It’s a sin what we’ve done to Florida’s seagrass

Article Reference: It’s a sin what we’ve done to Florida’s seagrass

By Craig Pittman for Florida Phoenix

The news reports around where I live in St. Petersburg have been greatly concerned with weights and measures recently. It’s an effort to quantify the horror of the ongoing red tide algae bloom by recounting the staggering amount of the sea life that has turned up dead: 500 tons! Three million pounds! 1,711 tons! And so on.

After seeing enough of these reports, my curiosity got the better of me, so I called the person I call every time there’s a red tide bloom off the coast of Pinellas County, Kelli Hammer Levy.

As director of the county’s public works department, she’s in charge of the response to the stinky crisis. All through a 2018 bloom, she projected an air of calm competence, a reassuring attitude when facing a tsunami of dead fish and fleeing tourists.

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