As many of our readers know I own a boating education school.
Since opening my business two years ago I have revised my Boating Education Course Curriculum six times.
My desire to always improve comes from my 30 years of Submarine training.
As I sat at my computer and began to outline revision six, I started to have second thoughts about adding a topic (as well as writing this column) on our ecosystem.
I weighed the risks associated with adding a topic that could be viewed as contentious to those students (and our readers) that did not see things the way I do.
But I reminded myself that deviating from who I am, and how I’ve lived my life thus far, would be a huge mistake.
Staying true to my core values of integrity, courage and commitment are the foundations that made me who I am today.
As I pecked away at the keyboard, I reminded myself that it was mandatory to have the integrity to tell the truth and not embellish the material.
It was compulsory to have the courage to teach what may be viewed as unpopular.
And finally, I was committed to tell my students (and readers) what the future of our waterways may look like without each of us making some changes.
I would like to preface this article as follows:
I am not a scientist, I do not work for the government, I’m not an aquatic engineer, I do not speak for others and I’m NOT writing this article to start a heated discussion or point fingers if it happens to conflict with the way you see things.
I’m also not suggesting that if you live in a particular area that has altered our estuary that you are to blame.
I am however, writing this column as a member of our community who has spent the last 41+ years of his life on the water all over the world, and who, over the past 10 years, has observed some very negative changes to our estuaries and gulf.
These changes have negatively affected fish, mammals, birds, water quality, the quality of life to homeowners, boaters and to our seasonal visitors that in the end, have adversely affected the livelihoods of those that depend on clean water for a living.
I am very concerned about our environment, and as a business owner I recognize many water centric businesses depend on a pristine estuary to provide an enjoyable experience for their customers.
I am presenting the data in this column which I believe to be historically accurate.
I have obtained it by conducting my own research and by having conversations with local residents whose families have lived in this area for well over 100 years.
I have included my own hypothesis as to how or why we are seeing such a severe degradation of our water quality.
I believe that “knowledge is power” in hopes that the information I provide below encourages others to “think out of the box” and to act in any way possible that in the end, helps contribute to a permanent solution to what has become a broken process.
I believe our current water conditions are a culmination of several poor choices both past and present by many different groups and organizations that live(d) and work(ed) in our surrounding communities.
To start, I believe there are literally dozens of factors coming into play that are affecting our estuaries. For instance, I do not believe the discharges from Lake Okeechobee are the single cause for our lingering Red Tide situation.
I believe our lingering Red Tide was/is being driven by decisions made as far back as the 1800’s. Let me explain.
There are many well documented articles and historical chronological documents outlining business decisions that have negatively affected our ecosystem dating as far back to 1800.
The most meaningful started Circa 1915 when the American advertising entrepreneur Barron Collier agreed to bankroll the construction of the Tamiami Trail.
To truly comprehend how the decision to build this road and two others affected our estuaries you will need to take a few minutes and study NOAA Chart 11426.
Once you have studied just how many tributaries once flowed through these areas you can trace routes’ 41, 776 and 771 with your finger.
If you look carefully, you will see how the above roads have all but blocked or disrupted the natural flows from/through the Myakka and Peace Rivers.
All of these rivers have/had a plethora of tributaries that should be flowing through marshes (filters) that help clean the waters that eventually made/make their way to Placida Harbor and Gasparilla Sound.
Without a doubt, we have unintentionally created near perfect artificial dams that have all but stopped the natural flow of water from these rivers and their tributaries.
Add new home developments, artificial canals and bodies of water controlled by locks and we have all but delivered the knockout blow to mother nature’s grand plan to keep our ecosystem healthy.
I believe there is a direct correlation between our lingering Red Tide and reduced water flow (flushing capabilities) that continues to have a direct impact on our water quality.
Now, let’s fast forward to Circa 1958-1960 and the construction of the Boca Grande Causeway.
The construction of this bridge cut off a significant flow of water to Placida Harbor and Gasparilla Sound and eventually to Lemon Bay (which the engineers forecasted prior to its construction).
Before the causeway, the area had an unrestricted flow of water from Eldred’s Marina to Uncle Henry’s Marina and had one of the most productive scallop beds and diverse selection of marine mollusk shells in southwest Florida.
You can view many of the locally harvested shells at the Johann Fust Community Library.
If anything, it makes you sad to see what was once so plentiful in these estuaries and the Gulf.
The next blow to our environment came from the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960’s. It was then that the Army Corps began dredging what is now the Intracoastal Waterway.
During dredging operations, the spoils (discharges) from the dredges formed waste islands such as Bird Island, the Sisters, and a vast number of other waste areas in and around Little Gasparilla, Don Pedro and Knight Islands.
Each of these diversions have contributed to a severe restriction/reduction of the natural water flow that once existed through these areas.
Adding yet another blow to this area was the decision to fill in the cut by Don Pedro Island which contributed further to the low water flow issues in the area.
Keep in mind, if water cannot flow, it cannot exchange hypoxic water (hypoxia is defined as low oxygenated water and is primarily a problem for estuaries and coastal waters where water flow has been disrupted by man-made structures) with fresh oxygenated water and thus adds another factor to our significantly degraded water quality.
One possible solution to improve this hypoxic water is to unplug the “clogged up toilet” by opening up flows between some of our barrier islands.
Doing this may be the catalysts needed to help improve our areas many dead zones. But water flow is not the only factor to our declining water health.
Part two of this column will explore just one of many areas that are in need of process improvement and will offer solutions that each of us can do to help restore and improve our estuaries.
