Family-owned World Famous Boat Tours helps keep the Halifax River clean

Every time they pick up trash, they're saving an animal's life, said Capt. Nick Demichina, of Ormond Beach.

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Capt. Nick Demichina always keeps his eyes peeled when he's on the Halifax River.

Manatees. Dolphins. Blue Herons. And every so often, trash floating in the water.

"When I start that tour up too, I tell everyone, 'Alright if you see any animals ... we'll go check it out, if we don't see it," Demichina said. "Even if it's a piece of trash, we'll make fun of you really quick and laugh and then we'll have you scoop it up and we'll save a life. Earth Day is pretty much every day for us."

Demichina, of Ormond Beach, works with World Famous Boat Tours, a company launched last August by Capt. John Geyer and Capt. Danielle Weigel, of Holly Hill. As locals, their aim was to be able to give people — both visitors and longtime residents — a chance to experience the Halifax River from a different perspective while educating them about its environmental importance.

World Famous Boat Tours operates Monday through Saturday out of the Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach, offering wildlife tours, sunset tours and private excursions. 

It's a need, Weigel said, she and Geyer saw when they started volunteering with other agencies, such as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission manatee stranding teams while working for different boating companies. 

They wanted people to not only experience being on the water, but learn more about the river and its ecosystem. 

A few months after opening, they brought Demichina onboard. Demichina had been considering leaving the boating world, one he'd been in for about eight years, but his wife convinced him to give Geyer and Weigel — who had trained him in past jobs — a chance. 

"It was funny because at first I was like, 'Why don't I see a lot of tours going on,'" Demichina said. "I was like, 'Let's just check it out.' And man, Capt. John put on a really good show for me and took me to places I've never been.'"

And Demichina is a Volusia County native. Since starting to conduct boat tours, he's heard many locals, including his father, say the tour showed them sights they had never noticed before. 

Capt. Nick Demichina and his grandmother-in-law participate in a recent river clean up. Courtesy photo

Weigel said one thing she and her husband wanted to change when starting their business is making sure that people know you don't have to be a tourist to enjoy a tour of the river. 

"I think it's really important to enjoy and love your community and all that means," Weigel said.

Demichina said he tries to channel a "Disney Jungle Cruise" tour style with a little Jimmy Buffet flair. 

"When you see anybody from 5 to 105 see a dolphin for the first time, or for a lot of people, it's the first time they've been on a boat, and you can make them smile and laugh and show them some animals they've never seen, and let them drive the boat for a little bit, you can't beat it," Demichina said. "Every day is a good day." 

That's what the boating world has granted him. A few years ago, while living in Colorado, he was struggling after the loss of his first wife, Demichina said, and he made the decision to move back to Florida to be close to family. He tried his hand at a few different jobs when his friend prompted him to get into the boating world. 

Now, he said loves being a captain for World Famous Boat Tours, not only because he gets to see people smile and make memories on the water, but because he gets to talk about local history. A member of the Ormond Beach Historical Society and someone who is currently renovating a historic home, Demichina gets to share the stories of Ormond pioneers like John Anderson, of rum runners like the McCoy Brothers and local surf legends like Mimi Monroe.

Weigel loves the educational part of the tours. She and her husband are planning to open a new division of their corporation in 2025 geared toward education, wildlife and conservation, she said.

"This is our home and we want people to see it the way we see it," Weigel said.

Advocating for, and helping to keep the waterways clean is an integral part of their business. The company recently participated in a river cleanup effort organized by Halifax Harbor Marina, using their boat to reach the mangroves, an area volunteers didn't have access to on land. 

"If the waterways aren't clean and healthy, we lose all the diversity that we have here," Weigel said. "We lose the ability to go out and watch dolphins and manatees. We lose the ability for fishing and we lose the ability for quality of water for swimming. ... I think it's really important to maintain and educate people on how we can continue to grow in a positive way."

Whenever they spot trash in the ocean, they pick it up. Weigel said it's an almost daily occurrence. They hope to organize and participate in more river cleanups in the near future. 

"It's that little extra effort," Demichina said. "And that's our place of work. All those animals are our friends and they help us out and they make people happy, so we want to make sure that they're taken care of and they're happy."

Visit worldfamousboattours.com.

 

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