“The goal with FCWC is to protect our waters here and create a blueprint for recovery in other areas,” says Streeter. For the scientists he’s working with, it’s also to gather data on the role of the phosphate mines. By utilizing the fishermen who are already in the areas of concern for data collection, scientists can triangulate causation more effectively.
A gap between real-time data and the academic resources that can steer policy inspired the idea to enlist fishermen, who have the holistic knowledge of the ocean, as data collectors, says Chris Kelble, director of the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.
“The agricultural phosphate inputs that are contributing to the hypoxic zone in Louisiana are being mined in Florida, trucked up to the Midwest, and coming right back downstream.”
“Casey volunteered for a research cruise with me. The idea for the nonprofit stemmed from us sitting on the deck of the boat talking one night in between stations where we were taking water samples. He was instrumental in helping guide where to sample, because he knew exactly where the worst places were,” Kelble says. “Our goal this spring is to be able to communicate and let folks know about the likelihood of there being significant hypoxia. If there are excess nutrients coming off the land, this promotes red tide.”
FCWC is composed of half a dozen local volunteers and fishermen, in addition to Streeter. “We have mostly been focusing our testing in our immediate areas of southwest Florida,” he says, “but we did have a boat test off of Tampa during the red tide last year and as far north as Panama City. We would like to grow this program to all regions of the Gulf of Mexico.”
“NOAA doesn’t have the specific jurisdictional authority in coastal waters in relation to land-based sources of pollution. That lies within the state in partnership with the state Environmental Protection Agency,” Kelble says. “But we do collect data in coastal areas that will be used by those agencies to inform their decision-making.” Their hope is for their data to get picked up by the regulatory authorities—“the DEPs and EPAs of the world.”
In October of 2021, Kelble began working with Jordan Logarbo, a science policy fellow in the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, to support the policy-level change that FWCW seeks to create. Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the NAS created post-graduate science policy fellowships to provide opportunities for fellows to work with scientists who interface with policy on how to get more science into policy making.
“Because I am operating independently, this means that I can be a bridge between agencies,” says Logarbo.
While Logarbo’s policy fellowship work is focused on Florida fisheries, she draws a connection to environmental issues in her home state of Louisiana, “Every year at the delta, we get a giant hypoxic zone. Only 2 percent of Louisiana runoff contributes to this. Almost all of it is coming from agricultural runoff from the upper watershed.” NOAA estimates that the Gulf of Mexico dead zone costs the U.S. seafood and tourism industries $82 million per year.
Logarbo points to the fact that phosphorus and nitrogen are the most significant contributors to aquatic dead zones and sees the two crises as deeply connected. “The agricultural phosphate inputs that are contributing to the hypoxic zone in Louisiana are being mined in Florida, trucked up to the Midwest, and coming right back downstream.”
Informing a Critical Response
Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the “Big Three” elements—often referred to as NPK for their chemical symbols—used in synthetic fertilizers to promote plant growth. Commodity farmers often work within razor-slim margins in an economic model that is based on global markets, making investment into reducing fertilizer use and improving soil through regenerative practices unfeasible for many.
The upcoming farm bill is the only mechanism to expand funding for agriculture conservation programs, which are aimed, in part, at reducing nutrient runoff. By gathering data around the damage facing coastal ecosystems, Kelble and Streeter are hoping to create political urgency in connecting the dots between dependence on fertilizer among land-based farmers and the resulting impacts on the ocean.
“What we’re seeing in our data, and it’s true for most of the globe, is that when coastal pollution is increased, we lose habitat. We also see hypoxic areas. Both this loss of habitat and oxygen negatively impact coastal fisheries populations,” Kelble says.
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April 26, 2022 at 03:30PM
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Fishermen and Scientists Probe Phosphate's Connection to Florida Red Tides - Civil Eats
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