farms and the florida keys - its easy to see whats wrong

[CiXeL]

i just relocated to homestead, fl right at the doorstep to the keys.
the problem here in florida is that with my two hobbies, exotic fruit and corals/scuba diving, one hurts the other.

you cant have farmland so close to coral. Its the same thing as when charlie veron explains in his corals of the world book why you dont find very many rainforests right next to coral reefs. NITRATES!

the farmers here dump pesticide and fertilizer onto the crops on huge amounts and it allows for spectacular growing conditions and tons of fresh
produce. which is why you find craploads of farms here in homestead. basically as one nursery owner told me "growing plants here is like hydroponics on a huge scale".

the only problem with this is that the water table is only a few inches from the surface in some places and especially during the rainy season it all
goes into the water table and starts making its way to the ocean.

now, the mangroves must be flourishing in this mix sucking up all the fertilizer but it also makes its way out further and allows algae to takeover
reefs.

theres really no mystery behind the bleaching events to me now. high nitrates- end of story.

i really think global warming has little to do with it but just looking at the situation here its obvious that the crapload of fertilizer theyre dumping into
the water table has alot to do with it.

as the area of homestead where im living converts more to suburban than farmland over the next 20 years i would expect to see conditions in the keys begin immediately noticibly improving.

 

[Anonymous]

Have beaslbob plant some macros around the reefs! :twisted:

I hear ya though.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Have beaslbob plant some macros around the reefs!

I can hear it now "all you have to do is get the plant life thriving"

 

[Anonymous]

I'm curious though, if bleaching was caused by algae growth, wouldn't the algae still be there?

 

[Ben1]

Are the reefs in that area all eutrophic or something.

I was diving there last year and although it wasn't spectacular it dodnt look horrible to me.

 

[HClH2OFish]

IIRC, there was a some researcher who had noticed that alot of the algael growth on reefs in recent years was due to a mass die off of urchins. The article I read told how they are raising urchins and releasing them on some coral heads to see how things go. Results were pretty impressive.

Just a quick 'Hmm..that's interesting..' kinda thing.....

You can google "Sea Urchin die off" and get lots of interesting articles like this one

http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/info/pressreleases/diadema.html

 

[Speckled Grouper]

I have been snorkling in the Keys since the 80's. It is interesting to see the changes from one summer to the next. In the mid 90's there was so much algae and silt, you couldn't see the rocks on the bottom anymore. I think it has improved, but who knows what it's gonna look like this year. Can't wait for the water to warm up!

 

[CiXeL]

out here who know about the farm stuff on a mailinglist im on:

"I agree with Jim and MrTexas that a large part of the problem is the sugar cane growers, who have been notorious in these neck of the woods for heavy chemical use. The chemicals are said to then flow in the direction of the Everglades and into Florida Bay. Every few years(?) there is a major algae bloom, often referred to as a red tide. Christopher makes an interesting observation, though, as agriculture has been going on for nearly a century in the Homestead area, and it is a relatively safe bet that there has been some runoff from this area as well. Hopefully it doesn't come down to reefs vs ag."

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

hmmph and people say that it's our hobby that hurts the reefs! We're the ones who are watching over it! :?