On the southern coast of Florida, researchers have found prescription drugs in the waterways and marine life. When medications are flushed, poured down drains, or excreted into wastewater, they can contaminate local waterways. Outdated infrastructure has been unable to filter out these contaminants. Florida International University (FIU) and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) conducted a […]
Florida Power & Light, the largest energy company in the U.S., is pushing for policies that hurt the rooftop solar industry in Florida, an investigation by Floodlight and the Miami Herald found. The company is lobbying to weaken net metering policies, which allow homeowners and businesses with rooftop solar to sell unused power back to […]
After long debate, officials in Florida have decided to test feeding wild manatees near Cape Canaveral. The move is unprecedented, as feeding wildlife is considered illegal. But with hundreds of manatees dying of starvation in 2021, wildlife conservationists are desperate to save these creatures. For weeks, state officials have been considering whether or not to […]
Florida’s manatees are in trouble, so much trouble that wildlife officials are considering an unprecedented intervention — feeding them. It is currently illegal to feed manatees, which are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. However, so many manatees […]
Manatees are majestic creatures, and their presence near Florida brings a lot of awe from locals and tourists alike. But worsening pollution from agricultural runoff, wastewater and other pollutants is causing one of their primary food sources — seagrass — to run scarce. By October 2021 alone, nearly 1,000 manatees have died from food scarcity. […]
We’ve all heard about SpongeBob SquarePants, the mischievous yellow sponge cartoon character who lives in a pineapple on the seafloor. Now, meet Bobbie “Sponge Bobbie” Renfro, a Ph.D. candidate at Florida State University in biological sciences and coral reef ecology, with a specialty in sponges, naturally! Quirky naming coincidences aside, her research is anything but […]
Will we find corals’ white knights in spiny armor? The question is one that Florida scientists and ocean advocates are eager to answer ー and using lobsters to do so. The coral reefs in Florida are in trouble. With the climate crisis, warming and acidifying ocean waters, poor water quality and a rampant, mystery coral […]
By Julia Conley Conservation advocates in Florida are warning that 1,000 manatees in the state’s water could die this year — hundreds more than in recent years — due to starvation driven by water pollution, the climate crisis, and other man-made harms to the mammals’ ecosystem. As The Guardian reported Monday, 749 manatees died between […]
By Elizabeth Djinis Florida has long been known as an environmental contradiction. It’s mostly a peninsula at risk from the severe impacts of climate change, including rising seas, warming temperatures, and worsening extreme-weather events; yet it’s also a state governed by Republican leaders who have refused to even publicly utter the words “climate change.” When […]
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