Documenting St Lucie River and Lake Okeechobee, Saturday, June 13, 2020
Today’s post includes two sets of photos taken from two different planes: the Supercub and the Baron. The Supercub is the classic yellow “River Warrior” open-air plane, and the Baron is a closed cockpit twin-engine with the distinctive upturned wing-tip. The Supercub can fly low and slow, the Baron can fly higher and faster. Both offer unique perspectives to photograph our waterways.
I.
Dr. Scott Kuhns and Steve Schimming shared photos taken from the Supercub in the morning hours of Saturday, 6-13-20. Scott uses a quality Nikon camera thus his photos offer a wider or closer perspective. Thank you Scott and Steve, long time River Warriors and friends. Their photos reveal the coffee color of the St Lucie following torrential rains.
Canal systems dumping fresh water into SLR presently is primarily from C-23 and C-24. Good for the S.L. the SFWMD is advocating and the ACOE is allowing the water in the C-44 to run back into L.O. as lake was not in “ecological envelope.”Note: presently there are no discharges from LO into the SLR. ~Image SFWMD
St Lucie Inlet
Confluence SLR/IRLLooking southt to St Lucie Inlet and Jupiter NarrowsSeagrasses looking bleak
SandbarSandbarSandbarBird Island IRLPhotos Dr Scott Kuhns: Sewall’s Point
II.
This next set of aerials was taken by my husband, Ed Lippisch, and myself the same day, 6-13-20, a few hours later, closer to noon. Again, it is important to note the St Lucie area recently experienced particularly heavy rains, only Broward County and parts of Miami- Dade had more. So we can learn about this, I am sharing the most recent Water Conditions Report of the SFWMD for details of all the St Lucie and all south and central Florida. See link under Rainfall Distribution Comparison slide below.
The first group of photos from Ed and I in the Baron is of the St Lucie River and the second set is of algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee. NOTE THE ACOE IS NOT DISCHARGING INTO THE ST LUCIE AT THIS TIME.
We continue to document and thank all who are working towards projects and ways of life that better water quality in the state of Florida. We know what we need to do!
Sailfish Flats IRLExiting St Lucie Inlet looking south along Jupiter Narrows/Jupiter IslandPlume becoming visibleLooking back again into southern edge of SL Inlet
Now back at the St Lucie River and St Lucie Inlet at higher altitudeSt Lucie River/Indian River LagoonSailfish Point St Lucie River/Indian River LagoonPlume from higher perspectiveVeteran’s Bridge in Palm City looking back to Stuart, note Witham Field and ocean in distanceCircling around- Hobe Sound looking north to St Lucie Inlet.Heading west over Atlantic Ridge natural areaApproaching Lake O. FPL cooling pond visible.S-308 at L.O. and C-44 CanalMy brother Todd Thurlow’s website shows that algae in L.O. is now showing on low resolution satellite imagery: Terra, Aqua, Suomi: http://eyeonlakeo.com/LakeO3x7days.html; http://eyeonlakeo.comalgae bloom southern rimalgae bloom like this was basically throughout southern area of lake, but denser in some areas and not so dense in others….Ed’s palne GPS, present location south L.O.South Lake O over southern rimLakeO lapping towards Port Mayaca not FPL cooling pond, this area is by far the most algae ridden
Lake OLake OLake OLots of algae in Lake Okeechobee
MOVIE:
Now after flying west again over Lake Okeechobee algae here as well but more spread out
