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“We definitely feel like the lessons weren’t learned, and we had to lose a whole reef in Miami. We want people to do better next time, but there has been no effort to improve their plans,” Silverstein says. “But I don’t think this is the end of the line in the process.”
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“Mangroves have long been protected because they provide a critical barrier between land and water: their tangled roots help trap sediment and protect coastal areas from hurricanes while providing food and shelter for fish. Researchers found that reefs located near mangroves can have 25 times more fish, said Miami Waterkeeper executive director Rachel Silverstein.
Federal officials estimate that northern Biscayne Bay has lost 82 percent of its mangrove. Since 1996, cutting a mangrove in Miami-Dade County has required a county permit.”
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“I love the sunshine and the water, and we get plenty of both living in Miami. I run a nonprofit that does clean water advocacy in Miami, so connecting with the water and the beach is very important to me. The summer is the perfect time to scuba dive, paddleboard, kayak, and swim, of course followed by a beach picnic or barbecue.
Miami also has a bounty of local foods available during the summer. Everyone’s trees are literally bursting with mangos—more than you could eat. It’s also lobster season in the summer. You can dive right from the beach and find a gourmet dinner waiting for you. I think that a meal tastes even better if you know who grew the mango or caught your lobster.” –Rachel Silverstein, executive director and waterkeeper at Miami Waterkeeper
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“Conservation biologists, for the most part, are supremely passionate about the places and things they study. If a call comes in the middle of the night, the professional culture within conservation biology encourages scientists to answer. Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper. “The problem comes with concentration, and if there are too many people in one spot peeing in the ocean or sewage spills there can be big problems.”
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“I think that if you find yourself in the ocean, and you have to go, that you should not feel guilty about that,” said Dr. Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper. “The problem comes with concentration, and if there are too many people in one spot peeing in the ocean or sewage spills there can be big problems.”
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“On two separate dives last week, Waterkeeper divers found and photographed sickly staghorn coral that had been transplanted from the channel to a nearby artificial reef a year ago for protection. The photos show tagged colonies now coated with sediment and dead or dying.”
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“Coming off successful legal action protecting our clean-water economy, Rachel Silverstein and the upstart environmental group Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper look to the future.”
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“This settlement is a win for the environment and for local taxpayers, who are still on the hook for the Army Corps of Engineers’ mess. Our reefs and bay are ecological and aesthetic jewels, critical to our clean water economy and local culture. It’s a shame, and shameful, that we had to sue the federal government to get it to follow federal law.”