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Wednesday Update Marine Lab Monitoring Red Tide Around Islands

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Wednesday Update Marine Lab Monitoring Red Tide Around Islands Wednesday Update January 13, 2021 Welcome to the first 2021 edition of the Wednesday Update! We'll email the next issue on Jan. 27. By highlighting SCCF's mission to protect and care for Southwest Florida's coastal ecosystems, our updates connect you to nature. Thanks to Frances Tutt for this photo of American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) feeding. DO YOU HAVE WILDLIFE PHOTOS TO SHARE? Please send your photos to [email protected] to be featured in an upcoming issue. Marine Lab Monitoring Red Tide Around Islands Today's daily sampling map from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), pictured here, shows that a patchy bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida based on sampling conducted over the past eight days. This afternoon's mid-week update reported that background to high concentrations of K. brevis were detected in 42 samples over the past week. Medium bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in 32 samples collected from Lee and Collier counties, according to the FWC. As indicated by the dots on this map, background to high concentrations were recorded in Lee County in 24 samples, and medium to high concentrations in and offshore of Collier County were observed in 17 samples. Daily samples collected by SCCF's Marine Lab and Sanibel Sea School at local beaches and back bay waters have ranged from high concentrations (>1 million K. brevis cells/liter) to low (>10,000 cells/liter). "Today we counted low levels mid-island on Sanibel and a high level at the Lighthouse," said SCCF Research Scientist Rick Bartleson. "Recent counts at Bowman's Beach have been medium, while counts at the Lighthouse and the Sanibel boat ramp have been high recently." Those counts and others are uploaded to the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System's (GCOOS) continually-updated Red Tide Respiratory Forecast. Once you open the online tool, you can click on various beaches for updated conditions. For instance, based on winds and K. brevis counts, today's forecast was for high irritation at the South Seas beach on Captiva and for low to very low irritation on Sanibel. Click here for the GCOOS Red Tide Respiratory Forecast. Though experimental, it is proving to be an effective way to avoid respiratory irritation. LEARN MORE ABOUT RED TIDE 'Most Vertical Person on Earth' to Speak at Memorial Lecture Dr. Kathryn Sullivan will talk about her amazing career as “the most vertical person on Earth” at the 3rd Annual Paul McCarthy Memorial Lecture on Feb. 4. “We are honored to have Dr. Sullivan share her fascinating story of being the first person to both orbit the planet and reach its deepest point,” said SCCF CEO Ryan Orgera. Aside from her amazing experiences of spending more than 500 hours in space and plunging seven miles down into the depths of the ocean, Sullivan has held a variety of senior executive positions. “Her presidential appointments to the National Science Board and as Chief Scientist, Deputy Administrator and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also give her a singular perspective,” said Orgera, who met Sullivan on several occasions when he worked for the United States Senate. A distinguished scientist, astronaut, and ocean explorer, Sullivan joined the NASA astronaut corps in 1978 and holds the distinction of being the first American woman to walk in space. Her submersible dive to the Challenger Deep in June of 2020 made her the first woman to dive to full ocean depth. The Paul McCarthy Memorial Lecture Series was conceived by the Boler Family Foundation, which underwrites the speaker fees and expenses, as a way to honor a dear family friend, Paul McCarthy, founder of Captiva Cruises and an active presence on the islands for years. Feb. 6 would have been McCarthy’s 68th birthday. This year, the lecture will be presented virtually through Zoom. Unlike other SCCF presentations this year, the 45- minute lecture will only be offered live at 5:30pm on Thursday, Feb. 4. It will not be available for recorded viewing. Sullivan is also the author of Handprints on Hubble, An Astronaut’s Story of Invention (MIT Press, 2019), which is the January selection for SCCF’s nature-inspired book club, The Green Readers. The discussion for the book will take place the night before the lecture, on Wednesday, Feb. 3. SCCF CEO Ryan Orgera will be joining our discussion. Links to the discussion and more information coming soon! Click here to register for the lecture. $20 for adults; $10 for students. REGISTER NOW EAA Reservoir—The Keystone of Everglades Restoration By James Evans, Environmental Policy Director On January 10, 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 19- 12, Achieving More Now for Florida’s Environment. This executive order outlines the governor’s priorities and goals for protecting the state’s waters and natural resources, which