Environmental catastrophe in SW Florida

My family and I recently returned from our yearly summer vacation in the beautiful island of Sanibel.  We were extremely lucky to have missed the environmental catastrophe that is currently happening in all the southwest coast of Florida.  The last two days of our vacation we started to feel and see the effects of red tide on the beach, some dead fish and a burning sensation in our throats causing a cough and itchy eyes.  The pictures coming from Sanibel this week are horrific.  Large numbers of dead fish & sea mammals on the beach including dolphins, manatees, sea turtles and many more.

Red tide is nothing new to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but this year’s bloom is one the largest ever recorded. So far it has covered an unprecedented 150 miles of coast from Sarasota to Naples.  This is a perfect storm of environmental disaster.  The warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by global warming, combined with the release of nutrient-rich polluted water from Lake Okeechobee  (a direct result of toxic dumping by big agriculture), and the government’s refusal to reinforce the dikes around the Lake or build a reservoir for dirty water, have combined to make the red tide so much worse this year.  No matter where you sit in the political divide, this touches & affects all of us.  We must fight to protect our beaches and our wildlife.  We must demand action from our politicians and make them accountable when they refuse to act.

To paraphrase a famous movie quote “I AM MAD AS HELL AND I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE”

One of my favorite activities during my stay in Sanibel is to take pictures of wildlife.  The pictures below were taken at the beginning of July before the red tide arrived.   It was interesting to see that by the end of the month most of the birds were gone, no pelicans, no seabirds only the poor ospreys were left flying high looking for their next meal and none to be found.