“Visit Florida” is Florida’s tag line for tourism.
(http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us.html)
And yes, in recent years, Florida has had a record numbers of tourists visit. In fact, tourism is the state’s #1 industry.
With Florida’s present water woes, one wonders if tourism can hold its # 1 place for our economy.
The life blood of this state has always been its waters, and right now the waters of our state are running with blood…but our government does not see this, nor are they listening, not empathically anyway.
This disconnect is clear by the Governor’s response to the recent Central Indian River Lagoon fish kill that lauds state agencies for their clean up work rather than noting the severity of the situation:(https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLDEP/bulletins/13f39d0)
Yes the Governor’s office and the state legislature are “working hard, “but a 30 year “Best Management Practices –Total Maximum Daily Load” plan and a watered down Amendment 1 compromise are not enough. The status quo response is trashing tourism. It is trashing the waters of the state. Let’s get to work and show a sense of urgency so people will continue to visit Florida in the future.
This weekend I received an on-the-ground account of th Central IRL from blogger Jansen Jones : (http://phostracks.com/). Thank you Jansen.
JTL blog post: Death in Every Direction, the State of Florida’s Waters: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2016/03/21/death-in-every-direction-the-state-of-floridas-waters-slrirl/)
Thank you John Moran for allowing his photos to be shared and making a special trip to the IRL to photograph. Mr Moran can be contacted at (http://springseternalproject.org)
I have a theory as to what happened. Right now lagoon waters are as low as they have been all year. I think all the acid that has built up along the shores has been washed into the lagoon by heavy rains and this acidification removed the oxygen in some places . Places where calcium deposits are located still have fish and porpus seem to know this. I have done a few thing but I am only one person and the magnitude of problem is BIG.
I just got an e-mail from our lagoon house waunting me to help pass out pamplets to at least 40 schools–maby more— Brain washing our kids with false info and using them as a tool to falsely accuse people of killing the lagoon with their septic tanks –lawn clippings and dog poop. I am sure this has more about sending everyone a utility bill for sewer hookup than saveing the lagoon. What chance do I have with me telling one person at a time. Yesterday I ate at a little resteraunt on the water. Last summer I would get my calcium from my under water source and would eat lunch at this same resteraunt . Sea grass is growing back thick where I put shells– where I parked my boat.
I hope that you don’t pass out those pamphlets. I have to swear at my TV everytime I see the good US Sugar adds too. I love the photos you’ve shared Jacqui and have shared them too on Facebook and Twitter. More people need to step up and raise their voices to complain!
Thanks for pushing forward, Jacqui. Keep pushing!
Thx 4 your work!