My husband, Ed, took these photos of the Indian River Lagoon at the St Lucie Inlet on 2-28-18, just a few days ago. They are certainly beautiful enough to sell real estate…The turquoise water is so pretty one could easily overlook the sand desert below the surface waters.
Enjoy the blue water, but know that especially since 2013, our seagrass beds have been decimated by black sediment filled waters and toxic discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Seagrasses are the nursery for all sea life, especially the baby fish. These beds need time to reestablish if they ever will.
True beauty has something to offer, not just “surface water.” Keep your eye on the lake and fight against any coming releases this summer so we can get life back in our dear dead river.
Lake O level, ACOE: http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/currentLL.shtml
The Importance of Seagrasses, FWC: http://myfwc.com/research/habitat/seagrasses/information/importance/
My fear is, the most unscrupulous of agency types, politicos without a connection to this place, and those who work for the growers, developers, etc. see these pics and think, well there’s nothing left to damage anyway so on with the status quo.
And then there is the camp that feels general overpopulation and unbridled growth is to blame for these stark images, not a singlet action or even a primary and secondary action (or cause).
Of course, we know the death of these grasses is caused by one action primarily–Lake O discharges.
Mike I agree with you but for me most importantly we cannot just use a Water Quality report to judge where we are. There must be a seagrass report and other important factors included for a final “score.” Then—teaching the young people to read it such. Just the A, B, C, D, F chart for WQ is totally misleading and makes it LOOK like things are better with on a true/deeper level they have not recovered….Take care Mike and I hope all is well with you. Jacqui
Thanks Jacqui and Ed for your constant and consistent messages for clean water and natural treasure protection. Effective and needed messages. Thanks always!
Thank you Mike. Always love hearing from you.
Why didn’t you people that live in Sewells Pt. when given the opportunity to switch to city sewage and get off your septic tanks go for it?we all know Septic Tanks pollute.
I was not on the commission at that time. I served from 2008-2016. It is not the people; it is the commission.
Jacqui , Your so right about the problem and as soon as summer comes with it’s rains we’ll be back in the same situation with discharges coming out of the Lake. We need to get clean ,clear oxygen rich water into the lagoon and the only way to do that is to open vents to the ocean at some of the ancient inlets like Blind Creek and or Mud Creek. These don’t have to be for navigation but for ventilation. This will allow the sea grass to reestablish .
I wish I could get someone on board with this approach because I don’t see any other way to save what we have in the near future. Thanks for looking Doug
Thank you for this comment. I believe they have been discussing this idea in IR County or Brevard, but that is a far as the idea has gone. By not allowing nature to open up the inlets as she wishes, creating permanent inlets where in many cases they never existed before, and not allowing the barrier islands to “turn over,” we worsen our plight. I wish too we would allow some of the old/ancient inlets to reopen.
When I was on the catwalk under the bridge by your railroad trusle(last summer) It smelt like the top of a sewage treatment plant. Right now we are haveing a situation here and I am doing my best to not let there be a fish kill. I have some help. They are doing bridge work in Sikes creek. This should release lots of desolved oxygen. There are lots of things I see—like fish and porpus gathering where I put shells. This summer you guys should come and see our sea turtles nest. There are a thousand times more nest than there was in 2010.
This week end I put shell so the north wind would churn violently in them. I did this on the Banana River side of the 528 causeway. The causeway is calcium shell so you only have to walk 10 foot and put it in. Eventualy the acid in the waves will desolve it releasing desolved oxygen. Here in Brevard you can bet some people are going to pitch a BIG one so they can get what THEY want. I suppose you could stop a fish kill in a emergancy but all estuaries are brackish for a reason. Salt is a preservative and nutriants will not break down in salt water like they will in fresh or brackish.
Aloha Jacqui,
Just wanted to thank you for all the hard work and the great info you have been putting on your blog about the real concern about Lake Okeechobee and the blue green algae threat. Sincerely, Erik
On Fri, Mar 2, 2018, 8:56 AM Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch wrote:
> Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch posted: ” My husband, Ed, took these photos of the > Indian River Lagoon at the St Lucie Inlet on 2-28-18, just a few days ago. > They are certainly beautiful enough to sell real estate…The turquoise > water is so pretty one could easily overlook the sand d” >
Thank you so much Erik. All the best! Aloha 🙂
I think the cycle that is going on here will have to happen there before you will have sea grass. Bacteria feeding on algie MUST be able to complete the cycle and not suck all the oxygen up and cause a fish kill.