Ashley Henriquez one of Reef Relief's policy team in Tallahassee at Florida Oceans Day
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2012) — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 will have a large economic impact on the U.S. Gulf fisheries. A new study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) says that over 7 years this oil spill could have a $US8.7 billion impact on the economy of the Gulf of Mexico. This includes losses in revenue, profit, and wages, and close to 22 000 jobs could be lost.
“Unlike the visually obvious and immediate effects on birds and mammals, the effects of oil on fisheries can be more difficult to detect, though they are no less devastating,” says lead author U. Rashid Sumaila. “Oil and hydrocarbons are taken up by plankton and other surface-dwelling species that link to aquatic food chains.” This in turn affects the fishing industry. Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120217115553.htm
NRDC Action Alert
A new EPA proposal would consider acceptable beach water pollution that would let 1 in 28 beachgoers get sick. The Environmental Protection Agency had promised to update beach pollution regulations but these are virtually the same standards it issued in 1986. Before the February 21st comment deadline, urge the EPA to protect our health and strengthen its proposal. Learn more about this issue »
Subject: Docket #EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0466 – Protect public health at U.S. beaches
Executive Director Mill McCleary, Reef Relief Director of Marine Projects, Rudy Bonn, Key West's Mayor Craig Cates and Reef Relief Board President, Peter Anderson
Reef Relief and the City of Key West, having both adopted Resolution # 12-025, approved by the City Commission of Key West on January 4, 2012, turns over management and maintenance of Key West Marine Park (KWMP) for a period of three years.
BACKGROUND
Reef Relief founders DeeVon and Craig Quirolo first established the park in cooperation with the City of Key West and Monroe County in 2001. The marine park runs along south side of the island from the White Street Pier to the end of Duval Street, extending seaward 600 feet. The original agreement between Reef Relief and the City of Key West stated that Reef Relief would manage and maintain the park for a period of five years, and upon expiration of the term of that agreement, the management and maintenance of the park would revert back to the City of Key West. The Spottswood Companies, Southernmost Hotel Collection, Wyndham Resorts, and funds provided by Florida’s Coastal Management Program through NOAA helped in the conception of Key West Marine Park in 2001.
In 2010, Reef Relief approached the City staff about resuming management of the Marine Park and to utilize the park and its resources as an educational and outreach tool to visitors and local residents alike focusing on the importance of protecting and conserving the marine environment of the Florida Keys.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a Letter of Consent to the City to turn responsibility for the park over to Reef Relief.
PARK RESOURCES
The living marine environment of the protected ~ 40 acre park include sea grass meadows which serve as nursery habitat to a variety of fishes and invertebrates; they also serve to trap bottom sediments and prevent their re-suspension.
The park’s live bottom habitats provide a firm substrate for the attachment of benthic organisms such as sponges, sea fans, and sea whips; mobile organisms such as sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, worms, and others are also found here and are specially adapted for survival in this particular environment.
Stony corals are also present within the boundaries of the marine park, especially along the southern edge of the old Higgs Beach Pier where they find suitable substrate for attachment and growth.
Fishes are also plentiful with a variety of different species occupying the various niches found within the marine park. While snorkeling through the marine park, one may encounter nurse sharks, snappers, groupers, grunts, butterfly and angel fishes, and the invasive lion fish. The opportunities for video and still photography of these resources are excellent when you consider that the maximum depth of the park is ~10 feet.
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
These living marine resources and their associated habitats will be interpreted to the public through educational signage, brochures, and a nature center through a partnership with Monroe County and the Higgs Beach Development Project.
Threats to these resources, along with current mitigation and restoration strategies will also be interpreted to those utilizing this unique educational and outreach tool. Climate change and its possible affects is one example of the treats facing these systems.
Reef Relief’s primary goal is the protection and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. One of our main objectives in accomplishing that goal is to raise awareness of the need to protect and conserve these vital resources among the general public and to those that depend on a healthy marine environment such as the fishermen, the charter boat fleets, the dive shops, and all the other businesses that are dependent upon a sustainable marine environment.
KWMP provides us with the opportunity to accomplish this important goal in a very unique setting—direct observation and interpretation of the living marine resources of the Florida Keys.
