Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Prophecy -- HYPE or HOPE? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SOROS who wrote (1383)	3/28/2002 7:36:16 AM
From: JeffA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5569

Sunday, March 24, 2002 By CATHY ZOLLO, crzollo@naplesnews.com They say it with different kinds of words, but the message is the same from people who make their living from the Gulf of Mexico, the ones who study it and those trying to protect it. The gulf is sick. It's getting sicker. A lifeless blob of black water that eclipsed Florida Bay over recent months is now under study. It amplifies the alarm among fishermen, scientists and environmentalists. Accounts of the water that began with sightings by fishermen in January read like a script for "The X-Files." It was blacker than any gulf water and like nothing they'd seen in careers on the sea that spanned a half-century. They described it as having gelatinous blobs floating in it and spider-weblike filaments running through it. It wasn't oil or red tide. It had no foul smell. Those descriptions were consistent with fishermen from the Keys to as far north as Fort Myers Beach, and while they reported seeing no dead fish with the black water, they saw few fish at all when it dominated the bay. Schools of fish that swam into the black water began jumping and running at high speed and acting oddly. Waters usually rich in sea life turned up nets empty of Spanish and king mackerel, and fishermen reported finding rafts of dead bottom plants on the surface of the water. "I've seen major changes this year," said Rich Stiglitz, a 48-year-old Marathon fisherman. "I was just telling the guys that the shrimp are in the coral reefs (south of the Keys). They're supposed to go to the west." Landing numbers aren't in yet for the time period, but Stiglitz and others, including Monroe County Commercial Fishing, a fishermen's lobby group, and Ed Little, the National Marine Fisheries officer for the Keys, report a bad season. At one point, satellite pictures showed the black water to be larger than Lake Okeechobee, and as it moved south toward the jewel-like string of Florida Keys, concern grew about its impact on the marine life that couldn't swim away. "It's incumbent upon us to look at every possible factor that could have influenced this bloom," said Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "Until we do that, we won't understand its influence on our water on a larger scale." The 2,800-square-mile undersea sanctuary was created by Congress in 1990 and is home to an extensive ecosystem that supports a feeding and breeding ground for a variety of marine species and a multimillion-dollar fishing industry. Gary Burris, a former commercial fisherman turned environmentalist, was among the first to hear reports of the black water from fishermen on Fort Myers Beach. The host of CenterPoint, a weekly radio talk show that seeks to marry the interests of business with those of a healthy environment, Burris said the black water is another sign that the time to act may be passing. "I've always thought there would be some place to go to get away from the destruction," he said. "After seeing the black water from the air and seeing sick turtles and the fear in fishermen's eyes and knowing the die-off along this coast is happening all along the coast of this country and the world, I see that there's no longer anyplace to run or anyplace to hide." naplesnews.com