After almost two years of no discharges from Lake Okeechobee and minimal rain in the past couple of months, Martin County’s waters are clearer than any time I have documented from 2013. Yesterday’s tail-end flight, 3-25-20, took Ed and I north along the coast from Bridge Road in Hobe Sound, to the St Lucie Inlet in Stuart.

For the first time I can ever remember, Ed and I could CLEARLY see the reefs below a sapphire-turquoise sea. We were amazed. “Can you believe this?” Ed and I repeated again and again during the windy flight. It was crystalline.

These reefs  are the northern extent of the Southeast Florida Reef Tract and have been heavily impacted by repeated Lake Okeechobee discharges and runoff from area canals C-23, C-24, C-44 as the water exits at the St Lucie Inlet and then flows south.

Yesterday’s fly-over was a sight for sore eyes; I am thankful for this time of healing for our ecosystem.

VIDEOS

Below: SEWALL’S POINT as we approach Witham Field in Stuart. Sewall’s Point is a peninsula lying between the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. The nearby St Lucie Inlet is the confluence of these two waterbodies that take on the discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Great to have a break!