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Lake O Red tide!


Capt. Troy

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1Tu3zne.jpgSeems all this started around the time of the Lake O release to the west side. The following pics show a few of the dead brood stock snook. There are hundreds upon Hundreds of egg filled snook. This is at Boca Grande Pass. Our water quality issues need to be addressed in this state. The older guides born and raised there say they have never seen anything to this magnitude.

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Saw that on facebook. When are the state or even federal politicians gonna get involved with this??????? I totally get the money Big Sugar gives to them, but if you wanna win these up coming election, get down there and talk about how your're gonna fix this if I vote for you. At the very least it will bring more awareness to the issue. It blows my mind how this is not a story everyday on local news. 

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2 hours ago, hurricane said:

Saw that on facebook. When are the state or even federal politicians gonna get involved with this??????? I totally get the money Big Sugar gives to them, but if you wanna win these up coming election, get down there and talk about how your're gonna fix this if I vote for you. At the very least it will bring more awareness to the issue. It blows my mind how this is not a story everyday on local news. 

It ain't big Sugar. It's mouse town and the draining from Mount Dora north to south. A straitened ditch from the valley from mouse town. 

Do some in depth research.  The flow charts will show where the nutrients come from.

Big sugar is bad. But play very little into the issue other than not directing water to the glades.

The dike is compromised or nearly at high lake levels. They have to let the water go or kill a thousand plus people when it fails. They drowned a bunch south of the lake before.

 

Water flows down hill and enters lake O from the north. The ditch called the river brings it at rates the lake can't handle as those pastures that set in water and filtered that water are ditched to drain for the next attraction or RV park.

The big developers love to claim agriculture is an issue. The same ones that ditch and drain every wet land to put in golf courses and concrete.

 

Those same big money guys are laughing the entire time and diverting the issue to agriculture verses their desire to ruin this state one development/ditch/drain at a time .

 

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What is the cause of the red tide?  If the nutrients from the drainage ditch are so harmful to the coastal waters, why arent they harming the fresh water fisheries they are draining through? 

I’ve read several articles on this and walk away scratching my head. All of those experts around the state and no real answers or solutions. 

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1 hour ago, rubble said:

What is the cause of the red tide?  If the nutrients from the drainage ditch are so harmful to the coastal waters, why arent they harming the fresh water fisheries they are draining through? 

I’ve read several articles on this and walk away scratching my head. All of those experts around the state and no real answers or solutions. 

Too much run off and too many people.

When you change salinity levels to accommodate the growth and alter the natural flow of mother nature to build and concrete this state it happens and is getting worse.

There is no red tide on the east coast per say. That estuary is being destroyed by nutrient loading from diverting the watershed to accommodate more development.

You can call it anything you want. Red Tide/ Green bloom or what ever.

 

 "If the nutrients from the drainage ditch are so harmful to the coastal waters, why arent they harming the fresh water fisheries they are draining through?"

 

I think I can answer that one. First off, they are. Second, the water is flowing and not mixing with salt water until it dead heads and changes the salinity levels in the estuary when dumped/ditched into the areas that are suffering.

The state has allowed diversion of natural water flow for many reasons. "All of them wrong"

The price will be paid sooner than later.

Much of the water in this state that flows that use to sit in wetlands is drained, funneled and sent at a rapid pace to accommodate development of those wet lands. No more natural filter and no more quality of life that many came here for.

I will try and find the documents of how fast water on the ground from mouse town reaches the big O today compared to 50 years ago when it set in pastures and prairies verses a dug ditch. It is a scary reality.

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16 hours ago, Capt. Troy said:

It ain't big Sugar. It's mouse town and the draining from Mount Dora north to south. A straitened ditch from the valley from mouse town. 

Do some in depth research.  The flow charts will show where the nutrients come from.

Big sugar is bad. But play very little into the issue other than not directing water to the glades.

