So far it’s not as bad as 2019 in Palm Beach County. But, it’s pretty bad. The Sargassum bloom is out of control again. This is in Ocean Ridge, Florida.
Sargassum is a seaweed that can accumulate along the shoreline in large amounts, making the shoreline inaccessible for swimming, boating, and other recreational activities. This beach seaweed overflow is happening again.
If you live near the coast and have experienced the beach seaweed overflow in the past, then you already know what to do! Be sure to check out our site for more information on this and other coastal issues!
See the feature story I did in 2019 when it was really bad in Florida, the Caribbean, and South and Central American coasts:
Unprovoked bites, while rare, have been raising the alarm for some beachgoers this summer
Sources: Florida Museum of Natural History (1837-2021); trackingsharks.com (2022 data from media reports)
Brownie Bytes Take: As a surfer with 40 years experience in Florida, New Smyrna Beach has the most shark bites and sharks in the surfline than anywhere else. I’ve been bumped, chased, and seen others bitten there in 3 ft. of water right along the shore. Even though the blacktip shark migration during the late Fall and Winter happens in S. Florida with 10,000 sharks per mile per day cruising near the coast, they rarely bother anyone.
– R. Michael Brown
News of shark attacks off the coast of New York’s Long Island this summer raised the alarm for many beachgoers, surfers and divers. Shark bites, although rare compared with the number of people who get into the ocean, still happen in coastal areas of the U.S.
According to Tracking Sharks, a website that specializes in reporting shark attacks and bites across the globe, there have been 28 shark attacks in the U.S. in 2022 as of Aug. 1. Two of the attacks were provoked and none was fatal.
There were 47 confirmed cases in 2021, returning to prepandemic levels, and 33 in 2020.
Unprovoked shark bites are the most common incidents, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack Files, a global compilation of all known shark attacks. Florida leads the U.S. in shark attacks, followed by Hawaii, California and South Carolina.
The most frequent type of unprovoked bites are so-called “hit and run” attacks, the museum says. These normally happen in the surf zones as coastal shark species follow schools of fish close to shore. There, sharks can encounter swimmers and surfers—and sometimes confuse people with their usual prey. The sharks don’t return after inflicting a single bite or slash wound.
Shark attacks and deaths from shark bites are extremely rare, experts say. The yearly average of unprovoked shark bites globally is 70, resulting in about 5 deaths, data from the Florida Museum of Natural History shows.
Sustainable deepwater fish farms could propel the fishing industry into a new direction and in an “environmentally responsible manner” by replenishing depleted wild stocks that have been affected by overfishing and pollution.
Marine biologist Neil Sims is helping to spearhead this initiative with Hawaii-based Ocean Era (formerly Kampachi Farms), a start-up that’s established offshore.
Ocean Era breeds “sushi-grade fish” in pens 230 feet and almost 4 miles (70 meters deep, 6 km) from the coast. Currently, aquaculture (the farming of fish, seafood and aquatic plants) already accounts for about half the fish eaten worldwide. However, these fish farms are typically located in coastal waters where the fecal waste produced by the fish, and chemicals used in the farming process potentially impacts the environment.
— Read on www.techthatmatters.com/these-sustainable-deepwater-fish-farms-breed-sushi-grade-fish-and-could-replenish-depleted-wild-stocks/
Meet Nemesis, one of the many endangered great hammerhead sharks that spends her winters in Bimini, The Bahamas. This interactive 3D project was a close collaboration between Angela Rosenberg, President of ANGARI Foundation and Captain of R/V ANGARI, Duncan Irschick, Professor at UMass Amherst and Director of Digital Life with CG artist Jeremy Bot and Casey Sapp, CEO of VRTUL.
Footage was collected during R/V ANGARI’s Expedition 33 in Bimini with Casey Sapp’s custom underwater multi-camera system to collect views of Nemesis swimming from all angles. The videos provided Digital Life modelers with the necessary imagery and data to create a high resolution and accurate animated 3D model.
The completed interactive 3D shark model is part of Digital Life’s “ark” of living organisms, which serves as an invaluable resource for educators, scientists and conservationists.
This work would not have been possible without the financial and field support of several donors.
For many marine scientists, at-sea fieldwork is an important part of their research. Some researchers claim they spend as much as 70% of their job aboard research vessels to collect samples and run field experiments. While working on the water may sound glamorous to many, the reality is that working from a research vessel usually consists of long days of hard work, and is most often extremely expensive.
ANGARI Foundation, a nonprofit organization headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, offers a unique opportunity for scientists and filmmakers who require working on the water. The luxury research vessel ANGARI, captained by the foundation’s co-founder and president, Angela Rosenberg, is offered for charter at a minimal cost.
— Read on angari.org/nonprofit-supports-marine-science-and-unites-scientists-with-community/
The fierce-looking turtles were found along the New River, a blackwater stream with low biological productivity, according to the FWC. They say finding species this large in such a small body of water is unusual.
Researchers set out Wednesday to survey Biscayne Bay between the 79th Street and Julia Tuttle Causeways, where dead fish were seen bobbing along the surface.
FIU’s autonomous surface vessel surveys Biscayne Bay near Morningside Park.
“It is an emergency. The bay is not in a good place right now,” said Piero Gardinali, a chemistry professor who is director of the institute’s Freshwater Resources Division. “It’s a warning sign more than anything else. People have been predicting that things like this could happen. I think it’s time for us to sit at the table and say ‘OK, let’s do something about it.’”
Researchers believe fish were killed when the bay’s saltwater became so hot, it could no longer retain oxygen in the amounts necessary for marine life to thrive.
They are using an autonomous surface vehicle equipped with sensors to measure temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and chlorophyll, which can be an indicator for algae. What they find could provide more details on the health of the bay. The vessel allows researchers to collect more data over a larger area.
Sustainable deepwater fish farms could propel the fishing industry into a new direction and in an “environmentally responsible manner” by replenishing depleted wild stocks that have been affected by overfishing and pollution.
Brownie Bytes 