bzalmano

Gang enough is enough!

Big Sugar and Cattle farming is ruining our environment and because they donate huge amounts of money to political campaigns they still get away with it. Gov. Bush assigned a Sugar Man to the SFL water management district (to be read fox guarding the hen house). The only way this is going to stop is if we, fisherman and boaters, can show that the economic impact that we have is greater than that of Sugar which it is, and that we actually care and are willing to vote in a matter that shows we care. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue there are many people on both sides in Tallahassee and Washington that agree with the fact that something needs to change so you need to pay attention to the individual not the party. What is more important is to let yourself be heard nothing sways politicians more than their electorate letting them know what they want.

If you can get a copy there is a very good article in the April 2006, Florida Sportsman which gives a good summary of the problem.

For more info Please check out:
Riverscoalition.org
Purre.org

If you are a FL resident please let your local politicians know how you feel. Since the Everglades is a National Park everybody can let their Senators and Congress Men know how they feel.

Hayzus

How about all the farms upstream in the Kissimmee River basin? That's truly where all the pollution is coming from; Big Sugar and the gov't just won't let the water go south like it's supposed to. The water that BS pumps back into the Lake during wet times is actually alot cleaner than the water that's in the Lake or comes down from Kissimmee.

As far as the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Lucie Estuary, it's all but ruined...probably will take 10-30 years to get back to a resemblance of healthy again.

__________________
1998 Seaswirl Striper 2300WA E-tec 200HO

bzalmano

Hayzus, I agree with you that the farms and cattle ranches upstream are causing considerable damage by over fertilizing. The run off of this fertilizer and the manure is causing some major problems. This along with the artificially high water levels in the lake which are because of BS is the issue. The article in FL Sportsman along with many other articles outlines many of these problems some of which could be solved very quickly and start a recovery process.

I think you are a little pessimistic then I am as far as the estuaries go, if we would stop flooding them with extremely polluted fresh water they would come back faster than you might think and even if it takes 10-30 years is that a reason not to try! This is the biggest issue that FL fisherman have to deal with and we have to deal with it NOW. If we continue to stall and wait it may really become to late.

Hayzus

Oh no doubt BZ, all I meant by that is that the damage is done, it's going to take awhile to bounce back. It just upsets me that the gov't, SFWMD, and the Army Corp of Engineers allowed this to happen; mostly because Big Sugar threw millions of dollars at the government and wmd to keep the lake high for dry times and then to flood the two outlets (Coosalahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers) vs. sending it the way nature had it, through the EAA.

Hopefully the lawsuits that the River's Coalition has started will make everyone wake up.

And good news! Construction of the first "cleansing" reservoir at Indiantown is about to start soon!

__________________
1998 Seaswirl Striper 2300WA E-tec 200HO

bzalmano

Hayzus, I think you and I are on the same page here. I just wanted to make people aware of this issue and make sure that they realize this is not some looney tree hugger crying about some ant that only lives in this one tree in the world. This is an issue that effects everybody and is being voiced by very conservative fishing and hunting magazines.

__________________
Benny Z.
2005 18' Key West 186 DC with F150 Yamaha
Previous Boats
1986 20' Shamrock Cuddy
1991 18' Parker
1986 16' Sea Ray Bow Rider

Hayzus

Even three years ago when I moved to PSL, the IRL was a great place; Manatee Pocket was somewhat clean, comparitively. Since then, with the wet seasons and hurricanes, SFWMD is just POURING the water out of the lake, to lower it to "natural" levels. They really need to be letting that water flood the sugar fields again, like it once did before it was drained, and let the Lake O level come down to about 7 feet instead of 15; but of course, if they do that, the feds take over the management of the Lake and then all hell is going to break loose.

You know it's really nasty when you go offshore for a good 6-8 miles and the water quality still sucks because of the crap coming from Lake O.

__________________
1998 Seaswirl Striper 2300WA E-tec 200HO