Scott Atwell, communications manager for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the sanctuary.
In order to build a sea wall near the sanctuary, you need a permit.
Atwell said, “The sanctuary receives about 1,000 permit applications per year, ranging from everything from whether or not you could shoot off fireworks to whether or not you could build a bridge. That 1,000 permits is far and away more than anyone else in the sanctuary system. There are a couple of reasons for this. Two of them are the fact that so many properties are adjacent to the water, as I mentioned, bridges and state parks. The other reason is that scientists all across the world, if they need to research something in tropical waters and don’t want to leave the country, they come here. So there is all of this request coming in about getting the permit to do the work, and our permit coordinator has been managing all of this on his own, but we now have the good fortune to borrow a colleague from another part of the system to help us with anything that’s related to near shore construction. If any of the listeners have construction permits in the works, or are planning to submit those, then go to our website, and under the staff listing, find Stacey. It’s an alphabetical listing, and if you have any questions, by all means, reach out and and send her an email. There have been some delays in this area, but we’re hoping to get caught up soon now that we have this extra help. So it is an incredible burden that we sort of are uniquely burdened with because of all these reasons that I talked about.”
The advisory council had a meeting recently.
Atwell explained, “We meet every other month, and the council is made up of representatives of the various user groups of the sanctuary. I’m amazed at about every meeting, the most interesting thing to me is when Captain Dave Dupree from FWC gets up and starts to talk about derelict vessels. I’m just enamored by it and by the way, Dave’s retiring, so that was his last meeting yesterday. But the information he gave us is that they’re averaging about six vessels per week being reported as derelict. He has three full time officers who do nothing but derelict vessels. And even with that, only about 35% of the folks who own these vessels are held accountable. It’s really remarkable. I mean, they’re making a lot of headway. But he also talked about the challenges, the money required to remove these things. There’s a shrimp boat right off of Islamorada that grounded not long ago. It might cost $75,000 to $100,000 to remove that thing. So the county followed him with their presentation. They’re making some headway on new mooring fields near Key West which, once in place, is going to allow more enforcement. For instance, a requirement to re anchor your boat every 90 days, because most of these derelicts are unoccupied, and sometimes the derelicts damage the sea floor and another presentation during the meeting yesterday was from our damage assessment team, which talked about the work that they do. So, for instance, that shrimp boat in Islamorada, after it grounded, our team went in there, they quantified the damage, and then they started repairing it. That shrimp boat dislodged almost 200 corals, and our team goes in afterwards and restored them. So they gave a report on the work that they do. So it was a pretty tight meeting from nine to one, but as always, a lot of great information. If your listeners have never tuned in, it’s every other month, so August will be the next one, and stay tuned and visit if you can.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM pointed out, “As an aside, thank you to Dave Dupree. He served us for many years as captain of the FWC here in the Keys, and he will be moving on to well deserved retirement.”
How are the buoy teams handling the winds?
Atwell said, “We have buoy teams positioned in the Upper and Lower Keys to facilitate the entire buoy system, which covers 160 miles all the way out to the Dry Tortugas. The lower region team just wrapped up maintenance around Key West, and they have moved their craft to our Bahia Honda dock, to begin the regular maintenance of the Middle Keys. We have the Underwater Music Festival coming up under a month now. We also got a call this week from a dive operator who said, listen, Sombereor Key is missing 10 mooring buoys. I think they’re supposed to have about 20 out there. Sometimes it’s the wind, a lot of times it is Mother Nature is the reason those moorings get lost. But sometimes it’s the public not using them. So the your listeners can help us in a couple of different ways. If you do see moorings missing, not the requisite number, you can call it in and let us know, but also use them correctly. On our website, we have a video of how to properly use a mooring ball and really, the points are pretty simple. You never connect the yellow pickup line directly to your boat. You loop your bow line through that yellow pickup line and then tie your bow line off on the other side. Never tie off from the stern to one of these mooring buoys. It creates too much stress, and always keep in mind that these 18 inch, regular sized mooring balls are for vessels up to 59 feet. After that, the larger moorings have to be used. The public can find out where all of these mooring buoys are at by going to our website, and looking up the buoy program, and we’ve got interactive maps. You can see where the large ones are at, where the small ones are at, where all of them are at. The good news is that we’re going to be expanding the program by the end of the summer. The Monroe County Tourist Development Council gave us money to establish new brand new moorings. We just received our approval from Army Corps for these additions, and so we’re taking next steps, ordering materials, and hopefully have the work completed by the end of the summer.”
A photo contest is coming up.
Atwell said, “Every year, beginning in June, our National Marine Sanctuary Foundation opens a photo contest and has four categories, sanctuary views, sanctuary life, sanctuary recreation and sanctuaries around the world. So this is really in a worldwide contest, and the Florida Keys have done extraordinarily well over the years, which is an acknowledgement of the talent behind a camera, but also, of course, the subject matter, right? It is a target rich environment for photographs. We would all agree on that. So I would encourage your listeners to consider the photos they’ve already taken, or the ones they’ve been thinking about taking. If you know a photographer in your life, pass along this information. We’d love to see Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary capture a prize once again, if you go to our Facebook or Instagram pages, you can see the details on how to enter, along with some images from previous winners from Keys photographers. The contest remains open until Labor Day, so give it a shot. Let’s let the Keys be in the spotlight again come Labor Day.”
For more information, click here: https://floridakeys.noaa.gov/