If 95% Of The Reef Is Dead – What’s the Point of Trying to Protect the Surviving 5%?

 

 

The other day, I had lunch at Coco’s Kitchen on Big Pine Key with Dr. Brian La Pointe, who has home there and also a home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Our meeting was initiated by Joel Biddle, of Key West, who used to work for Reef Relief.

Before going into what Brian and I discussed, here are his professional credentials, as he stated them to me.

B.S. Biology, Boston University, 1973

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 1973-1977

M.S., Environmental Engineering, University of Florida, 1979

PhD., Biology (Marine), University of South Florida, 1982

As Brian told it to me …

It was he, who first argued that increased salinity in the Bay of Florida caused by droughts and/or diminished sheet water flow through the Everglades had nothing to do with the dying of the Florida Keys coral reef, which now is 95 percent dead.

It was he, who first argued that the death of the reef was due to south Florida farm chemical runoff, principally nitrogen, but also phosphates and other chemicals, into the Everglades, which chemicals made their way through the Everglades, into the Bay of Florida, and from there to the Florida Keys, and started killing the reef.

The chemical run-off also increased the acidity of the water in the Everglades, which ended up in the Bay of Florida. To add perspective, a PH of 7 is neutral. A PH of 6, is 100 times more acidic than a PH of 7. A PH of 5 is 1,000 times more acidic than a PH of 7. A PH of 4 is 10,000 times more acidic than a PH of 7. And so on.

Reef Relief, then headed by the Quirolos, its founders, was the only outfit who sided with Brian. Last Stand, NOAA [National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration], Congress, the White House, Tallahassee, Big Sugar, all held to the view that increased salinity was killing the reef, even though the reef is in the Atlantic Ocean, where salinity was high compared to the normal or Big Sugar-altered salinity of the Bay of Florida.

Eventually, litigation and Brian’s view won out, and Big Sugar was required to stop sugar farm chemical run-off into the Everglades. That was achieved by diverting the chemical run-off into Lake Okeechobee, which created problems for that lake’s ecology. It also created problems for the Sebastian Inlet and Stuart communities on the east Florida coast, and the Port St. Lucie community on the west Florida coast, because those communities received Big Sugar’s chemical run-off via a cross-state canal into which Lake Okeechobee drained.

The chemical run-off from Lake Okeechobee killed native sea grass on which manatee fed. The chemical run-off fed the red seaweed known as gracilaria, also known as the red tide algae, which multiplied exponentially. The manatee started eating red seaweed, which was poisonous to them, and they started getting sick and dying. Sebastian Inlet, Stuart and Port St. Lucie got up in arms, demanded relief from the Big Sugar run-off from Lake Okeechobee.

Tallahassee recently decided to start letting Big Sugar send its chemical run-off back into the Everglades. Brian then went to Tallahassee and testified before a Florida Senate committee about what had happened in the past, and what the renewed discharge of dirty water into the Everglades will do the the Everglades, the Bay of Florida, and what little remains of the coral reef in the Florida Keys. The state senators did not seem pleased to receive this news.

Later, Brian spoke with Florida US Senator Bill Nelson about the same thing. It seemed to be news to Nelson, who said he was glad to get the information, it was a complicated situation.

I told Brian I was going to write this up. It might have a few little mistakes caused by my ignorance, which will have to be corrected. It will be written so a 3rd-grader can understand it.

Therefore, I say, Bull Shit! It is not a complicated situation. The Everglades, the Bay of Florida, the reef, the manatee, Mother Nature, are infinitely more important than Big Sugar. Put Big Sugar out of business in south Florida. Put its employees on workmen’s compensation.

When I summarized all of that to Naja Girard, she is the current President of Last Stand and co-publishes Key West the Newspaper with her husband Arnaud, I said it now may not matter what happens. 95 percent of the reef is dead. What’s the point of trying to protect the surviving 5 percent?

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As for cruise ships’ impact on the reef, speaking for the Chamber of Commerce at the Westin Hotel’s referendum forum last week, Robin Lockwood, M.D. said the dirtiest, worst possible cruise ships are calling on Key West, and that’s why the channel needs to be widened, so the longer, bigger, super clean and green cruises ships can call on Key West after the channel is dredged wider in 20 years. Jolly Benson, who was the PAC speaker against the dredging, told me after the forum that he heard Lockwood tell someone he should not have said that about the dirtiest cruise ships calling on Key West.

During the next channel dredging forum, at the Tennessee Williams Theater at Florida Keys Community College, I reminded Lockwood of what he had said at the Westin forum, and then I asked him why he and the Chamber were not raising bloody hell about getting Key West to stop receiving the dirtiest cruise ships in the world? Lockwood said he had not said that at the previous forum. Jolly Benson, again the speaker against the channel dredging study, said Lockwood did say that. Then, Jolly asked for a show of hands in the audience of who else had heard Lockwood say it. About 20 hands raised, including Naja Girard’s.

After that forum ended, Jolly told me the Westin forum was videoed and went up on YouTube, but was taken down in 2 hours time. Jolly said he tried to get a copy of the video from the Chamber, and they refused to give it to him, said it was theirs.

During the next channel dredging forum, at Key West High School, Jennifer Hulse, the lawyer for the Chamber’s pack, kept saying during her opening remarks that the Army Corps of Engineers would not let Key West do anything that would harm the environment.

When the audience was invited by Bill Becker to ask the panelists questions, I raised my hand. Bill told me to proceed. I said my question was for Jolly Benson. Tell us about times when the Corps of Engineers did not protect the environment on the mainland. Jolly reeled off a few times, starting with Port Everglades and the Everglades.

Jennifer kept saying the referendum is not about widening the channel or cruises ships, but is only about gathering information, a line she has used all along, even as she has chastised audiences for not being sensitive to the economic impact cruise ships have on the Key West economy and employees of companies which do business with cruise ships.

The third pannelist was John Dolan-Heitlinger, who started a harbor pilots PAC, but actually works for Ed Swift, which John never says at forums. John says straight up that the channel needs to be widened, so Key West can receive the newer, bigger cruise ships … in 10, 15 or 20 years.

Jennifer talked more than Jolly and John combined. She repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jolly. She guaranteed the audience, if the referendum fails to pass, the Chamber will keep pushing for channel dredging. She repeatedly accused Jolly of misrepresenting the facts, and then she started accusing Naja of misrepresenting the facts in her newspaper. Someone in front of me said, “The pot calling the kettle black.”

Jennifer told the audience everyone had to get together, the study had to happen. From the floor, I said, NO WAY EVERYONE’S GOING TO GET TOGETHER.

When Bill Becker, who moderated the forum with Ezra Marcus, asked before the action began, if there was anyone in the audience who had not already made up his/her mind on the referendum?, no hands raised.

Sloan Bashinsky

 

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