WaterNotes

It’s a well known fact that cigarette butts are some of the most common litter items found in the United States in any area. They especially contaminate some of the heavily used access points along the Lagoon.  While I usually pick up a few dozen at each cleanup, I decided today to focus only on [...]

Every once in a while I get a chance to share my love of the lagoon with someone who can really appreciate it.. but for one reason or another has not yet been able to really experience it.  A good friend of mine, Eric, decided to meet up with me today along with his lovely [...]

One Ton Landed got a nice bump in the weight totals today with an additional 40 pounds added to the tally. (Unfortunately it was probably more weight than this, but I forgot the scale on my way to the site. )  We returned to the site of our Earth Day cleanup, two extra volunteers/teachers/nerds on [...]

Bioluminescence is old hat, right? TED’s latest talk from the Mission Blue Voyage featuring Edith Widder’s astounding presentation on bioluminescent animals may have you considering otherwise. Bioluminescence has evolved independently perhaps some 40-50 times? Eighty to ninety percent of life in the oceans has some capacity to produce their own light? Bioluminescent signatures can allow [...]

We headed out this morning to a favorite spot of mine on the Banana River branch of the IRL system, Kelly Park on Merritt Island.  Its not a particularly secluded or wild area.  If anything it’s rather highly manicured.  But of all the teaching spots I experienced while conducting field trips this place never failed [...]

This morning’s wake up call was nicely provided by NASA and the crew of Discovery, as it thundered into orbit just before dawn broke over the Florida horizon. I have seen a number of launches, even the luminous and beautiful night time variety, but this one was unique for perfect and gorgeously highlighted clouds and [...]

Behold, the mighty horseshoe crabs of the Indian River Lagoon are spawning again! While out and about for a quick shoreline cleanup this afternoon I spotted ten females digging into the sand with several males either attached or hovering about hoping to sneak in on all the action.  Such males are not uncommon in mating [...]