are the foundation of Florida’s communities, economy, and way of life. Among the governor’s top priorities for reducing the damaging discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the coastal estuaries was a plan to accelerate the construction of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir. The EAA Reservoir remains a top priority for the coastal communities and Everglades advocates because it is the only Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) project that will both reduce the damaging discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and restore freshwater flows to the Everglades. The EAA Reservoir was one of the original CERP projects, conditionally authorized by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 (SFWMD), and remains a keystone of Everglades Restoration. The current project authorized by Congress in 2018 includes an above-ground reservoir capable of storing 240,000 acre-feet (~78 billion gallons) of water, a 6,500-acre wetland stormwater treatment area (STA) to clean the water, and infrastructure to convey water from Lake Okeechobee south to the Everglades and Florida Bay. It is estimated that in combination with previously authorized CERP projects, the EAA Reservoir will reduce discharge volumes to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries by 55 percent and reduce mean monthly high-flow discharge events by 63 percent (SFWMD 2018). At the same time, this project would almost double the flows south to the central Everglades from 210,000 acre-feet (~68 billion gallons) to 370,000 acre-feet (~120 billion) (SFWMD 2018). Recently, some lawmakers in Florida have raised concerns about the EAA Reservoir, citing budget shortfalls related to the COVID-19 pandemic to justify halting the project. The reality is that Everglades restoration is estimated to provide a 4:1 return on investment. For each dollar spent on restoration, four dollars are generated to support Florida’s economy (Mather Economics 2012). Moreover, any delays in a project that has already broken ground will prevent critical ecosystem restoration benefits from being realized for both the Everglades and the estuaries and will ultimately cost Florida taxpayers more in the long term. Now is not the time to delay funding for the EAA Reservoir. We need to stay the course and continue to invest in Florida’s future. Virtual Everglades Update to Address Importance of EAA To learn more about the benefits of the EAA Reservoir project, please join us on Feb. 24 from 6-8pm for a panel discussion. SCCF, in partnership with the Everglades Foundation, will be hosting a virtual Everglades Update. The program will feature a panel discussion about the importance of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir. The panel will include: Steve Davis, Ph.D., Senior Ecologist, Everglades Foundation Capt. Daniel Andrews, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Captains for Clean Water Marisa Carrozzo, Everglades and Water Policy Manager, Conservancy of Southwest Florida James Evans, Environmental Policy Director, SCCF The program will be moderated by SCCF CEO Ryan Orgera, Ph.D.. Registration will be opening soon. Learn About Sand Dunes at Next Evening at Homestead Dr. Patrick Hesp, will present an engaging and informative talk called, Sand Dunes, A Global & Local Perspective on Wednesday, Jan. 20. Dr. Hesp will examine the major coastal dune types that exist in the world, how they are initiated, their geomorphology, and their relationships to climate. Dunes typical of the Gulf and Florida coasts will also be discussed, and their evolutionary paths as sea level rises will be detailed. Dr. Hesp is the former Head of Geography and Anthropology at LSU (Baton Rouge), and currently the Strategic Professor of Coastal Studies at Flinders University in South Australia. He is a world expert on coastal dunes, and has conducted studies on both coastal and desert dunes all over the world. He currently has ongoing research in Poland, W. Sahara, The Canaries (Spain), NW China and Tibet, New Zealand, and Australia. The talk will be at 7pm via Zoom. It will also be archived on the SCCF YouTube Channel if you are not able to attend. Click here to register. Save the date for this upcoming Evening at the Homestead: Tuesday, Mar. 9 at 7pm Florida Needs Fire!, presented by Reed Noss, Florida Institute for Conservation Science REGISTER NOW A Different Journey: Hiking During Wet Conditions The winter months invite increased visitation to the island and more frequent use of SCCF’s hiking trails. In recent years our trails, such as the Erick Lindblad Preserve trails, were either dry or drying out by January. However, as a result of the active wet season of 2020, most of the trails are currently impassable without waterproof boots and expectations of getting muddy. “Many people aren’t aware that hiking through shallow puddles or muddy trails during non-dry times can be quite enjoyable with the proper footwear and clothing,” said Chris Lechowicz, Director, SCCF Wildlife & Habitat Management.
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