Environment

Sea Camp Kids Learn Nature’s Lessons

Stanley Switlik Elementary School fifth graders recently spent the day at Sea Camp on Big Pine Key learning about nature and man's impact on the environment.

Students dug through algae to find brittle stars, worms, sea cucumbers, crabs and even shrimp. Staff assisted as students practiced snorkeling in the swim area before going out on the boats in the afternoon.

An afternoon snorkeling close to the mangroves gave the fifth graders a closeup look at lobster, moon jellyfish, different types of coral and sponges, snapper, and sea grasses.

Students learned how pollution causes harm to the near shore environment, and why certain sponges cause rashes. They even got a chance to practice some science, learning about the structure of sponges.

Sea Camp donated the trip for 88 Switlik students, teachers, and chaperons.

Seacamp is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that operates on the cooperative effort of parents, scientists, businessmen, camp leaders and others dedicated to the education of youth in marine science.

Located at Newfound Harbor on Big Pine Key, Sea Camp includes a science lab, recreation hall, dining hall, arts and crafts building, four dormitories and staff housing, along with other services including an infirmary.

Anyone interested in Sea Camp's mission, or working as a volunteer is invited to join the Seacamp Association, located at 1300 Big Pine Ave., Big Pine Key. For more information, call 872-2331.

via Sea Camp kids learn nature’s lessons.

Florida Keys Wild Bird Center Back on Track

By STEVE GIBBS Free Press Staff

KEY LARGO — A resurgent Florida Keys Wild Bird Center has hired a hospital coordinator to care for injured and sick birds and found a new location for its medical facility.

“It’s clear sailing from here,” said Bob Gintel, the new chairman of the center’s board of directors.

The turnaround comes just two months after the near closure of the facility due to funding shortfalls. But local media publicity, an infusion of donations and a reorganization of the board has kept the center afloat.

“People on the board stepped up to the plate and we are using the money we collected,” Gintel said. “There was an outpouring of money and we were able to pay off all of the vendors.”

The Ocean Reef Foundation and two other Ocean Reef Club members donated $22,000, an anonymous Islamorada resident donated $25,000 and Gintel himself ponied up $10,000 to get the non-profit rescue center back on an even keel.

In response to licensing and federal flood-plain concerns, the center has signed a one-year lease to use a vacant veterinary clinic at mile marker 94 as the center’s hospital and office. The new facility opened Monday.

However, the gift shop, wild bird educational exhibit and the daily 3:30 p.m. feeding will remain at mile marker 93.6, bayside.

Virginia Bowen, formerly of the now-defunct Folke Peterson Wildlife Center in Broward County, has been hired as the wildlife care manager. Vered Nosrad, past director of that same Broward facility, is the new director of the hospital.

“They bring a licence with them and they are highly regarded by the regulators,” Gintel said. “We’re not going to have all the flaunting of the laws as they did in the past.” [Interesting]

Hospital assistant Staci Dillis will continue to help with surgeries and rehabilitation.

sgibbs@keysnews.com

Dry Tortugas Video

This 13-minute video — which can take a while to load, so be patient — is the work of the South Florida National Parks Trust, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It explains the background that led to creation of the natural area, which is hoped to allow fish populations to rebound and to provide a sanctuary if you will for coral reefs, which face threats from anchor damage, degraded water quality, and warming oceans.

Anti Sanctuary Dissertation (so to speak) by Jackie Ripley

The need to protect corals from damage by ship groundings was one major reason given by the government and environmental groups for the 1990 establishment of the FKNMS. The other was to protect reefs zones from oil drilling. Yet the majority of us Keys locals did not believe that a marine sanctuary was needed to address these issues. The well agreed upon environmental concerns regionally were poor water quality in the Bay, the need for sewage treatment in the Keys, and pollution coming from those pigs in South Florida. Those opposed to the sanctuary believed that none of these concerns would be better addressed by the additional layer of bureaucracy created by the FKNMS given that these issues were already being addressed by more than 30 agencies and non-profits. Those in favor suggested that the multiple agencies working on the issues had been inadequately addressing such problems.

Keys’ locals formed the 1,500- person Conch Coalition to oppose the sanctuary. They engaged in letter writing campaigns, sent hundreds of coconuts with anti-sanctuary messages painted on them to representatives in Washington, and held public speeches and demonstrations. Activists even hung NOAA’s two main sanctuary managers in effigy. Through the efforts of anti-sanctuary groups (Conch Coalition, Monroe County Commercial Fishermen’s Association, and other fisher groups) and individuals (many treasure salvagers), the no-take zone was reduced from six percent to one percent in the 1996 final management plan.
Read more…

Ocean Heroes Award Winner…John Halas

The contest, launched in early May of this year, was created to honor ocean advocates who have made a difference for the oceans on a local or international level. Out of eight finalists, this year’s winner is John Halas, a marine biologist and manager of the Upper Region of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Few people have done more to protect the world’s coral reefs than John Halas. After observing coral damage caused by careless anchoring, he developed an environmental anchor and mooring buoy system that quickly spread worldwide as marine parks, dive operators, resorts, and private citizens wanted secure moorings to protect their sensitive marine habitats. John has heroically assisted more than 38 countries in efforts to protect corals, provide secure anchorages, and mark sites with moorings. Read more…

Wayward Key Largo Sponges

Scientists have invented a better fixer-upper for damaged coral reefs. The method could aid local restoration efforts to rehabilitate these ecosystems in the aftermath of hurricanes or harmful human activities.
Often, after such events, large sponges are littered on the ground and die because they cannot grow back onto the reef. So far, various cements and glues have failed to provide a fix, and, as a result, restoration projects have focused on smaller organisms that are easier to patch.