The dike is compromised or nearly at high lake levels. They have to let the water go or kill a thousand plus people when it fails. They drowned a bunch south of the lake before.

 

Water flows down hill and enters lake O from the north. The ditch called the river brings it at rates the lake can't handle as those pastures that set in water and filtered that water are ditched to drain for the next attraction or RV park.

The big developers love to claim agriculture is an issue. The same ones that ditch and drain every wet land to put in golf courses and concrete.

 

Those same big money guys are laughing the entire time and diverting the issue to agriculture verses their desire to ruin this state one development/ditch/drain at a time .

 

Nailed it. It's funny how nobody wants to point to the fact that the EARS have asphalted over an entire water shed, that water goes South, right into the Lake. Nobody will call them out, big ag is always an easy target.

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It is every river that dumps into saltwater. Not just Lake O!

Ditch, Drain, Pave over or concrete the wet lands and this is what you get.

 

I live very close to the head waters of the Anclote river for around 58 years now. There is about 25 thousand acres of pasture land with cypress heads and sloughs that are now being developed at a rapid pace. All that water that set in those wet lands is being ditched and drained to the Anclote River. In the past 5 years just a good down pour and the black water plume hits the tip of Anclote Key in Just a few days and extends into the open gulf. It used to take weeks for that to happen and never was this bad.

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And here is why they are scared of the lake levels

1928

Forty miles west, rain filled Lake Okeechobee to the brim, then a wind from the north began pushing tons of lake water to the south. The dikes crumbled, and water rushed onto the swampy farmland. Homes and people were swept away.

Almost 2,000 people perished.

The Dike ain't in that good of shape today either.

 

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I understand to the totality of the cause and effect. My point is the silence from all the politicians during a run up to an election. This is place where they could win peoples votes, but for them the financial gain from industry (sugar, mousetown, or whoever) is more important, than the people and our environment. 

Maybe they could talk about pushing for federal funding for dike repairs, so it could hold the water, maybe a plan to move it south, anything but acknowledge the problem. Whatever it is, but lets at least hear one of them talk about this issue. I see all these political commercials where these guys are outdoors or standing near some pristine body of water, yet this is happening while they stand there with their hand out for donations from industry.

Maybe Im wrong, maybe they are trying to do something and I don't see it. However if I as voter don't see it, you as a politician ain't doing it right!

 

This is also very frustrating. 

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article213275689.html

 

Here's a quote from the article that drives me nuts with all these amendments we vote on. Im not a legal scholar and thats what it takes to understand the entirety of something like this. My perceived intent is what Im voting on.

"But attorney Andy Bardos, representing the House and Senate, said the court’s decision should be based on the written text of the amendment, not a perceived intent of the voters, which he called “pure speculation.”"

 

 

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45 minutes ago, hurricane said:

I understand to the totality of the cause and effect. My point is the silence from all the politicians during a run up to an election. This is place where they could win peoples votes, but for them the financial gain from industry (sugar, mousetown, or whoever) is more important, than the people and our environment. 

Maybe they could talk about pushing for federal funding for dike repairs, so it could hold the water, maybe a plan to move it south, anything but acknowledge the problem. Whatever it is, but lets at least hear one of them talk about this issue. I see all these political commercials where these guys are outdoors or standing near some pristine body of water, yet this happening while they stand there with their hand out for donations from industry.

I don't live in Florida anymore but I'm guessing there are no term limits on the entrenched politicians.  That, and the fact that the establishment politicians, big developers, big Non-US farms, and the mainstream media are all economically connected, perpetuates the problem and solves little or nothing.  Most of what we get on The Newscast, are filler stories (and the same old canned political ads) which keep us distracted from what's really going on - the stuff we really need to be aware of - the stuff that the politicians would otherwise be held accountable for.  I'm glad to see a small victory in favor of what the voters in Florida demanded, over what the slick congressmen think they can get away with.  However, it doesn't reverse the further damage that has been done to the delicate Florida watershed.

