10 News
The COASTAL STAR
SARGASSUM
Continued from page 1 that might mean our beaches don’t look the way they used to. We need to figure out how we can use the beaches in a new form.” From the Dune Deck Cafe in Lantana in late June, diners watched 6-foot-wide floating mats of seaweed coming in like an invading army from as far as the eye could see. Swimmers navigated around them, and snorkelers tried not to get underneath the thick tangles. Some want the seaweed hauled off ASAP. Others appreciate the fact that it helps keep expensive sand on the beach and will collect even more sand.
Cleanup can be exhausting
Clayton Peart hears it all. His family has owned Universal Beach Services in Delray Beach since the 1970s. He picks up the sargassum and painstakingly separates the trash from the seaweed, and then takes the plastic and other trash to recycling. But the seaweed can pile up again hours later and certainly by the next day. Beachgoers often give him a thumbs down as he works, not realizing he has permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which are looking over his shoulder. He is also working with groups that monitor sea turtles. They text him shortly after dawn when they survey the beaches, mark the turtle nests and give him the OK to start work. “It’s almost like you have to be there around the clock. It’s exhausting,” says Peart. He buries the seaweed in the tideline and fills in low spots where escarpments have been formed by beach erosion.
Universal Services driver Alcides Rodrigues shows a day’s load of trash that he picked up at Delray Beach. On days with lots of trash, a temporary worker helps out. Photo provided He encounters all kinds of trash that comes in with the tide. He has picked up thousands of bottle caps, cigarette butts, plastic in every form, shotgun shells, flares, broken up sailboats, car tires and a rusty all-terrain vehicle. “A couple of days ago, a wedding party left fake flower petals and candles all over the beach,” he says. The party was on Delray Beach. Lately, as he cleans behind condos and hotels from Boca Raton to Palm Beach and other South Florida beaches, he has seen beachgoers picking up trash with him, and he is getting an occasional thumbs up. He asks that the beach cleaners leave it in piles so it’s easier for him to pick up. “People say I’m causing erosion, but it’s the opposite. I am being a caretaker,” he says. Cleanup is expensive, and with more and more sargassum arriving every year it is requiring herculean manpower to keep up with it. The City of Delray Beach pays $79,000 per year for beach cleanup, according to a city agreement. Most agree the seaweed should be buried or removed if it is rotting and emitting noxious
fumes. Scientists are working on ways to use it as biofuel, fertilizer, mulch and food. The other option is to do nothing or just enough to protect turtles and try to educate people about Mother Nature. When it concerns beach-loving tourists, most beachside towns would say that’s not an option. One place that sargassum is left alone is Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. On Valentine’s Day, the sargassum was 6 inches thick on the Atlantic beaches, but visitors, including French and Italian tourists, didn’t seem bothered by it. They spread beach mats on new golden seaweed, walked the sandy tideline, and photographed seabirds feeding in the seaweed on the beach.
Essential to sea turtles
But these tourists are largely different from those on hotel and condo beaches in Palm Beach County. Those in the state park are there to see nature, which on this visit included sargassum. Rangers tell them the benefits, including that it’s a lifeline for sea turtle hatchlings that travel the ocean on sargassum the first two years of
July 2019
their lives. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised at people’s reactions after we explain that it’s a natural phenomenon,” says Donald Bergeron, Bahia Honda State Park manager. “We monitor the loggerhead and green turtle nests and haven’t seen any problems with sargassum covering the nests or hatchlings having trouble going over the seaweed. We have cycles of seaweed — it comes in and goes out. Nature takes care of it.” The turtles in Palm Beach County are also faring well in spite of the sargassum. “It’s been a great nesting year so far. We’ve had some of the highest numbers since the 1990s, loggerheads in particular,” says David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. As of June 29, “we have 605 loggerhead nests and 145 green turtle nests. And we are just getting started with green turtles.” Sargassum potentially can cover nests or impede hatchlings on their path to the ocean, but there have been no problems so far, he says. “The turtles are big animals, with mothers weighing 300 pounds or so. It doesn’t bother them at all. They will plow right through in order to get on the beach.” Turtle monitors are out every day at sunrise to check for mother and hatchling turtles’ tracks on a 5-mile stretch of beach between the Highland Beach border and the border with Deerfield Beach. Nests are checked during the twomonth incubation period, and sargassum is brushed off during the last month if it covers a nest. “Then we text beach rakers and give them the go-ahead. The beach rakers are all well-trained to steer clear of nests,” he says. Anderson and Dr. Siuda want
people to keep in mind that sargassum is essential for sea turtles’ survival in the ocean. Siuda compares sargassum to a coral reef. “Coral reefs are this unique community in the ocean and so is sargassum. It hosts nursery turtles. It serves as a feeding habitat. You’ll find mahi-mahi and tuna around it feeding on the smaller fish, which are feeding on the organisms that live within the sargassum. They’re feeding in the open ocean where food is sparse,” she said.
