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Pumpkin-carvers compete 30 feet underwater in Florida Keys
By Associated Press
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KEY LARGO -- Not content to carve their pumpkins in the traditional way, several divers carved jack-o’-lanterns more than 30 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Ken and Linda Smith of Sebring, Fla., took top honors Saturday for their “scary pumpkin” at the 10th annual Amoray Dive Resort Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Their prize was a free dive trip.

Carving underwater wasn’t easy, Ken Smith said.

“The pumpkins want to float, so that makes it difficult,” he said. “So you’re working against your own buoyancy and the pumpkin’s.”

Some contestants dropped a weight inside their pumpkins to keep them on the bottom. Then they sliced and pared to create their entries alongside yellowtail snapper and other fish.

The contest was staged about five miles off Key Largo.

Take a look
In this photo released by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Ken Smith of Sebring, Fla., carves his top prize-winning entry in the Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007, off Key Largo, Fla., in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The contest, staged by the Amoray Dive Resort, judges divers on their artistic originality, as well as the degree of difficulty to carve the entry in the subsea environment. (AP Photo/Florida Keys News Bureau, Bob Care)
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Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Grumplestiltskin wrote on Oct 22, 2007 9:26 AM:

" I am shocked by this abuse of the environment. Underwater sea pumpkins are a rare lifeform and seldom seen, even in documentaries. For these butchers to seek these "aqua pumpkins' out and eviscerate them for their own sick thrills is disgusting. I hope the Florida Underwater Ranger Patrol fined them heavily. Has anyone told Al Gore about this yet? This wanton destruction probably caused three icebergs to melt, stranding hundreds of polar bears! "
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