Florida Bay on the rocks ... by gimleteye

Sea Grass die-off Florida Bay

 My life as an environmentalist started in the late 1980's when I moved to Key West and straight into a devastating algae bloom in the northern part of the bay. I had the good fortune to fish these waters -- from Everglades City to the Marquesas -- in the 1970s with my late father. I knew what Florida Bay was -- one of the most splendid and diverse shallow water ecosystems on the planet -- and I was devastated both how they had been stripped bare by toxic algae and how public officials turned a blind eye to the upstream culprits.

In this context, and the intervening thirty years, I'm unsurprised by the dismal news that Florida Bay -- and the natural resources that remain -- are buckling under the threat of an even more toxic algae bloom. This time, even scavenger species like catfish that repopulated the upper bay may succumb.

There is nothing that can be done for Florida Bay until the campaign finance system is changed, to eliminate the vast gulf between what people want and what corporations require of politicians they sponsor.

What is happening in Florida Bay reflects the toxicity of Florida's shadow government: Big Sugar and the control of the South Florida water management system by growth-at-any-cost. It also reflects the indifference of public officials whose hands are out, continuously for campaign contributions from big sprawl developers and their supply chain.

What's most depressing in the Staletovich report: Mike Collins, former chairman of the South Florida Water Management District and Jeb Bush appointee, beating his chest how upstream phosphorous pollution standards and environmental groups are at the root of the problem in Florida Bay. Collins once used to represent Florida's flats fishing community.

Too bad for all of us, how these decades turned out. To blame environmentalists, as Mr. Collins appears to be doing, is the purest form of nonsense.

In late September, state biologists navigated through mats of dead seagrass in Florida Bay. About 13 square miles of seagrass meadows died over the summer with early signs of an algae bloom now appearing near Rankin Lake and Garfield Bight. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
BY JENNY STALETOVICH
jstaletovich@miamiherald.com
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A slimy toxic algae bloom in Florida Bay that researchers thought was years in the future might be just around the corner.

South Florida Water Management District scientist Fred Sklar told district board members last week that levels of chlorophyll are starting to rise in shallow water where miles of seagrass meadows died over the summer. The last time so much grass died in 1987, it took five years for algae blooms to erupt that would devastate the bay for two decades.