WaterNotes

Strolling along the lagoon yesterday evening I spotted several dozen molts from American horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus). Horseshoes are some of my absolute favorite animals on the planet. From their incredibly long survival timeline (pre-dinosaur, arising nearly 540 Mya) to their awesome quicksilvery-blue blood there’s just a lot of quirky facts to relate [...]

Another twenty pounds pulled from the edge of the Lagoon today. Its from the same stretch I’ve been cleaning for over a month now. I feel like the maid, sweeping up behind everyone and muttering: “Didn’t I just clean this?!”

The monofilament is everywhere. I’m not sure if thats because I’m suddenly more [...]

Florida runs a monofilament recovery program where PVC tubes are setup near critical points along waterways – mainly docks and other fishing structures – to attempt to get anglers to properly dispose of fishing line. The very nature of the material, both invisible and incredibly strong, makes it incredibly deadly for marine wildlife when [...]

I have a semi-brilliant semi-crazy idea. The Indian River Lagoon consistently gets overlooked by many of the biggest conservation organizations. Even within the boundaries of central Florida its not well known and many residents, much to my frustration, call it a “river”! Even the estuaries.gov page link is broken! And indianriverlagoon.org [...]

I hate weekenders. The people, local and tourist alike, who visit the lagoon on their days off must be the source of all the trash I found fresh on the beachline and the lagoon today. I went out to scout some locations, take gopher tortoise burrow photos, and look for manatees. I [...]

Earth Day always takes on a decidedly aquatic slant for me. This year, instead of trekking out to a large organized event to support green practices, organic farming, plastic reduction, or a beach cleanup at a spot sixty miles away from me, I chose something far more local and utterly simple. I went [...]

Cigar mouthpeices. Cigarette butts. Corona and Bud Light bottle caps scored into the ground by tramping feet. Licorice wrappers. Juice boxes. Florida State Lottery tickets awash in the shallows next to carcasses of catfish. I kid you not.
Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew. The fragments of peel away [...]