If we don’t do it, who will?

Reel Time

ed tide; two words that nobody wants to hear but everyone needs to understand. The term is just the common expression of the much deeper problem best described as harmful algae blooms (HABs). Someone who owns a resort hotel, has a restaurant on or near the beach, or runs a business that takes people fishing or sightseeing obviously depends on clean, healthy water for their livelihood. It’s easy for the average person to see that these businesses will be negatively affected by HABs or even the mere mention of them. What’s less obvious is that poor water quality and habitat loss (seagrasses, mangroves) affects everyone, from fishing guides to developers, realtors, builders and all the allied trades and suppliers they all depend on. We seem to only focus on the things that directly impact us in the present, finding it easier to “kick the can down the road.” Maybe we should consider how we’ll feel when our children and grandchildren look us in the eye and ask, “What did you do to make sure I had some of the same opportunities that you did?”

Things took a devastating turn five years ago with a massive and longlived harmful algae bloom (red tide) that devastated coastal waters from Naples to St. Petersburg, rendering Sarasota Bay a virtual wasteland. Since that event, Sarasota Bay has lost more grass than had regrown in the prior 40 years.

On top of that, a release of over 200 million gallons of polluted process