The deaths of hundreds of marine mammals strikes an emotional chord in everyone who cares about animal conservation, the environment or life in general.
Anger and grief tend to go hand-in-hand. I know a lot of people who are mad that this crisis is taking the lives of so many manatees and many of them want to hold someone accountable for the devastating loss.
Because algae blooms are responsible for the deadly bio-toxic reactions causing many of the manatees to drown, the immediate urge is find out "why" these blooms are occurring.
The simple answer is nitrate-laden effluence creates a perfect breeding ground for macro algae. So, where do the nitrates come from? Again, it's pretty easy to point to runoff of fertilizers as the main culprit. So, where are the bulk of fertilizers being used? Who's using them? Who manufactures these nitrate-rich fertilizers? How do they get in the water? Why don't we just stop it? Actually, these questions are not that simple to get answers to, even harder to get any immediate action from and they don't address an equally serious, parallel issue: Sea grass loss.
If manatees weren't eating the algae, it wouldn't be killing them, right? True. And the reason they are eating the algae has to do with their size and food consumption. If a manatee weighs 1,800 pounds and needs to eat one-tenth of its body weight on a daily basis, that means it's likely to munch on whatever plant source is plentiful.
In the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), that used to be sea grass. IRL is likely the most bio-diverse estuary in North America. The manatees share their home with dolphins, otters, stingrays, hundreds of species of fish and plants and many, many other organisms. Sea grass is one of the main elements of maintaining the diversity and health of IRL.
Anger and grief tend to go hand-in-hand. I know a lot of people who are mad that this crisis is taking the lives of so many manatees and many of them want to hold someone accountable for the devastating loss.
Because algae blooms are responsible for the deadly bio-toxic reactions causing many of the manatees to drown, the immediate urge is find out "why" these blooms are occurring.
The simple answer is nitrate-laden effluence creates a perfect breeding ground for macro algae. So, where do the nitrates come from? Again, it's pretty easy to point to runoff of fertilizers as the main culprit. So, where are the bulk of fertilizers being used? Who's using them? Who manufactures these nitrate-rich fertilizers? How do they get in the water? Why don't we just stop it? Actually, these questions are not that simple to get answers to, even harder to get any immediate action from and they don't address an equally serious, parallel issue: Sea grass loss.
If manatees weren't eating the algae, it wouldn't be killing them, right? True. And the reason they are eating the algae has to do with their size and food consumption. If a manatee weighs 1,800 pounds and needs to eat one-tenth of its body weight on a daily basis, that means it's likely to munch on whatever plant source is plentiful.
In the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), that used to be sea grass. IRL is likely the most bio-diverse estuary in North America. The manatees share their home with dolphins, otters, stingrays, hundreds of species of fish and plants and many, many other organisms. Sea grass is one of the main elements of maintaining the diversity and health of IRL.
If you look at the chart above you can see that sea grasses in the IRL have declined by more than 44% in a two-year period. But take a closer look. This chart is two-years-old. What's likely to have happened is the continual decline in sea grass.
The manatees are turning to other food sources and, with algae blooming like crazy this year, they're eating stuff that is killing them.
So, who's at fault for the sea grass loss?
Me.
You.
That guy, Bob, down the street. The fact is that the expansion of urban development, boats damaging the grass beds, the effects of global climate change, some natural causes and pollution in general are all major factors in the destruction of sea grass.
Solutions:
In an immediate sense, we need to protect what's left of the sea grass.
We need to reduce pollutants from plastics in the water.
We need to vastly reduce the usage of nitrate-laden fertilizers.
We need to identify other forms of non-point source pollution.
We need to take care and responsibility of our environment.
This isn't about "who" is responsible. This is about having the courage and conviction to see the crisis and take action. It seems when people start to point fingers at each other, label each other and divide themselves on the basis of identity, they lose the ability to communicate and act.
Cheers,
- Rick Wood
The manatees are turning to other food sources and, with algae blooming like crazy this year, they're eating stuff that is killing them.
So, who's at fault for the sea grass loss?
Me.
You.
That guy, Bob, down the street. The fact is that the expansion of urban development, boats damaging the grass beds, the effects of global climate change, some natural causes and pollution in general are all major factors in the destruction of sea grass.
Solutions:
In an immediate sense, we need to protect what's left of the sea grass.
We need to reduce pollutants from plastics in the water.
We need to vastly reduce the usage of nitrate-laden fertilizers.
We need to identify other forms of non-point source pollution.
We need to take care and responsibility of our environment.
This isn't about "who" is responsible. This is about having the courage and conviction to see the crisis and take action. It seems when people start to point fingers at each other, label each other and divide themselves on the basis of identity, they lose the ability to communicate and act.
Cheers,
- Rick Wood