DEDICATION
The official dedication of Key West Marine Park will be Saturday March 31, 2012 at Salute’ on the Beach. From 6-10pm Reef Relief will celebrate our 25th Anniversary. With special guest Howard Livingston and Mile Marker 24, Salute’s will provide food and cash bar. Tickets are available now for $15 and $20 at the door. Proceeds will benefit Reef Relief’s the marine park and other Reef Relief programs.
Reef Relief depends upon your support, please visit our web site, www.reefrelief.org, and learn how you can become a part of this vitally important effort to protect and conserve our coral reef ecosystem for both present and future generations.
A national environmental group has sent state Reps. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, and Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, a letter urging them to put a stop to a controversial Florida fertilizer bill.
A pollution warning sign along the Caloosahatchee River (Pic by Florida Water Coalition)
Though the Senate version of the bill died in committee this week, the House version is still alive, but faces tough odds. It was TPed this morning during a meeting of the State Affairs Committee (for which McKeel acts as chair, and Mayfield acts as vice chair).
According to a letter sent by Ocean River Institute President Rob Moir, the bill would “strip counties of their rights to responsible environmental stewardship” and would prove “a major setback for county governments that have enacted ordinances to reduce summer stormwater runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus into waterways.” Read the full story at http://floridaindependent.com/68403/fertilizer-bill-ocean-river-institute-seth-mckeel-debbie-mayfield
The Beach Act of 2000 gave the EPA a chance to vastly improve protection of the nation’s swimmers and surfers from pathogen-caused illnesses — an opportunity that seems about to be wasted.
By Mark Gold. LA Times
February 7, 2012
When Congress approved the Beach Act in 2000, I was hopeful. The law required the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal standards for water quality that would protect beach users from pathogen-caused illnesses, and it called for modernizing an outdated approach to measuring beach water quality. I believed it had the potential to make beaches far safer for the nation’s swimmers and surfers.
But since the act was passed, little has changed. Although the EPA did set aside some funding (about $10 million annually) for beach water monitoring programs, the agency dragged its feet on developing standards. It was only after the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the EPA (I served as an unpaid expert witness in that suit) that the agency agreed, in a consent decree, to complete epidemiological studies and to develop and analyze new, rapid methods for detecting fecal bacteria in recreational waters. The agency also agreed to set new beach water quality standards by the end of 2012.
Setting those standards presents a huge opportunity. But I fear it’s about to be wasted. In late December, the EPA released its draft standards, and they were not only a disappointment, they were weaker than the 1986 standards they will replace. Rather than providing strong guidelines that are consistent for all of the nation’s waters, the EPA has decided to allow states to set their own beach-specific criteria. Past experience with this approach suggests it’s highly unlikely that much will improve. Read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gold-beach-water-safety-20120207,0,3130743.story
By RYAN McCARTHY. Keynoter
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:08 AM EST
Keys Energy Services is making the most of a state Clean Energy Grant it was awarded last summer. The most recent initiative — a pair of wind turbines — has been getting noticed a lot lately at the Lower Keys utility’s Cudjoe Key substation.
Keys Energy spokesman Julio Barroso said the utility plans to track how much energy the turbines produce and make the information available on its website. Barroso said the plan was to install one on Cudjoe Key and another on Stock Island, but instead both were put in the same location.
The smaller turbine is 35 feet tall, the maximum height allowed under county rules. Keys Energy got a waiver to install the other one at 52 feet.
“It’s always been said the Keys aren’t a good area for wind generation. Our thinking was to gain some information and see if height had something to do with it,” he said. “They’re definitely there for a year and we’ll see if we want to keep them both there or move another to perhaps the Stock Island substation. There’s no plans one way or the other.”
ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) — Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Florida International University (FIU) researchers have drafted a plan to best prepare South Florida for an oil spill off the coast of Cuba.
The proximity of intended Cuban oil drilling and production puts the U.S. coastal zone at risk from Florida to the Carolinas and northward. Oil from a spill would quickly enter the Gulf Stream and reach Florida’s shores in hours or days with potentially devastating effects on the densely populated South Florida coastline and its coastal ecosystems. South Florida’s accounts for 3.4 million jobs and 45 percent of the $587 billion contribution to Florida’s GDP generated by coastal and ocean economic activity.
Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130093113.htm
