You may have read about the issue down in the Florida Keys related to an increase in mortality among the endangered Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata) and the concern over “spinning fish” in those same waters. If not, this article does a pretty good job describing what folks are seeing down there – Fish in Florida…
Continue ReadingOver the past few weeks, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has released multiple billions of gallons of water from Lake Okeechobee out to Southwest Florida’s nearshore waters via the Caloosahatchee River. These discharges bring with them a substantial amount of nitrogen and phosphorus. These loads do NOT cause red tide. But if the…
Continue ReadingThere is typically quite a bit of attention paid to conditions in Palma Sola Bay, the open waters of Sarasota Bay proper, Roberts Bay, and Little Sarasota Bay. In contrast, Blackburn Bay doesn’t get as much attention, which is a bummer, because it has a neat story to tell as well. First off, here is…
Continue ReadingAs you well know – or at least you should know – our water quality in Sarasota Bay has improved over the past four years, such that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) no longer considers us “impaired” for nutrients in any of the open waters of the bay. That happened, we believe, because…
Continue ReadingYesterday, 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.…
Continue ReadingThere 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…
Continue ReadingIt’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…
Continue ReadingOver 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…
Continue ReadingOur 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…
Continue ReadingIn 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…
Continue ReadingWe 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…
Continue ReadingI 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),…
Continue ReadingSaturday, 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…
Continue ReadingOver 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…
Continue ReadingAs 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…
Continue ReadingAfter 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…
Continue ReadingAs 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,…
Continue ReadingAs 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…
Continue ReadingI 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…
Continue ReadingOur 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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