New inshore docks and an oceanside boardwalk on Elliott Key — largest island in Biscayne National Park — were opened to the public in mid-April, 18 months after facilities there were wrecked by high tides and rough surf sent by faraway Hurricane Sandy.

Long-range forecasts give the project good odds for a prolonged soft test before the next superstorm attacks. Climatologists are predicting an unusually benign 2014 hurricane season because of El Nino, the Pacific Ocean phenomenon that stunts the growth of tropical storms crossing the Atlantic.

Nature doesn’t always fight fair, so the new stuff is storm tough, meant to fend off the nautical equivalents of karate chops and blows below the belt.

Its design is smarter than the construction of the old docks, which were bolted to a seawall. Storm Sandy tore them loose. The new ones are where the old ones were, built right up against the seawall, but a storm can’t break the attachments because there aren’t any.

The new decking is made of mesh, so extreme high tides and waves should rise and fall through it instead of lifting it up and dropping it down or floating it away. A new dinghy dock, larger than the old one, makes more access for boaters who anchor out and for those who pad- dle up in canoes and kayaks.

Overnight campers at Elliott will find the restroom and shower facilities improved with new plumbing and automatic toilets. Park spokesman Matthew Johnson said all the work was done by local contractors.

Before Sandy, the key and its inside shoreline were often the busiest places in the park. Boaters who tied up at the docks — even anchored and swam ashore when there wasn’t enough space — enjoyed camping, picnics, bird watching and hiking the interior trail and the boardwalk from end to end. School classes were conducted there too.

Nearly all those activities were suspended or curtailed before and during reconstruction.

Biscayne Superintendent Brian Carlstrom wasn’t posted here when the key was knocked out, but he knows how important the island is to all the people who used to spend weekends there. They’ve been telling him almost since the day he landed.

“Elliott Key is very well-loved by park visitors,” Carlstrom said. “We are glad to finally be reopening a new and improved version of the island.”

Counting in the Gulf

Pretty soon, fishing-doers who catch snapper from boats in the Gulf of Mexico — but only from boats, and not in the waters of Monroe County — will be met ashore by reps of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) Commission, asking about their catch.

The standard cryptic answer, “We got a few,” won’t do even if it’s true. A few are more than one but not many, subject to your definition of many. FWC catch sur- veyors will want real numbers, and they will rely on the principle that the sport of fishing deplores exaggeration.

People who work for the FWC are supposed to keep tabs on how many fish of each species are caught and how much effort fishing-doers put into it. That sort of info is supposed to help them figure out how to adjust regulations to fit the approximate number of fishes they scientifically estimate are swimming around those reefs in the Gulf and the number of people trying to catch them, and so on.

It’s easy to see why answers like “We got a few” won’t be useful. You’ll be expected to cooperate more fully, or you won’t be allowed to keep any red or vermilion snapper, black or red grouper, gray triggerfish, greater or lesser amberjack, almaco jack or banded rudderfish.

Here’s what else they have in mind for the 5-year project:

“This new system would help determine how many anglers are targeting reef fish in the Gulf. A sample of these anglers would be surveyed to provide more accurate catch and effort data for reef fish trips,” FWC said.

“Private recreational anglers fishing from a boat in Gulf state waters (excluding Monroe County), including those 65 and older, would be required to take part in the Gulf Reef Fish Data Reporting System...

“Data reporting would be required by April 1, 2015. Anglers would be able to enroll starting May 2014 and encouraged to sign up when they renew their fishing licenses.”

People who are 65 or older don’t have to buy fishing licenses, but they are not exempt from survey participation. People younger than 16 are exempt. So are anglers, captains and crews on for-hire boats, because they’re part of an existing survey system.

The Commission will consider final approval of the plan at its three-day meeting June 17-19 in Fort Myers. That will provide a last chance for objectors to tell FWC what it doesn’t like about the plan, and to suggest changes.

Wasting Florida taxpayers’ money won’t qualify as a legitimate complaint. The survey plan is to be funded by a 5-year grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Other than the dates, the location and agenda of the Commission meeting were not posted by Waterfront Times’ deadline. Watch for that on the website www.myFWC.com and click the “FWC Commission meetings” link.

As described here last month, the FWC in April enacted a new season (sat May 24 through Monday July 14 with new regulations for red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Expect annual changes for the foreseeable, even imaginable future

To learn the rules in all their detail and density, see the website myFWC.com/Fishing. Click on the successive saltwater, recreational regulations and Gulf snapper links.

Paddling the Lox

A project to rebuild two small log dams on the north- west fork of the wild and scenic Loxahatchee River and add a few other improvements has begun. It shouldn’t interfere much with paddlers on a trip that’s among the most interesting and arguably the most accessible wilderness adventures in Florida.

The South Florida Water Management District is in charge of the job. Its engineers in March began flagging trees to mark project boundaries and waypoints. The banks will be reinforced to prevent too much water from flowing around the dams, and recreational access will be improved. No timetable has been announced yet.

The dams, named Masten and Lainhart are better known to paddlers as the first and second dams on the northwest fork. When the water’s high and a current’s running, the dams perform a tame but satisfying imitation of conditions on western whitewater rivers. They’re good spots to practice running rapids, eddying out and paddling upstream.

The officially designated Wild and Scenic River por- tion, the first in Florida, covers 9.5 miles of the north fork, running through ancient cypress swampland that once was common in Florida. Except at the two dams, it’s a placid paddle that encourages eyeballing and rubbernecking for birds, alligators and air plants.

In wide spots with space to make a cast, the fishing can be pretty good — freshwater upland, brackish further downstream and saltwater closer to U.S. 1.

The most convenient places to begin a Loxahatchee paddle are from Jonathan Dickinson State Park off U.S. 1 near Hobe Sound in Martin County and River Bend Park off Indiantown Road in Jupiter.

Although it doesn’t offer the same physical chal- lenges as whitewater streams like North Carolina’s vigorous Nantahala or Georgia’s can-be-scary Chattooga, the Loxahatchee deserves the respect of careful preparation — especially for novices who don’t realize how dangerous alligators can be if they are provoked, no matter how innocently.

There’s a lot more we could tell you about paddling the Lox, but it wouldn’t be any more informative, thor- ough or useful than the four-page Loxahatchee River Canoeing & Kayaking website, which you can find here: http://kayaking.fateback.com/loxahatchee-river-canoe-kayak-trip-1.html.

There are several online videos about paddling the river. Start with this one on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGw_fv8dqPY and it will lead you to more.