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Spring 2004 - V.19 N.1
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New Tag Aims to Help Protect Coral Reefs from Miami Herald and others

News Around the Lagoon

Costly New Septic Tanks Keep Nitrogen out of Water
Water Management District Uses Grove Land to Store Excess Water
Environmentalists Urge Action on Ship Ballast Water
Supreme Court Rules EPA can Overrule State in Clean Air Case
Halting Toxic Cleanups
Water the Oil of the 21st Century
New Gates Reduce Silt from Canals in Indian River County
Key West Asks Cruise Ships to Stop Dumping
Endangered Species Act may be in Danger
Manatee Deaths Drop Here, but Rise on West Coast
Conservation Groups Sue for EPA to Regulate Water Pollution in Florida
New Tag Aims to Help Protect Coral Reefs
Politics Trump Science
Chemical Industry Seeks Approval of Pesticides at Expense of Wildlife
On the Lagoon with Captain Rodney Smith
On the Lagoon with Captain Rodney Smith

Two-thirds of North America's only living barrier reef, the third longest in the world, is in grave danger, and a marine biology outfit is hoping to protect it with funds from the sale of Florida's new "Protect Our Reefs" car license plate. The list of ingredients in the toxic soup that's killing the coral is long: marine debris from boaters, cruise ship effluent, pesticide and fertilizer run-off, and sewage discharged from boats. Divers standing on and touching the reef make things worse. So do propellers that chum up sea-bottom, the ripping tug of anchors and carelessly grounded boats. In recent years, marine biologists charted the death of 10% of Florida's barrier reef, a rich band of 50 coral species that stretches from the Dry Tortugas upward to Palm Beach, and say another two-thirds faces imminent threats.

Next Article: Politics Trump Science