Fast forward two years later and Rick and Charlene graduated together in the summer of 1975 and got married in August. With his degree in marine biology and two years of experience managing the first saltwater aquarium store in the state, Rick approached Charlene with the idea of starting their own store. They had proceeds of a settlement (only $7000.00) from the accident, so they went on a camping trip to find a place to set up a store. When they reached the Bayfront in Sarasota they fell in love with the town and settled on Gulf Gate as a place they could set up shop. After fifty years in business, imparting their knowledge and service to three generations of customers Rick and Charlene look forward to spending time with their two sons and grandchildren and turning the reins of their business over to their fantastic employees.