I was really looking forward to writing a spearfishing article about top to bottom visibility in 80 feet of water and wrestling a 40 pound cobia off one of the many wrecks and reefs out of the St. Lucie Inlet. That would definitely be the type of scenario we spearo’s dream of but there is a much more pressing issue that is rapidly turning this dream into a nightmare.
Let me say first that I have lived in Florida all my 58 years of life, mostly in Port Salerno, Florida. I am just trying to convey the thought that I know what I am talking about and have seen the beginning of this bad dream.
To start, I will have to take you back 45 to 50 years when you could almost see the bottom in the Manatee Pocket and 70 to 80 feet of visibility north or south of the inlet. There were still plenty of oysters at the Hole-in-the-Wall and clams on the flats. A month ago my wife and I set out the St. Lucie Inlet to try and find water clear enough to dive and spear supper. All we could find was coffee colored water with the smell of a polluted swamp that stretched miles north, south and east of the inlet. We finally decided to anchor up on the flats south of the inlet to try and catch bluefish. All I ended up with was a scum line on my boat that even bleach wouldn’t take off.
What has happened these past 50 years or so? As a teenager I worked in the local fish houses and saw first-hand what polluted, chemical laden fresh water was doing to the marine life. Many of the fish caught in the north and south forks were covered with sores and the blue crabs were not edible. Today we still have the same problem but with the increased development and population of our state it has never, in my opinion, been worse. It reminds me of poison being pumped through your veins or cancer slowly spreading through your body eventually destroying life.
Our reef systems and the marine life that depend on them are in serious trouble. I have seen up close and personal the lack of marine life when this thick dark blanket covers our reefs day after day, week after week and year after year. How much more can it take? I for one am sick and tired of 50 years of destruction.
Fifty years and there is still nothing being done except lip service and broken promises from our politicians and government bureaucracies wanting to get re-elected. When will this destruction end? It will only end when we the people vote in politicians with the backbone and courage to start legislation to abolish the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District. They have become bloated, inefficient boondogglers that are only interested in creating high paid government jobs for all their political cronies. This agency if funded by “We the People” and we should have a say in their actions. They have solved very few problems with the billions upon billions of tax dollars given to them and only created more chaos. Straightening the Kissimmee River and draining the area around the Lake for agriculture are just a few examples of their bad policies. They get away with polluting our environment while prosecuting and threatening the private sector for far less violations. To put it bluntly, they are poisoning our estuaries with our money.
It is time for this wasteful, inefficient and archaic agency to be privatized so there will be accountability which they do not have. I worked on military bases for six years and the housing for our men and women in uniform was deplorable. Many were still living in post WW II rodent and insect infested barracks and housing. The military came to their senses and privatized the building of new housing because of the expense, red tape and bloated A.C.O.E. bureaucracy. Quality housing was being built by the private sector for half the cost and in one third of the time and more important there was accountability.
Does this article sound drastic? Well it is because drastic situations require drastic measures. I am teaching my grandchildren how to dive, fish and respect our most wonderful and exciting natural gift, our seas and estuaries. My 12 year old granddaughter recently won an award for a speech she gave on “Saving our Ocean”. I want them to have the same opportunities the many generations before them had to enjoy this natural resource owned by “We the People”.