Deep Dive
It’s been quite a year. It began with the battle over the future of Florida’s state parks and Big Sugar’s proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area. It concludes, now, with a new EPA proposal to eliminate crucial wetlands…
Since 2020, when the state authorized the use of “innovative technologies” to combat harmful blue-green algal blooms, the South Florida Water Management District has added chemicals known as algaecides to its toolbox — and to the water. Over the past…
The water in the Indian River Lagoon just south of the Ernest Lyons Bridge and Stuart Causeway in Martin County should be clear, with a sandy or seagrass-covered bottom. But recently, as he’s been collecting water samples for the Florida…
Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Promoters are trying to pass off a proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area as a gift horse in the form of a sometime-in-the-future environmental project. But this old nag needs…
The recent bout of red tide on Florida’s Gulf Coast that killed fish and caused respiratory problems to people also brought up a long-standing subject of debate: Do Lake Okeechobee discharges cause red tide? Several scientific studies show that Lake…
Three bottlenose dolphins recently found dead in the Indian River Lagoon appear to have died of an unusual — and alarming — cause. News reports indicate the three dolphins tested positive for bird flu; and results are pending on other…
Award-winning photojournalist, writer, captain and friend to the clean-water cause Rusty Chinnis gives VoteWater a shout-out in the Anna Maria Island Sun: “What better resolution to adopt this New Year? Vote Water,” writes Chinnis. “The future of fishing, Florida’s natural…
Let’s face it: The Indian River Lagoon and its tributaries are mucked up. That is, they’re full of muck, a gooey mix of eroded soil, animal waste and both organic and inorganic matter that covers about 6,000 acres of the…
To the death and destruction caused by the immediate impact of hurricanes, add the secondary impact of harmful algal blooms. No, hurricanes don’t cause red tide or blue-green algal blooms, but they can fuel them. As evidence, look at how…
So far this year, 133 baby manatee have been found dead in Florida, a mortality rate more than twice the five-year average and more deaths than any other entire year since the state began keeping records in 1974. Still, manatee…