As she explained last week, Catherine Uden was saddened by all the litter sprinkled across Fort Lauderdale Beach during spring break. As the Broward Chapter secretary of Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit grassroots environmental group made up of surfers and beach lovers, it was especially hard to see. For years, Uden…
On March 14, Fort Lauderdale Beach lifeguard Zoard Janko uploaded a photo onto Facebook. In it, a few lingering spring-breakers make their way off the beach. Their emptied plastic water bottles, crushed cans of Red Bull, and Styrofoam cooler, though, are left behind in the sand. “They laugh as they…
There was some crazy weather Saturday in South Florida, and some of it was caught on video. On social media, multiple observers posted footage of a wild-looking storm moving over the water on Fort Lauderdale Beach, taken from various angles. According to Brian La Marre, the Tampa-based Meteorologist-in-Charge for the National…
When the sun sets, Jytte Nielsen and Mark Morgan often grab a beer and meander out to their backyard, which sits next to a massive tract of undeveloped wetlands in Miramar. From there, they can see a small pond with ibises, osprey, and turtles. They retired here six years ago…
Global warming is an inevitable threat. By 2045, sea levels are expected to rise at least a foot and Miami has been called ground zero for global warming. No one’s quite sure how the rising foot of water will effect South Florida and the millions of people who live and own…
In 1984, Ulf Erlingsson was a Ph.D. student at Uppsala University in Sweden, studying physical geography. There, he designed a device that could measure sediment to a tenth of a millimeter. He patented the invention, and 36 years later Erlingsson, now 55 runs his company Lidorm from Medley, Florida. It…
It all started out as a scenic way to lose weight. Andrew Royston lived near Fort Lauderdale Beach and figured an early morning beach walk before work would be good for his health. Royston would bring his iPhone with him and couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of the sunrise…
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation gives out grants around the world from its headquarters in Flint, Michigan. A lot of those funds support wonderful-sounding initiatives for education, children, and the environment. But protestors in Miami today say that the foundation is hypocritical – that it wins praise for giving out…
Earth First! is a 30-year-old hardcore environmental organization known for its in-your-face activism: a lot of civil disobedience, a dose of mischief, and plenty of arrests. Its motto exclaims, “no compromise in the defense of Mother Earth!” and group members rose to prominence by “monkeywrenching” — dismantling bulldozers that would…
Sailing to Cuba — that’s the hot topic in the boating world these days. So the tent was packed full yesterday at the Strictly Sail Miami boat show at Bayside Marketplace, where Wally Moran gave a talk explaining how cruisers and sailors can best explore the communist island. Moran is…
Armed with a scuba tank and speargun, Christian Mathisen has been plunging deeper than 100 feet into South Florida’s waters for the last 20 years. Based out of Jupiter, Mathisen says he has spent nearly $90,000 acquiring the necessary permits to legally spearfish commercially. He makes a modest living selling…
Some of the most amazing species on Earth are here under the water. Take, for example, hogfish, which can convert from female to male when they are about three years old. According to FWC Biological Scientist Jeff Renchen, all hogfish begin their lives as females. As spawning season approaches, the…
A bill pending in the Florida Legislature would let anyone pay $100 for a so-called “citizen archaeology permit” and then be able to dig up historical artifacts from submerged lands like riverbeds and lakes — and keep what they find. Collectors are psyched about the bill. Archaeologists say that only…
The great warrior king of 17th century India, Shivaji Maharaj, fought off Europeans and their imperialist ambitions. To protect a group of islands in the Arabian Sea, Maharaj designed a series of stone walls that snake the perimeters of the islands. It kept the Europeans and, somewhat unintentionally, the ocean…
Tanya Tweeton, an activist with the SouthEast Florida Sierra Marine and Water Quality Team, was seated in the hall outside yesterday’s Broward County Commission meeting, chatting nervously with three friends. The County Commission was set to vote on an ordinance to ban fracking, the process by which water, sand and…
Wayne Huizenga used to live at 516 Mola Ave., on the manmade finger islands known as Las Olas Isles. His two-acre homesite was once advertised as “the largest assemblage of waterfront property in Fort Lauderdale.” His old house sat on a little peninsula surrounded by the New River and the…
People in more northern climes are probably ROFLMFAOing at us, but Broward County has declared a “cold weather emergency” from Saturday evening until Monday morning, according to a media release from the county. A news release said temps would be in the 40s, while the National Weather Service published…
Edward Mercer, a bearded wildlife technician with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, cracked open a series of thick, black boxes, each made of plastic and filled with lumpy, dirty pillowcases. I stood in a crowd of 14 people who surrounded him in a semi-circle. Mercer grabbed one of the…
Scientists concerned about global warming and sea level rise often describe Miami as ground zero — the next Atlantis, even. Magazines including Rolling Stone and the New Yorker have speculated that huge chunks of the city could go underwater and that people would flee in a mass exodus. (The symptoms…
Julie Featherston and her six-year-old son pick up litter whenever they’re at Treasure Island Beach outside of Tampa. The whopping number of cigarette butts that spanned their local beach alarmed the duo. Featherston’s son worried about the wildlife that might accidentally ingest the tossed cigarette butts; Featherston worried about her…
Brace yourself, everyone. South Florida is about to get all Planet Hoth on us with a cold front swooping in over the weekend that could be bringing temperatures as low as mid-50s. So get ready to bust out those winter coats and boots…it’s gonna be CRAZY. A cold blast is…
You might think that a national preserve would be used to, y’know, preserve some natural land and protected species. Naw, you crazy! Parks and preserves are used for extracting resources, silly! Tomorrow night is an important meeting to determine the fate of oil exploration in the Big Cypress National Preserve. …
