Freshwater Fish

By age 7, Rick Marot had already decided he wanted to be a Marine biologist when he grew up. In an effort to support her son, Rick's mother joined an encyclopedia of the month club to help Rick gain knowledge. Rick enthusiastically scoured every volume to learn about the fish and creatures who inhabited the deep sea. Fast forward ten years. Never wavering from his quest, Rick excelled in school and was offered full scholarships to every college he applied to. In 1971, Rick's studies took him to Tulane University. It was there that Rick met his future wife, Charlene, an education major at FSU in Tallahassee. Rick decided to relinquish his ROTC scholarship in New Orleans so they both could finish school together at USF. Just a few weeks after the move, Rick and some friends went scuba diving under the now infamous Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg on Memorial Day weekend. Rick noticed a lad he had never seen before enter the water with a six foot long, five band speargun; searching for Goliath fish. Rick also noticed the water was rough and cloudy. Unexpectedly, the youth fired his speargun at a shadow, which just happened to be Rick's leg; penetrating the back of Rick's left knee, severing both a main vein and an artery. To make matters worse, as Rick swam to the surface, the teen pulled Rick back down by the attached steel cable thinking he had caught 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 surrounding water red, the teen froze in fear; realizing what had just happened. Rick felt the blood leave all his extremities, slipped into unconsciousness, and fell forward into the water. Fortunately, a youth on shore swam out to rescue Rick, get him to shore, flag down a car, and get help. When the ambulance finally arrived, about 45 minutes later, Rick's blood pressure was measuring 14 over 10; almost dead. Bayfront Medical Center told Charlene and Rick’s parents that Rick's mangled leg likely could not be saved. However, as luck would have it, the world class surgeon on call managed to splice the artery and vein back together in a six-hour surgery and Rick was given a second chance. Fast forward two years: Rick & Charlene graduate in the summer of 1975 and get married. After completing his degree in Marine Biology and two years of experience managing the first saltwater aquarium store in the state of Florida, Rick approached Charlene with the idea of opening their own aquarium shop. Thanks to the accident settlement (a mere $7,000 at the time), the couple went on a camping trip to find the right location for their future retail establishment. Both of them fell in love with Sarasota Bay and the rest, as they say, is history! After almost fifty years in business sharing their knowledge and providing service to three generations of customers in Sarasota, Rick & Charlene are readying themselves for retirement, continued travel, and spending more time with their children and grandchildren.