Thriving in changing seas
Siuda and colleagues discovered the new type of sargassum by finding that the community of organisms living on it was from the equatorial Atlantic. “It has a genetically different population of organisms,” Siuda said. They also found that this particular seaweed does not exist in the Sargasso Sea. “It doesn’t seem to be able to survive. It may be too cold,” she said. This new sargassum appearing on Florida beaches has been in the equatorial Atlantic at least since the 1930s, although research shows it was rare, she said. “And then something changed to allow it to bloom in such abundance. Whether that is increased nutrients from the Amazon or increased upwelling at the equator bringing nutrients to the surface, we don’t know yet,” Siuda said. Meanwhile, beachgoers may need to look at sargassum as far more friend than foe. “If people understand the importance of sargassum in the ocean environment, then they might be a little more understanding of it, and a little more protective of it coming up onto the beaches,” she said. Ú
Delray Beach
Four firefighter jobs added, completing replacement of recession cuts By Jane Smith
Delray Beach commissioners agreed to add four firefighter/ paramedics when approving a $1.95 million mid-year budget amendment on June 18. The four firefighter/ paramedics will cost $160,000, said Laura Thezine, acting finance director. The amount covers the entire cost of the firefighters for the rest of the budget year that ends Sept. 30, according to Kevin Saxton, Fire Rescue spokesman. Adding the positions fulfills the previous commission’s promise to add 12 firefighter/ paramedic jobs that had been cut from the budget during the recession. During budget hearings last year, Commissioner Ryan Boylston insisted that the commission make good on the promise and fill the final four positions. “Back in 2016 and 2017, the
fire department was running constantly from one overdose to another,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said after the June 18 commission meeting. In mid2017, Delray Beach turned the corner and began responding to fewer fatal overdoses. The drop was attributed to local and county efforts. The city’s new law regulating sober homes went into effect in July 2017. That’s when the city began requiring sober homes and other group homes to apply annually for a reasonable accommodation and limited the distance between two new group homes. The city also required the sober homes to become certified. In addition, the Delray Beach Police Department hired a special populations advocate who works with drug abusers to help them find treatment locally or send them home. At the same time, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s
Sober Homes Task Force began arresting rogue treatment center operators and moving to strengthen state laws. That’s why at the start of the city’s financial year last October, Petrolia wanted to hold off on hiring the firefighter/paramedics and spend the money elsewhere. She suggested waiting until the mid-year budget amendment when the city often has a surplus. The bulk of the money for the $1.95 million budget amendment would come from three sources: $795,000 in increased property tax revenues, $539,000 reimbursed from the county school district and $400,000 in investment interest income. No money would need to come from the city’s reserve funds. The money reimbursed by the school district was for providing city police officers in the local schools. The reimbursable amount was budgeted to make
sure expenses matched revenues, Thezine said. In addition, about $900,000 was budgeted to fulfill the city’s obligation under its tennis tournament contract. The amount had not been previously budgeted, even though commissioners had asked the previous city manager to do it. The budget amendment also covers $87,500 to help cover the cost for instructors who provide paid lessons to tennis center members, $72,421 in unanticipated retirement pay for firefighters, $111,612 for additional repairs and maintenance by Public Works, and $74,975 for new computers and equipment at the Emergency Operations Center. Commissioners passed the budget amendment 4-0. Boylston was on vacation and could not be reached electronically to attend the meeting. Delray Beach will set a
tentative tax rate at its July 9 City Commission meeting. At the Aug. 13 workshop, commissioners will discuss the city’s budget. In other news, Delray Beach reached an agreement on June 14 with India Adams, a former assistant city manager who was fired March 6. She will receive a gross sum of $9,459.52 to cover 50 percent of her unused sick leave and 100 percent of her unused vacation days. In exchange, Adams agreed to not make disparaging comments about the city, its staff or elected leaders. She will not release any confidential information she has about the city and will alert the city if she receives a subpoena about her Delray Beach position. In turn, the city will not contest any unemployment compensation claims that Adams may make. Ú