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Sarasota Bay Ecosystem Health Report Card

Director’s Note: Ecosystem Health Scores – Update for 2023

March 13, 2024

Yesterday, we received the final batch of water quality data for 2023, which allowed us to update our Ecosystem Health Report Card for the period of 2006 up to 2023. As you know, 2023 was a drought year, and we anticipated that we’d see further trends of improving water quality – which is what happened.…

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2017 10 7 King Tides 8 And Hurricane Nate Oct 2017 Credit Tom Westlake Sq

Director’s Note: Ice ages, mangrove sediment accretion rates, Alexander the Great and trends in sea level rise

February 27, 2024

There is a widespread consensus in Florida and across the country about the impacts of nutrient enrichment on algal blooms, water quality and ecosystem health. It should be noted that nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for supporting coastal ecosystems. It is also abundantly clear that we have increased the flux of nutrients…

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Quick Point Nature Preserve

Director’s Note: What the future might hold for us

February 12, 2024

It’s been a lot of fun going out to the community and bringing them good news about our recent improvements in water quality. For those who might want a reminder, our water quality has sufficiently improved that we no longer have any portion of the open waters of Sarasota Bay considered “impaired” for nutrients, using…

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aerial of Little Sarasota Bay looking south

Director’s Note: Honing in on the basis for recent trends…

January 24, 2024

Over the past two or so years, we have been informing you that we were seeing signs of improvement in the bay’s water quality and ecosystem health. We have discussed our findings with our Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) and Management and Policy Boards. In fact, each of these Director’s Notes is…

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Sarasota Bay Aerial

Director’s Note: Elements of a Water Quality Protection Plan

January 12, 2024

Our recent improvements in water quality across Sarasota Bay have resulted in a rather unique situation. In contrast to most of our neighboring systems, none of the open water portions of Sarasota Bay are considered “impaired” for nutrient pollution. That is not the case to our north and south, or for the Indian River Lagoon…

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Closeup Of Grass Matthias Cooper

Director’s Note: Uncertainty and concerns about “paralysis by analysis” – relevance to fertilizer ordinances

January 6, 2024

In the Sarasota Herald Tribune today, there is an article titled “UF: Fertilizer bans need more study”. In that article, there are comments from UF/IFAS researchers that suggest that we don’t know enough about the value of local fertilizer application ordinances to support such efforts. This topic is of sufficient importance to the management of…

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Bradenton Marina Mangroves

Director’s Note: Future challenges

January 2, 2024

We are entering 2024 with a bay that has the best water quality at any time over the past 8 to 10 years. If sustained, this will meet our proposed goal to get our water quality back to the condition it was during our proposed “reference period” of 2006 to 2012. This is not due…

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Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Logo

Director’s Note: Look back at 2023, and what to expect in 2024

December 21, 2023

I figured I’d take a few minutes to highlight some of the events and activities that the SBEP has been a part of during 2023, and then to briefly introduce a few tasks we’ll be carrying out in 2024. These highlights don’t include the day-to-day tasks of preparing and hosting the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC),…

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Flyer for Event

Whitaker Bayou ECOmmunity Day 2024

December 20, 2023

Saturday, January 13, 2024, 9:00AM – 12:00PM Join us in celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service! There are several opportunities to give back to your community and environment. 9:00AM – 11:30AM – paddle cleanup (BYO – bring your own kayak) of Whitaker Bayou (FULL) 9:00AM – 11:30AM – workday at Orange Blossom…

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Phillippi Estate Park from above

Director’s Note: Bacteria and impairment status updates

November 29, 2023

Over the past few years, we’ve primarily focused on communicating the health of the bay in terms of what we call indicators of eutrophication – things like how much microscopic algae (aka phytoplankton) is in the water, how much macroalgae is on the bottom of the bay, etc.  This has traditionally been the focus of…

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FWC Staff Holding Juvenile Fish Square

Director’s Note: Importance of Sarasota Bay to offshore fisheries

November 17, 2023

As you likely know, we track the health of Sarasota Bay by more than water quality alone. Our Report Card on Ecosystem Health includes two water quality parameters (the amount of nitrogen in the water and the amount of phytoplankton in the water) but also trends in seagrass coverage, and a citizen-scientist effort to collect…

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Sign at FISH Preserve

FISH Preserve Fully Restored

November 16, 2023

After 23 years of grassroots efforts and environmental restoration, the final phase of restoration at the 100-acre FISH Preserve has been completed. The Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) championed and fundraised for the protection of the land in 2000. The preserve neighbors the historically significant Cortez Fishing Village and has a prominent link to…

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Woman at edge of boat Tarpon Fishing

Director’s Note: Recreational fishing guide feedback on bay health

November 9, 2023

As we’ve been discussing lately, we are starting to accumulate more and more evidence of an ongoing recovery of the bay’s health. We are now on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP’s) draft “De-list” for nutrient impairments for Bowlees Creek, the lower portion of Sarasota Bay proper (between Ringling Causeway and Siesta Drive), Roberts,…

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2005 12 29 Durante Quick 25 QPT Beach

Director’s Note: George Orwell, Milton Friedman, and bay management

October 23, 2023

As has been summarized by others, George Orwell’s 1945 book Animal Farm focuses on “..the capacity of ordinary people to continue to believe in a revolution that has been utterly betrayed.” What in the world does Orwell’s work have to do with managing Sarasota Bay’s water quality? Well, it’s easy to say Not Much. But…

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Upper Bay Aerial Aug 2022

Director’s Note: Why pursue a Water Quality Protection Plan?

October 18, 2023

I wanted to take a moment today to keep everyone up to date and aware of recent developments, and our proposed pathway forward. First off, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP’s) draft de-list list (covered in the last update) is not official until after public input, and after the FDEP secretary signs off on…

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Sarasota Bay near Bowlees Creek

Director’s Note: FDEP determinations of water quality trends

October 9, 2023

Our primary job here is to restore the bay, and when I took this job, I told the Policy Board that I thought they had 5 years – max – to turn it around, or else they could watch it become, perhaps, the next Indian River Lagoon (IRL). That’s not a rag on the IRL…

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Phillippi Estate Park from above

Director’s Note: Good news from FDEP – with a caveat…

October 6, 2023

Yesterday, we wrapped up a two-day visit from our colleagues with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) -Tallahassee.  They are the people who will judge the suitability of SBEP’s efforts to develop a Reasonable Assurance Plan (RAP) for the bay.  A RAP is a locally led effort to determine whether we can create a…

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plants in a created wetland area

Director’s Note: Progress being made on large regional stormwater retrofit project

October 3, 2023

At our Citizens Advisory Committee meeting yesterday, staff with the City of Sarasota gave us an update on the progress being made on the Bobby Jones Golf Course project. The Bobby Jones Golf Course is almost 100 years old – and is one of the original tourist draws for Sarasota. However, and like many courses…

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man snorkeling in Sarasota Bay

Director’s Note: Good news on bay recovery

September 19, 2023

Yesterday, I spent the day on the bay with colleagues from Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) (Dr. Chris Anastasiou and Mark Walton) and Tom Ries (private consultant) looking into areas that Jay Leverone and I have been tracking for 3 years now. In the upper part of the bay, southeast of Sister Keys, we…

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Manatee stranded out of water during Hurricane Irma

Director’s Note: Bacteria levels after Idalia

September 15, 2023

My last email update spoke about the impacts of Idalia on our bay and watershed. In contrast to Irma and Ian, we were on the strong side (it passed to the west of us) of this storm, in terms of storm surge. Irma and Ian brough us lots of rain, but the prevailing winds (which…

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