Environment

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Southwest Floridians have unfortunately become well familiar with harmful algal blooms, after last year’s massive blue-green algae bloom that started in Lake Okeechobee and wound up choking the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary. And, the nearly year and a half long offshore red tide bloom that stretched from Collier County to…

The South Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board recently voted to substantially increase the amount of water quality monitoring that’s conducted in the Northern Everglades watersheds, and in Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River. The board voted unanimously to increase the number of monitoring stations from 161 to 243, and increase…

Southwest Florida is in some ways on the front lines of the global battle against harmful algal blooms. On yesterday’s show we met an ethnobotanist who has spent decades, along with his team of world class researchers, exploring the possible connections between the toxins produced by blue-green algae and neurodegenerative disorders…

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced the appointments of 11 researchers to a reinvigorated task force looking into combating red tide. The most recent red tide outbreak was the longest one in memory. …

Congress recently approved $6.25 million to study how red tide algae blooms affect people’s health. Multiple facilities in Sarasota will work together on the research. …

The Everglades Agricultural Area – or EAA – Reservoir was initially proposed as a component of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan , or CERP, which was authorized by Congress in 2000. The reservoir, south of Lake Okeechobee, was planned to hold at least 240-thousand acre-feet of water, and include water quality…

Back in 2014, 12 coral species received protection under the Endangered Species Act , but they still have not received the critical habitat protection the law requires to be designated within one year. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service , seeking…