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VOL 22 No. 14
January 12, 2022
Woman completes ‘round-the-Island swim
Julie Madison may be the first person to swim around Anna Maria Island. BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION | SUBMITTED
More Florida manatees died last year than in any other year since the turn of the century.
Florida loses record number of manatees in 2021 A record number of manatee deaths in 2021 has prompted officials to urge that manatees be restored to endangered status. BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
More than 1,100 manatees died in 2021, a record high since the turn of the century, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Brevard County on Florida’s east coast had the highest mortality toll, with 359 manatee deaths in the Indian River Lagoon system, where manatees starved because harmful algae blooms destroyed their primary food supply – seagrass, according to wildlife officials. Algae blooms may also have caused some of the 28 manatee deaths in Manatee County, which includes Anna Maria Island. A red tide lasted for nearly eight months last year in Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico around the Island, exacerbated by nitrogen and phosphorus-laden wastewater dumped into the bay in March and April at the closed Piney Point fertilizer plant. Statewide, last year’s manatee deaths nearly doubled the five-year average of 625 annual deaths.
INSIDE NEWS OUTDOORS RESTAURANTS CASTLES IN THE SAND REAL ESTATE CROSSWORD CLASSIFIEDS
4 18 21 22 22-27 29 30-31
HOLMES BEACH – It may be a first. Julie Madison, 34, swam around Anna Maria Island on Dec. 30, traveling 16.8 miles in 67-degree water in about seven and a half hours. It doesn’t officially count with the Marathon Swimmers Federation, the Madison gatekeepers of such feats, because she wore a wetsuit (non-standard equipment) and her husband was the only observer, Madison said. But she plans to do it again this spring for the record books. “It felt like the right time and right place,” said Madison, who recently relocated to Cortez from Connecticut when the pool where she worked as a swim coach shut down for nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I knew a few people were thinking about doing it and I wanted to get it done before they did.” SEE MADISON, PAGE 26
Water quality key to tourism
The FWC confirms that 2021 manatee mortalities meet the criteria for an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which has led to agency rescue efforts, including hand-feeding starving manatees. “We take this situation seriously and are committed to working with our partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore short-term solutions to the die-off, as well as much-needed long-term solutions to restoring the lagoon ecosystem,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said in a press release. The last manatee population survey, conducted by the FWC in 2019, counted 5,733 manatees in state waters. An alternate method, the abundance survey method, employs mathematical and statistical formulas to extrapolate an estimated number of manatees based on those actually counted, and estimated at least 7,500 manatees in state waters three years earlier, in 2015-16. Those numbers were cited in 2017 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to remove manatees from the federal “endangered” species list and downlist the species to "threatened." Manatees had been protected as “endangered” since 1967 under the federal Endangered Species Act. SEE MANATEES, PAGE 26
Water quality in Sarasota Bay is not only key to tourism and a healthy economy, it is vital to the health of the manatee population. BY JASON SCHAFFER SUN CORRESPONDENT | jschaffer@amisun.com
ANNA MARIA - While Sarasota Bay is healthier than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s not as healthy as it was 15 years ago. That little-known fact is a serious concern to Dave Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. “We are the only estuary program whose number one goal is to protect water clarity,” Tomasko said during the December meeting on the Island of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council. “People want to throw out the anchor on their boat, jump in the water and see their feet.” Tomasko said there are three main reasons to worry about water quality in Sarasota Bay. One of them is quality of life, since people don’t like spending their time in murky water or covered in algae. SEE WATER, PAGE 26
BLUEBERRY
THE PINEY Point gypsum stack
muffins are an easy treat. In Food & Wine. 20
springs another leak. 4 VOTE for your favorites in The Sun’s Readers’ Choice Contest. 9
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