START is very pleased to introduce the newest member of our Board, Dr. Charles C. Reith. Charles Reith is a retired restoration ecologist with experience in Africa, Europe and the Americas. His wetlands reconstruction has focused on the reestablishment of valuable ecosystem services such as water purification, flood control, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat. Clients [...]
In September NOAA announced through its Office of Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) 11 new five-year cooperative agreements that support the continued growth, expansion, and modernization of our nation’s climate, coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes observing capabilities. In the first year, $41 million will be distributed to cover efforts along U.S. national and territorial waters [...]
START is very pleased to announce the formation of an important new three-year water quality partnership known as the Healthy Pond Collaborative. Funded by a major grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, the Healthy Pond Collaborative includes START, the Sarasota County Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team (NEST) Program, University of Florida IFAS Extension Sarasota County, [...]
START is pleased to offer the following report about The Meadows community’s exemplary water quality work with their stormwater ponds. The Meadows is a community of 3,560 condominiums, villas and single-family homes built during the period from 1974 to 1995, in the northeast corner of Sarasota County bordered by 17th Street and Honore Avenue. The [...]
Current Conditions A patchy bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists on the Florida Gulf Coast. Over the past week, K. brevis was detected in 98 samples. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in 37 samples: one sample from Pasco County, nine samples from Pinellas County, 18 samples from Hillsborough County, eight samples [...]
The unfortunate need to release 270 million gallons of polluted “process water” in early April from the southern phosphogypsum stack at Piney Point is very troubling. The release was deemed necessary by the FDEP to avoid the collapse of the entire pond that would have flooded over 200 homes with a wall of contaminated water. [...]
On Friday April 2, The Sarasota Bay Watch and its loyal volunteers seeded another eighty-eight bushels or about 105,000 native southern hard-shell clams (Mercenaria Campenchiensis) in Sarasota Bay. This was an historic event as it marked the last time the clams will be cultivated down in Pine Island Sound and trucked up to Sarasota Bay [...]
