Coastal Waters

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Ferrtilizer expert speaks to clubs about the new rules
Zac Anderson/ Herald-Tribune/ Mar 9
It prohibits residents from applying fertilizers that contain nitrogen or phosphorus between June 1 and Sept. 30.

Researchers scour preserve for Big Cypress fox squirrel
Kevin Lollar/ News-Press/ Mar 1
BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE — Bitten by mosquitoes, baked by the heat and scratched by greenbrier thorns, researchers waded through knee-deep water and struggled through thick vegetation this week in search of the elusive Big Cypress fox squirrel.

Don't dump sewage in ocean
SARA FAIN/letter to Miami Herald/ Feb 29

Land buy to improve Indian River Lagoon
Jim Waymer/ Florida Today/ Feb 28
South Florida water managers announced this morning the purchase of 553 acres in west Martin County to help improve the Indian River Lagoon’s water quality.

North Florida Spotted Seatrout and Gulf Snook Seasons Reopen March 1
Wakulla.com/ Feb 28

Worst stretch for hurricanes? 1920s, '30s
Eliot Kleinberg/ Palm Beach Post/ Feb 22
A new report ranks 1926-35 as the costliest, translating historical dollars to today's and figuring in the coast's staggering growth.

La Niña Conditions Strengthen, Expected To Continue
Science Daily/ Feb 17
The current La Niña event, characterized by a cooling of the sea surface in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific, has strengthened slightly in recent months and is expected to continue through the first quarter of 2008, with a likelihood of persisting through to the middle of the year.

2007 Hurricane Season Starts Early, Ends Late
Science Daily/ Feb 15
The Atlantic Hurricane Season began early in 2007, and by mid-December it was still going. The season officially begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. That means that for the most part, storms have formed and fizzled between those dates, or they used to.

Oceans Eyed As New Energy Source
Briank Skoloff/ Feb 15
DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Just 15 miles off Florida's coast, the world's most powerful sustained ocean current — the mighty Gulf Stream — rushes by at nearly 8.5 billion gallons per second. And it never stops.

Hurricane study whips up a storm
Catherine Brahic/ Reuters/ Jan 28
Rising ocean temperatures linked to global warming could decrease the number of hurricanes hitting the United States, say researchers. But their findings have been questioned by some at a recent meteorology conference.

Local red tides feast on pollution from afar
Kate Spinner/ Sarasota Herald-Tribune/ Feb 9
Pollution from near and far is making algae blooms more abundant in coastal waters from Naples to Tampa, according to two scientists who spoke to a crowd of about 200 at Suncoast Auditorium on Friday.

Snook season reopens only on Atlantic coast, Lake O
Naples Daily News/ Feb 1

UMass researchers dig for clues about health of St. Lucie River
Gabriel Margasak/ TCPalm/ Jan 31
STUART — There's a mystery at the bottom of the St. Lucie River that may hold a key to its ultimate restoration.

Convert St. Lucie Canal to right 80-year-old wrong
Palm Beach Post letter/ Jan 30
And perhaps the time has come to ask: In the overall scheme of daily life, is the cost of maintaining the canal, its use 95 percent recreational, really wise and environmentally responsible?

Turn tide on Florida pollution
Palm Beach Post editorial/ Jan 23
Red tide makes people cough and sneeze, and kills fish, dolphins and manatees. Once rare on the Florida's east coast, it appeared again during the holidays, for the third time since 2002.

Red tide, watercraft contribute to 317 manatee deaths
Nick Walter/ Bradenton Herald/ Jan 7
A preliminary report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission indicates that there were 317 manatee deaths in state waters in 2007, according to an FWC news release.

Red tide reporting system spreads
Jim Waymer/ Florida Today/ Jan 10
Five Gulf Coast counties have something Brevard beachgoers yearned for during the past two months: near real-time red tide reports.

Manatee Mortality Data, Disaster Engineering and Thoughts on Depopulation
Georgianna Nienaber/ OpEdNews/ Jan 7
A preliminary report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) released January 7, 2008 says there were 317 manatee deaths in state waters in 2007. The total number of carcasses documented last year falls below the five-year average of 355.

Florida manatee deaths drop in 2007
Naples Daily News/ Jan 7
In 2007, 317 manatees died in Florida waters, according to a preliminary report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Conservation (FWC). This number is 100 deaths less than 2006 results and also less than the five-year average of 355 manatee deaths a year.