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Did you ever wonder why the water level in Lake O needs to be kept as high as it is? It is used as an irrigation reservoir for the farms surrounding the lake. Since the authorities have to guess how much rainfall will occur (something they are incapable of doing), they tend to err on the side of having too much water in the lake rather than too little. When unexpected amounts of rain occur in the areas which drain into the lake, the authorities are faced with dumping highly polluted water out to both coasts (and lately straight south to Florida Bay) or risking a collapse of the dike resulting in the potential deaths of thousands of folks living south of the lake.

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Voting for liars does nothing to save our wet lands. This mess has being going on for a long time and getting worse. It is talked about at every election, promises are made and nothing has been done by any party.They have all lied.

MYFWC.com Research.
Has coastal (nutrient) pollution caused the Florida red tide?
In contrast to the many red tide species that are fueled by nutrient pollution associated with urban or agricultural runoff, there is no direct link between nutrient pollution and the frequency or severity of red tides caused by K. brevis. Florida red tides develop 10-40 miles offshore, away from man-made nutrient sources. Red tides occurred in Florida long before human settlement, and severe red tides were observed in the mid-1900s before the state’s coastlines were heavily developed. However, once red tides are transported inshore, they are capable of using man-made nutrients for their growth.

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The politician that isn't a liar is a loser, and that's just the way it is. Even if they just talk, or tell lies and even break promises, that will keep the awareness going and reaching more people. The more people that are made aware of the issue the more and more the liars will be forced to take real action.  

Until a large majority of the state is aware of this, it will continue. Ask you friends who don't fish if they know about this issue, I bet don't. 

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I actually saw a story on our local news last night, channel 10. Couldn't sleep last night so I caught the 11 o'clock news. They showed video of dead Goliath Grouper and Manatee on the beach near Boca Grande. Hoping this media coverage can continue all the way up the coast to Tallahassee.

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It is unbelievable, mind blowing how they can continue to kill animals. . Luckily Florida is not California, but if it was this would be the biggest National News story of the month.

 

Wouldn't these affected beaches and cities have a law suit against the state and feds, similar to the BP oil spill?

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Nailed it with the sources of the problems.  Look at Google Earth sometime and see how almost all of peninsular Florida's watersheds start in Orange, Osceola and Polk counties.  The Kissimmee River is the headwater of Lake O and the glades.  Reedy Creek and Shingle Creek feed the lakes that feed the Kissimmee River.  Then on the east side you have the headwaters of the St. Johns which has its own set of problems.  The Peace River feeds north Charlotte Harbor gets it's start in the lakes around Winter Haven and Polk County and the wetlands in the flatwoods to the west which have been decimated by phosphate mining.  No one problem and no one solution.  Its a complex water quality and quantity issue.  Ag has long gotten the stink eye over this but probably has done the most to help clean its act up.  Those nutrients that run off a farm aren't cheap so farmers don't really like paying for fertilizer to run off the farm when they are having trouble keeping up with foreign competition and rising labor costs/shortages.

We are dumping billions of gallons out both sides of Lake O during the summer and pumping billions from the aquifer at the same time.  

But I still can't figure out how discharge from Lake O affects a red tide that runs from BG pass up to Siesta Key.  Not saying it doesn't but think there is even more at play.

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The issues are wide spread.

You simply can not allow growth to go unchecked.

The infrastructure, the roads, the environment and watershed can not support the ditch and drain of  our natural wetlands.

 

I'm fighting a battle right now in my hood. Millions of acres of dirt as fill and the owner wants to back fill and build homes to the tune of 4 per acre and then if it doesn't fit his need he will go to high rises. Then, section 8 as he calls it to get what he wants approved to circumvent the policy and long term plans of Odessa as a community.

 

Alabama here I come or maybe Alaska.

The waters of this state are sending a message from one end to the other.

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