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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…
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 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…
Continue ReadingYesterday, 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…
Continue ReadingJoin us as we celebrate National Estuaries Week 2023! Throughout September, we will be offering various events and opportunities to #WadeIn to your local bays and waterways! National Estuaries Week is celebrated every year around the U.S. to showcase the value our bays and estuaries provide to our local communities. An estuary is an area…
Continue ReadingAt our Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting today, we had two main topics to go over. The first one related to the ongoing and planned habitat restoration and stormwater retrofit projects that we plan on implementing with funds allocated to the SBEP via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). As we’ve pointed out before, our intent…
Continue ReadingSuccessful resource management efforts have to be grounded in solid science. Both in Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay, we have the privilege of working with talented individuals doing great science. The paper linked here and to the right is an example of this type of management-relevant science. Our colleagues at the University of Florida (UF)…
Continue ReadingThere has been much discussion recently around the proposal of opening Midnight Pass. So, what would that mean from a water quality and habitat standpoint? The short answer is it’s complicated. SBEP is not in favor of one solution over another. However, we are here to help share what we know so that all alternatives…
Continue ReadingAs the Gulf Coast continues to recover from Hurricane Ian, SBEP has been working with Charlotte County, the Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Environmental Science Associates, and Benchmark Laboratories to design and implement a monitoring program that would measure the human…
Continue ReadingPiney Point Credit Tampa Bay Times In April 2021, over 215 million gallons of phosphate mining water and marine dredge water, rich in algae-driving nitrogen, were released into lower Tampa Bay from the Piney Point facility. Led by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, a group of scientists and managers immediately began to monitor the ecological…
Continue ReadingMedina at al. 2022 Graphical Abstract SBEP Executive Director Dr. David Tomasko, with researchers from the University of Florida and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, co-authored a recent peer-reviewed article in the journal Science of the Total Environment titled “Nitrogen-enriched discharges from a highly managed watershed intensify red tide (Karenia brevis) blooms in southwest Florida.” Offshore processes…
Continue ReadingThe 2022 Sarasota Bay Ecosystem Health Report Card is now available on our website. The report card shows improved ecosystem health conditions over the 2021 report card. SBEP uses four measurements, or indicators, of ecosystem health to assess conditions in our bays. Across the board, the 2022 Sarasota Bay Ecosystem Health Report Card indicates that…
Continue Reading2021 was the worst year on record for Florida manatees, with over 1,000 deaths – likely more than 10% of the state’s population. What you may not know is that in the first three months of this year, we are not that far behind what happened last year. During January to March 25th of 2021,…
Continue ReadingThe Seagrass Survey is back! SBEP and Sarasota County are looking for boaters, waders, and kayakers to help survey the seagrass beds within Sarasota Bay. The event this year will be hybrid: April 16th – 29th: Flexible survey window where volunteers can collect seagrass data on their own. Survey when and where that works best…
Continue ReadingBeck et al. 2022 graphical abstract In April 2021, over 215 million gallons of phosphate mining water and marine dredge water, rich in algae-driving nitrogen, were released into lower Tampa Bay from the Piney Point facility. Led by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, a group of scientists and managers immediately began to monitor the ecological…
Continue ReadingNovember 30 marks the end of Manatee Awareness Month and a grim milestone for Florida’s manatees. As of this month, we have lost over a thousand manatees, more than ten percent of our statewide population, and nearly twice the number of manatees that typically die each year. The epicenter of this extraordinarily bad year for…
Continue ReadingSarasota Bay is shallow, and much of it is covered in seagrass. Seagrasses are aquatic flowering plants that grow in meadows teeming with wildlife. These habitats are very important to our economy and fishing industry, and they provide protection from storms. When boaters run too shallow over seagrass beds, they can rip out grasses and…
Continue ReadingOn October 5, 2021, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program hosted a virtual workshop to accelerate solutions for water quality recovery in Sarasota Bay. The workshop featured presentations from local government representatives and community innovators on projects that aim to reduce pollution entering the bay through infrastructure and nature-based solutions. Click to download the meeting agenda:…
Continue ReadingWatch the Video Demonstration Click Here to Register for Eyes on Seagrass All are welcome to register! Students can earn community service hours for participating. Bring forms to be signed at one of the trainings. Questions? Contact Race Stryker at race@sarasotabay.org.
Continue ReadingChristine Quigley – Public Outreach Assistant This past week, the four Florida National Estuary Programs, along with local and regional partners, convened a 3-day workshop around the topic of macroalgae. Macroalgae refers to larger species of algae, whose individuals you can see without a microscope. Seaweed is another name commonly used. If you’ve been out…
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