Sperm whale euthanized
Aaron Sharokman/ St Pete Times/ Jan 2
ST. PETE BEACH -- An endangered adolescent sperm whale found floating in the coastal waters off Pinellas County was put to death Tuesday after biologists concluded the 15-ton mammal could not be saved.

Red tide claims manatees
Jim Waymer/ Florida Today/ Dec 29
Two sea cows confirmed as victims of algae bloom; five being tested

Places to see manatees when winter chills our waterways
Byron Stout/ Gulf Coast Living/ Dec 27
If you don’t think winter comes to Southwest Florida, just ask a manatee. When water temperatures drop below 66 degrees, these Florida natives can freeze to death.

Protecting manatees shows that balancing act is possible
Palm Beach Post editorial/ Dec 25

Restoration of Indian River Lagoon moves forward with land acquisition in St. Lucie
TC Palm/ Dec 20
Restoration of the Indian River Lagoon moved another step forward, according to the South Florida Water Management District, as the district’s governing board approved a 1,772-acre land acquisition in St. Lucie County.

A welcome reprieve for Florida’s endangered manatees
David Guest/ Naples Daily News/ Dec 15

Our favorite snowbird, the manatee
Amy Williams/ News-Press/ Dec 16
Manatees have long been at the center of a fierce debate pitting conservationists against boaters, with each side questioning the other's motives.

Manatees Retain Endangered Status
New York Times/ Dec 6

Naples officials to hold public hearing on dredging permit dispute
Eric Staats/ Naples Daily News/ Dec 5
The Naples City Council put off a decision Wednesday about how to handle a Naples Bay dredging controversy that has the city caught in a legal tangle.

Saving Barnes Sound
Miami Herald letters/ Dec 6
This breaks my heart. As a boy with my dad, I fished and swam in a beautiful and productive Barnes Sound. Now it is dead.

Manatees to stay on Florida's endangered species list
Julio Ochoa/ Naples Daily News/ Dec 5
Manatees will remain on Florida's endangered species list -- for now.

La Nina Pattern May Last Until Autumn, Australian Bureau Says
Madelene Pearson/ Bloomberg/ Dec 3
-- La Nina weather conditions, the pattern associated with above-average rain in Australia, has intensified and may last until the southern hemisphere autumn, the nation's weather forecaster said.

Snook seasons close in December
Naples Daily News/ Nov 28

Red Tide Prediction Center in the Works
Florida Sportsman/ Nov 14The FWC and USF team up to announce the establishment of a Center for Prediction of Red Tides in St. Petersburg

Water district agrees to spend $37 million to buy land for water treatment facility
Naples Daily News/ Nov 15The South Florida Water Management District approved an agreement with Lee County to buy a $37 million property along the Caloosahatchee River for a water treatment facility.

Clear win for Caloosahatchee River
Joel Moroney/ News-Press/ Nov 16State and local officials finalized a $37 million purchase of 1,770 acres of citrus fields in rural Glades County on Thursday for construction of a $150 million facility to treat Lake Okeechobee water before it’s released into the Caloosahatchee River.

Katrina, Rita Caused Forestry Disaster
Marc Kaufman/ Washington Post/ Nov 16New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation -- an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged about 320 million trees in Mississippiand Louisiana.

Rivers Coalition: Making Army Corps pay is only way to end damaging discharges
Gabriel Margasak/ TCPalm/ Nov 9But today, one year after filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the discharges, a band of waterfront homeowners and environmentalists known as the Rivers Coalition say they've accomplished the key goal of public awareness even before a trial begins.

Glades count may shed light on manatees' future
Curtis Morgan/ Miami Herald/ Nov 3''The Everglades region is the black hole. This is really the area where we don't understand manatees,'' said James Reid, a United States Geological Survey biologist.

Wind Changes Spur Florida Red Tide
Randolph Schmid/ Washington Post/ Nov 7WASHINGTON -- Harmful red tide blooms along Florida's west coast in the fall are spurred when seasonal changes in wind patterns move nutrients east from the Mississippi River, scientists reported Wednesday.

Study: Miss. River can influence local red tide
Kevin Lollar/ News-Press/ Nov 7A combination of wind and nutrients from the Mississippi River can cause red tide blooms off the Southwest Florida coast, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.