[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 42 (Monday, April 18, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        CLEANING UP FLORIDA BAY

                                 ______


                         HON. E. CLAY SHAW, JR.

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 18, 1994

  Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend to my colleagues, the 
following article from the Miami Herald on April 18, written by Donald 
Smith.

            How Soon Is Soon Enough To Clean Up Florida Bay?

       Islamorada.--It was a sunny Florida Keys morning, the kind 
     of day when death should have been on vacation. Charter 
     fishing guide John Kipp revved up his 16-foot skiff and joked 
     with his two passengers as they glided through flat bay water 
     and headed for Rabbit Key. They were after big game: tarpon, 
     which they would cut loose after capture to allow the silver 
     monsters to fight again another day.
       Kipp saw the dead fish about eight miles out. Hundreds, 
     perhaps thousands of them were lying on their sides, 
     motionless except for the rocking caused by the boat's bow 
     wave as he throttled back for a better look. The button-like 
     eyes of the fish stared into the sun, as if in shock.
       ``They were not small fish,'' Kipp recalls. ``These were 
     large snappers, barracuda. It certainly wasn't a good sign.''
       The fish devastation that Kipp saw last August has become a 
     distressingly common sight in Florida Bay, a 1,040-square-
     mile wedge of water, between the Florida Keys and the Gulf of 
     Mexico, once haunted by the likes of Zane Grey and Ernest 
     Hemingway.
       Everyone agrees that Florida Bay is dying. The question is 
     how to bring it back to life. As it expires, it threatens to 
     take with it much of South Florida's sport and commercial 
     fishing industry.
       Floridians also fear harm to other natural assets, 
     including 500,000 acres of mangroves that line the shores and 
     islands, and the chain of coral reefs just offshore in the 
     Atlantic Ocean that annually draw hordes of scuba divers and 
     snorkelers.
       Dusky blooms of algae sometimes stain as much as half of 
     the bay. The brown and green smudges suck up oxygen that fish 
     need for life and choke off beds of sea grass and sponges 
     that lobsters, stone crabs, and other species call home.
       ``This is an ecosystem on the verge of collapse,'' says 
     Michael Collins, an Islamorada charter boat owner who used to 
     help run fishing expeditions for President Bush and his 
     friends.
       ``Just five years ago you could read a newspaper lying on 
     the bottom through 10 feet of water,'' Collins tells National 
     Geographic. ``Now, sometimes the visibility is less than six 
     inches.''
       Commercial fishermen and marine scientists report declines 
     of 80 percent in catches of pink shrimp and 30 percent in 
     juvenile spiny lobsters. Average lobster catches on the east 
     side of the bay are down 40 percent, and commercial catches 
     of pompano and mackerel have plummeted by 75 percent. The 
     damage is all the more remarkable because it has occurred in 
     an area nominally protected by the federal government. The 
     bay is part of Everglades National Park.
       For years, environmentalists, along with fishermen and 
     others who depend on Florida Bay for a living, have argued 
     that the chief culprit has been the diversion of fresh water 
     that once flowed into the bay from the Everglades. That view 
     is now disputed by scientists who blame high nitrogen levels 
     caused by pesticides and other chemicals.
       Since early in the century, water has been siphoned off 
     from the vast wetlands to the north to create farmland, 
     control flooding, and provide drinking water for cities on 
     both of Florida's coasts. Today 1,364 miles of canals drain 
     off more than a trillion gallons of water a year. Park 
     hydrologists estimate that the bay now receives as little as 
     10 percent of the fresh water that it once did.
       These diversions, the environmentalists say, have upset the 
     delicate balance between fresh water and salt water that 
     sustains Florida Bay's diverse plant and animal life, 
     elevating salinity levels, and setting off chains of 
     destruction.
       All this has produced a bitter struggle between the bay 
     advocates and the farmers whose livelihoods depend on the 
     diverted water. After years of controversy and delay, state, 
     and federal agencies have agreed that the way to save the bay 
     is to restore the flow of fresh water.
       The Army Corps of Engineers recently proposed that the 
     federal government buy a belt of farmland north of the bay to 
     act as a buffer zone between the Everglades and other 
     farmland. The immense plumbing system would be redesigned to 
     restore much of the freshwater flow into the bay. The initial 
     estimated cost of the whole project is $100 million.
       Other scientists argue that the biggest problem isn't 
     salinity, but pollution. Some say that chemical runoff from 
     farms and cities raises the levels of nitrogen in bay waters, 
     sustaining the death-producing algae. Others attribute the 
     high nitrogen content to decaying sea grasses.
       Principal proponent of the runoff view is marine biologist 
     Brian LaPointe, who operates an independent laboratory at 
     Florida's Big Pine Key. ``Nutrient pollution is the No. 1 
     threat to water quality in Florida Bay,'' he says. ``Adding 
     more water is like adding fuel to the fire.''
       Last September a panel of experts, convened at the request 
     of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, decided that more 
     research is needed.
       Bruce Rosendahl, dean of the University of Miami's 
     Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, 
     advocates a federally financed two-year study of the bay's 
     ecosystem. ``We think lack of water flow into the bay is 
     certainly a problem,'' he says. ``But it's probably a complex 
     series of issues, including pollution. I would like to know 
     what the entire problem is before I start dumping money into 
     any one part of it.''
       In the meantime, veteran fisherman John Kipp doubts that 
     anything will be done soon: ``We'll probably all be dead 
     before it's cleaned up.''

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