Using a new technique involving a “sponge holder,” the team removed and then affixed 20 Caribbean giant barrel sponges at Conch Reef, near Key Largo, Florida. Almost two-thirds of the sewed-on specimens survived at least another two to three years, despite four hurricanes passing over the area during that time. Most by that time had naturally reattached to the reef, something that usually did not occur in previous surgical attempts. – Jessica Leber

Source: McMurray, S.E., et al. 2009. A Novel Technique for the Reattachment of Large Coral Reef Sponges. Restoration Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00463.x

Large Middle Keys Island For Sale…Cheap!

As the sun rises over the Florida Keys, employees of WGMX and WFFG travel to their small radio station by boat, passing wading birds, mangroves and even a yellow submarine. ”Welcome to Fantasy Island,” says Morning Mix producer Richard Silva as the boat reaches the shore of 1,100-acre Boot Key, off Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Last April, the city of Marathon hired Waronker & Rosen Inc. to appraise the island. The company valued the island at $3.4 million with bridge access and $1.47 million without it. After the appraisal, the City Council voted to buy the island for $3.4 million and pay for removal of the steel bridge that is the entrance to busy Boot Key Harbor. [That works out to $3,500 an acre...quite a bargain in the Florida Keys were average landlocked, 60' x 100' lots (1/8 acre) range in value from $7,500 to $15,000.]

The island is eerie, like something out of The Twilight Zone: dead cars left on the lone road, a cannon next to an old boat called Run Amuck, rusted, empty trailers, overturned lobster traps, a 300-foot communications tower and a rickety radio station swarmed by 20 abandoned cats. But due to another deteriorating structure, Boot Key the junkyard could become Boot Key the nature preserve.

The Boot Key drawbridge, built in 1960, was closed a year ago for safety reasons by the Florida Department of Transportation, leaving the three private landowners with no vehicle access and the city of Marathon with a legal obligation to compensate them for the loss. Some city officials and environmentalists hope the city’s ”bridge to nowhere” headache — which includes a lawsuit filed against the city last week by one landowner — could ultimately become a green blessing. Read more…

7th Python Found in Upper Florida Keys

The seventh — and largest — Burmese python to make its way into the Florida Keys since the exotic constrictors were discovered here in April was found dead on U.S. 1 at Mile Marker 112 last week.

The snake, measuring longer than 10 feet, has added to officials’ recent concerns about the invasive predator slithering its way into the island chain — and its endangered species habitats. Steve Klett, manager of the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, said he worries a breeding pair will establish itself here, which could wipe out the population of endangered species such as the Key Largo wood rat. To reach 8 feet in length, a python would have to consume about 75 to 80 wood rats, he said.

A new law that went into effect Jan. 1 will not help the immediate situation, but could curb the problem in the future. It requires people who buy an exotic reptile to pay a $100 fee and have a 2-centimeter microchip with their identification implanted under the reptile’s skin. South Florida has experienced an influx of the snakes as owners illegally release their unwanted pets into the wild, intentionally or by accident.

The six previously found constrictors have averaged a little over 7 feet long. They have been found near the Key Largo School, Card Sound Road Bridge and in the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, across C.R. 905 from the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. One was a live python in the state park that had devoured a wood rat.

Florida Keys Anglers Invite Governor Crist to Fish Florida Bay

Groups hoping to show the governor a good day of fishing and the bad algae bloom threatening Florida Bay.

January 10, 2008 Tavernier FL -A coalition of leading angling and conservation organizations today formally invited Florida Governor Charlie Crist to come down to the Keys for a day of fishing and to witness firsthand a destructive algae bloom threatening the region’s recreational and commercial fishing industry.

This is the third consecutive year that a persistent blue-green algae bloom has compromised the health of Florida Bay with potentially disastrous consequences for the region’s fishing industry, including die-offs of fish, and the seagrass and invertebrates upon which they depend. Conservative estimates in October, 2007 placed the extent of the bloom at 300 square miles. Over the summer there were reports of the bloom at the reef line off Islamorada and Long Key, and as far south as Vaca Cut in Marathon.
Read more…

Key West Smathers Beach to get New Sand

Smathers Beach will soon have 11,600 tons of fresh sand for locals and tourists to enjoy with financial assistance from the city of Key West and the Florida Department or Environmental Protection. The city has available $1.32 million approved by the state for Key West beach renourishment projects; $880,000 of that will be used for Smathers. That cost will be split between DEP and the city, each paying $440,000. That leaves the city $420,000 to spend on other beaches: C.B. Harvey Rest Beach near the White Street Pier is possibly the next project, city Engineering Director Roland Flowers said.

Despite Commissioner Dan Kolhage expressing dissatisfaction with the cost of the project, the rest of the commission gave the go-ahead when it met in regular session Wednesday. Commissioner Clayton Lopez pointed out that Thursday was the deadline to approve the contract, otherwise the state money “may not be available in the future,” city documents read.

Consulting firm G.M. Selby has been subcontracted for design, permitting and construction phases of the project, while E.R. Jahna will deliver the sand and Charlie Toppino and Sons will contour and grade the sand all within the year. Besides aesthetic benefits, the Engineering Department said such projects increase the likelihood of receiving post-disaster funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Kolhage doesn’t want the city to pay nearly a half a million dollars for the planning and designing phase of the Smathers project. “I’d want to see more spent on the sand and not the placement of the sand,” he said. Flowers told the commission the state says the design phase is necessary given the sensitive nature of sea grass, adding that particulars like grain size and color are scrutinized by DEP. “We are getting taken for a ride,” Kolhage said. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”

More Florida Keys Beaches.