Tax rates stay the same
Cuts shave off $800,000 from CRA
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Women of distinction
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Lyric Theatre’s new shows
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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 4/ISSUE 39
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2016
River rally...locals don’t give up
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Florida Oceanographic Society executive director Mark Perry, of Palm City, shows how local seafood restaurants are participating in the local ecology by collecting oyster shells that will later be bagged and used as reefs in our waterways. Other speakers such as Zack Jud, a biologist from Florida Oceanographic Society, educated supporters on what effects are to come.
Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
TREASURE COAST — There’s not much Zack Jud could say is certain about the blue-green algae in the St. Lucie and Indian rivers, except for where it’s from. “This is 100 percent a Lake Okeechobee issue,” he told dozens at the Rally For The River & Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup on Saturday, July 23. The event was at East Island Park, Hutchinson Island. Jud is a biologist and the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center’s director of education. He specializes in studying human effects on coastal ecosystems. As scientists wrestle with a
myriad of unknowns about bluegreen algae, so does the Treasure Coast. While it’s too early to say what effects blue-green algae have had on the local economy, unemployment is up from when news about the algae bloom hit the region and beyond. At the rally Jud told attendees that there remains a more than 200 square mile blue-green algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee. The South Florida Water Management District first reported it in early May when it was about 33 square miles. The lake is about 730 square miles. Not long after the water management district reported the bloom, the Florida Oceanographic Society started finding cyanobacteria, blue-green algae, in the St. Lucie
Mitch Kloorfain/chief photographer Annabella Motto of Palm City joined in on the letter writing campaign to elected officials put out by the Florida Oceanographic Society during the Ninth Annual Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup Saturday, July 23 in Stuart.
River’s South Fork. None has been found in the North Fork by press time. The freshwater bacteria species quickly migrated east toward the Indian River and even started washing up on Martin County beaches likely by riding freshwater currents pushed by the river into the ocean. St. Lucie and Martin counties declared states of emergency. The state followed. The federal government has so far declined requests for an emergency declaration. Jud said until the cyanobacteria is gone from the lake, it’ll stay in the St. Lucie and Indian rivers. “It travels wherever the water flows,” he said at the rally. Jud offered grim news — the bloom is probably only about
“We can expect months of (the blue-green algae), but probably not more than that.” Zack Jud Florida Oceanographic Coast Center
halfway through its life cycle. Probably. Jud said there are a number of lurking factors making many predictions impossible. Worsening the matter for the Indian River Lagoon is the presence of more than just blue-green algae. Brevard County had a large fish die on the Banana River — which is part of the Indian River
See RIVER RALLY page 11
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