On December 31st, the eve of 2024, Ed photographed our region. On a bright sunny day after the settling of heavy El Nino rains, the camera revealed a world of beauty. Stubborn water quality problems and lack of seagrass habitat for wildlife persist but we are thankful for policy shifts that since 2019, have spared the St. Luice River major damaging, toxic discharges from Lake Okeechobee, and it shows.

El Nino’s guaranteed rains through spring,  an entrenched legislative culture of protections for agriculture and development, and a lake sitting today at 15.97 will make this blue beauty difficult to hold.

But for today, it is a beautiful new year. Happy 2024 to everyone and may we continue to to speak out at any cost and may we continue to shine the light. J &E

~The St. Lucie River Indian River Lagoon 

~Hell’s Gate, Sewall’s Point and Hutchinson Island where darker estuary waters collide with the incoming ocean

~St. Lucie Inlet at today’s Sailfish Point, Hutchinson Island 

~Boats fishing over the reef off of Peck’s Lake in the blue and beautiful Atlantic Ocean. It is widely reported that only 3% of reefs have survived warming, pollution, and other stressors.

~Manatee Pocket bottom right -looking towards St. Lucie Inlet

~Rocky Point and St. Lucie Inlet State Park south of inlet. The once 700 acres of seagrass mostly bare. Like a plant in one’s yard it is dormant in winter but should not be absent

~The C-23 Canal divides St. Luice and Marin counties discharging into the St. Lucie River and is highly polluted from agriculture and development’s runoff. Reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas are underway by the ACOE and hoped to be completed by 2032.