Chris SweeneySeveral hundred yards before traffic cones wedge northbound traffic on Fort Lauderdale’s scenic A1A into a single, slow-moving lane, a yellow sign alerts drivers and pedestrians that they’re smack in the middle of a turtle nesting zone. But now that strong tides, rough seas, and severe erosion have decimated a four-block stretch of…
In three days, more than 480 people have signed a petition to save the Mayan Beach Sand Dune in Fort Lauderdale from destruction.Spearheaded by the Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, the petition is the latest development in a battle between developers and environmentalists that has stretched for more than a year.”Private…
Unless your last name is Cousteau or James Cameron has taken a personal interest in you, getting funding for marine biology research is tough. Just ask Jose Lopez, a professor at Nova Southeastern University who’s on the verge of major research breakthrough. He just needs $4,500 to get over the…
Toward the end of Mitt Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last month, the newly crowned candidate displayed in a single sentence his talent for sarcasm. “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” he said, then followed with a smirk…
A Tampa fisherman caught himself a turtle a few months ago, put it in a fresh-water tank, and kept it in his backyard. But his intent wasn’t so much to make the little guy a pet but to totally make him into soup. Turns out, the guy caught a Kemp’s…
When Jeff Littlejohn walked into the number-two post at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in March 2011, there was no way he could have foreseen the PR crapfest that was coming. And no group has been as relentless in exposing his industry-first approach to environmental protection and fueling the…
Want to see a guy get bit by a relatively huge and very pissed-off Burmese python?If so, keep reading, because esteemed broadcast journalist Dan Rather has you covered.See Also:- Feds Likely to Face Legal Battle Over Python Ban- JAVMA Probes Whether Burmese Pythons Are Mere Hype or Destructive Force…
See also “Urban Sprawl Kills Endangered Florida Panther”Some lawsuits make you want to punch mankind’s collective crotch and pray to the gods that the Mayans were right about the whole 2012 thing.Case in point: Kenneth Nolan filed a suit in Broward County Court seeking $15,000 from the Florida Department of…
Broward has been out in front of the rest of the state, maybe the country, in terms of preparing for climate change and rising sea levels. The county commissioned a report showing that large parts of Lauderdale could be underwater 50 years from now. Over and over, experts say our…
See also “EPA Wants to Know if DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard Lied on His Résumé” and “PEER Blasts Herschel Vinyard for Trying to Water Down Pollution Permit Process” After nearly four months of waiting, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection finally responded to a federal inquiry into whether Secretary Herschel Vinyard lied on his…
See also “Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Glow Red and Self-Destruct; Can They Keep Away Disease?” and “Petition Against GM Mosquitoes in Key West Has Nearly 100,000 Signatures” Opposition to the potential release of Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes in Key West caught a head of steam this summer. A petition against the experiment garnered more than…
Scientists tend to frame the consequences of overfishing in esoteric ecological terms that seem frightening but are difficult to comprehend. A new study commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, however, translates the consequences into dollars and cents, making it all too clear that South Florida has lost millions in revenue due to depleted…
See also “Florida Sponges Rebounding; What Killed Them Remains a Mystery” and “Mystery Sponge-Killing Disease Now Seen From Palm Beach to Florida Keys”Earlier this year, giant red barrel sponges off the coast of Florida started dying. Scientists became concerned as reports of the disintegrating marine life rolled in from Palm…
See also “Urban Sprawl Kills Endangered Florida Panthers”The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission this week recovered a “heavily scavenged” panther carcass, marking the 16th dead panther recorded by state officials this year. The endangered predator was found on a piece of private land in Hendry County, east of the Okaloacoochee Slough State…
There’s more than meets the eye on the pristine grounds of Key Largo Hammock Botanical Park. Newly released documents from 2006 show that levels of lead and arsenic in soil samples taken from parts of the park exceeded the allowed residential and industrial limits. The documents were obtained through a public records request by Public…
See also: Herald Reporters Remember Hurricane AndrewExactly 20 years ago this morning, Jorge Villa opened the rollup door of his warehouse in Kendall and stared out at devastation. The traumatic experience led him to start U.S. Bunkers, which still sells massive concrete pods in which you can outlive almost anything, for…
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) recently announced changes to the harvesting on lionfish. Namely, that you no longer need a fishing license to catch one (when wearing certain gear).Which means you’re totally screwed, lionfish!Now before you go thinking this is some kind of act of animal cruelty,…
See also “Mystery-Sponge Killing Disease Now Seen From Palm Beach to Keys” and “Sponges in Palm Beach Hit By Disease”Earlier this year, a mystery ailment ravaged sponges off the coast of Florida, from the Keys up to Palm Beach. Scientists became alarmed as reports rolled in of massive barrel sponges…
Back in 2006, researchers from the University of Florida described for the first time a cryptic phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, through which massive amounts of worker bees vanished.The problem has since been documented around the world. Everyone from esteemed entomologists to armchair scientists to crazy conspiracy theorists have…
UPDATE 2, 7/25: Also see our latest post, Sally Ride’s Sister, on the Wikipedia Debate Over Homosexuality: “Sally Hated Labels of Every Kind.”UPDATE, 8 p.m.: The post has been updated to include comment from Bear Ride, Sally Ride’s sister. See also: Sally Ride Dead at 61.Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman…
Former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died of cancer today at the age of 61, according to her organization’s website, which has since crashed.Born in Los Angeles, Ride earned multiple degrees in physics and English from Stanford in the late ’70s, which is also when she…
Say what you will about the State of Florida’s news organizations; our weathermen are absolutely topnotch (except when they’re sexting kids). They have every computerized graphic in the book, amazing hairdos, and a penchant for predicting calamitous end-of-days scenarios based on nothing more than a blip of green. They also…
