Both Jake and I have been chatting this past week with friends in Florida and growing more and more incredulous at the stories we’re hearing and the images we’re seeing.
There are a bunch of good folks all over this in the fly fishing and conservation media, though it’s a story worth spending ten minutes on today if you’ve not delved a little deeper into this one yet.
From the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust blog –
Healthy recreational fisheries require healthy habitats. Healthy habitats require healthy, natural freshwater flows. It’s that simple.
Current water management practices in Florida are gravely threatening Florida’s recreational fisheries. At the center of this crisis are the Florida Everglades, where natural freshwater flows have been severely disrupted.
Research long ago established that changes to freshwater flows into estuaries causes significant negative impacts to the ecosystem. These changes can kill seagrasses, oysters, fishes, and other organisms that are important to the estuary ecosystem. From an angler’s perspective, these changes negatively impact gamefish – there are fewer prey items, less habitat, and the poor water quality can impact fish health. The way that water flows in the Florida Everglades are currently managed is causing damaging changes to freshwater flows into estuaries and wreaking havoc on the ecosystems.
At present, many billions of gallons of polluted freshwater are being discharged every day from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River and the St. Lucie River and Estuary. These areas are unfishable. Algal blooms are widespread.
In contrast, so little freshwater is reaching Florida Bay that the waters of Florida Bay are hypersaline (too salty), which has resulted in a large-scale die-off of seagrass, an extensive algae bloom, and numerous fish kills.
The Indian River Lagoon, into which the St. Lucie River drains, is experiencing a massive brown tide. The St. Lucie Estuary recently posted health warnings to avoid contact with the water.
These recreational fisheries and habitats are in crisis…
For those among us who feel that life is better viewed in cartoon form, here’s your explanation of the heart of the issue, though to be fair, some have argued the representation pictured in the vid is at best incomplete…
Help Restore the Everglades
In the BTT blog post mentioned above, they’re pushing the right button by insisting the CERP – the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan – plans to address at least the core issues at hand, plans that have been approved yet not adequately funded or implemented, be funded at functional levels and implemented.
Floridians (of course) and those of us who appreciate the astounding place that is the Everglades and the remarkable fisheries linked to it up and down the Southern Florida coast need to push hard to get things rolling again.
See BTT’s action plan here and throw your two cents in today.
And would somebody with access push Florida’s two Presidential campaigning morons politicos to address the issue?
Top image: Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT, algae growth in Indian River Lagoon.
