Careless Boaters Damage Thousands of Acres of Florida Sea Grass

The irony hidden in this report about propeller damage is that a much greater impact on seagrasses is caused by excess fresh water being dumped into Florida Bay and Florida coastal estuaries. But when lawmakers re-examine water management policies and impacts, they look at them in isolation. “In 1995, using aerial photographs, the park service determined that 30,000 acres of 1.5 million acres of seagrass beds in all of Monroe County had been damaged by boats. About 10,000 acres of those seagrass beds were located in the Florida Bay, Szymanski said.” Jennifer Kay of the Associated Press.