This week has been an eye opener for me. I am doing some research to try and tie the negative effects that are occurring in the Indian River Lagoon to the dredging being performed. The effects I speak of are the deaths of many manatees, dolphins and pelicans since 2012. The cause is said to be unknown. A few possibilities are mentioned. What do you think? Check out this article. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345938/Florida-lagoon-animal-mass-murder-mystery-46-dolphins-111-manatees-300-pelicans-die-unknown-cause.html
This article doesn't mention dredging but it could be an effect of past dredging that they are not speaking of. The algae bloom is affecting the lagoon on a critical level.
Check out this article on how they are planning to use the option to dredge to help move the "black mayonnaise" from the lagoon floor.
http://news.wfsu.org/post/lawmakers-consider-dredging-deal-black-mayonnaise-indian-river-lagoon
This brings up the concerns of dredging in my mind. Like stirring up the age old sediment full of toxins. I guess it is all about removing the lesser of 2 evils. I will investigate this plan in more depth to find out the future plans for dredging in the IRL. What do you see happening if this process is carried out?
I feel the dredging like you said could do some harm as much as it could do good. It could bring up things from below that could be harmful and is there a better way than dredging? Could there be a less invasive way to naturally clean it up, like for instance when there are pollutants and oysters are around they tend to filter and clean the area. I would like to see if maybe someone could invent something that could clean it up and be less damaging. Maybe see if other areas in the US have had this issue and if they used dredging what were the affects.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to manatee deaths--were they able to determine the cause of death? such as boat impact, cold weather? etc. How do you think that dredging would kill a manatee? I would certainly be asking you this question so please ponder on this.
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