"We moved to FL when I was 3 years old. I remember the water in the lagoon being a lot different than it is now. And you hear anyone who's lived around here, ten years, even as little as 10 years, you hear them talking about how it used to be and, you know, I have this sort of saying "you don't have to be very old to sound like an old timer if you live in Florida" because things have changed so much. And that particularly goes to the lagoon."
           - D. Scott Taylor, Ph.D.


Q: First of all, what is your position in terms of the Indian River Lagoon?

A: In Brevard County, Florida, I work for the Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program. This program is a part of the county and lower-county government and buys and preserves environmentally sensitive lands. It was started in 1992 when the citizens of Brevard County formed an initiative. They put a referendum on the ballot to support a tax to raise money in order to purchase lands for preservation. People realized in 1992 that this was a problem and that growth was happening fast. The saying around here is that we don't want to be like South Florda, where everything is gone. So, the citizens started this, in my opinion probably, 20 years too late, because a lot of the stuff had changed even that early.

Today, we have acquired 21,000 acres of land and I am the Central Region Land Manager. Brevard county is very long so it is broken up into 4 management areas and I manage the central region which is Merritt Island and the Rockledge area. So I'm a land manager, managing the boundaries that we acquire as well as a wetlands scientist. That means I'm involved in deciding what restoration work is needed, getting rid of exotic plants, and improving public access. But our main mandate is for the preservation of biodiversity. That is what we're supposed to try to keep as our foremost goal.


Q: What is the importance of the IRL in economic terms?

A: In terms of money, there are two fisheries, the sport fishery and commercial fishery, which are a tremendous monetary value from the lagoon. One can determine this with a look at the amount of money fishermen spend on gas, their boats, travel, food and res.taurants, hotels, and licenses. So there is a lot of money that goes into the sport of recreational fishing and that spins off into the economy at-large.

Secondly, there is a tremendous value for commercial fisheries landings. These are the products that are sold to consumers, out of the county or state. In addition, there is the livelihood of the fisherman and then the money they spend on the gas and boats and the insurance, etc.

Of course... maybe more obscure is the aesthetic value. People move here because they want to see the lagoon, build their houses on the lagoon, use it in a passive way like visiting it and walking on the shoreline, and sailing and boating. Those figures are probably a little bit harder to come up with. The property values homes that are situated along the lagoon are a tremendous amount and that is escalating every year. So those are monetary values.


Q: As a scientist, how do you measure the value of the IRL? What is its importance to the scientific community?

A: Of course . . . for example, in my perspective, the values are more in terms of the biodiversity that the lagoon offers. What is unique about it is that north of us is called the temperate biomes, where there a different flora and fauna because it is colder. And then down south it is the tropics. The IRL is right where those two zones converge. It's called a zone of ecological convergence, where these two zones overlap each other. As a result, we have this huge number of species that live here, both plant and animal, that belong some to the tropics and some to the temperate. So this lagoon, it is well documented, is the most biologically diverse estuary in North America, simply because of its shifting lines of ecological overlap. So for a scientist, the lagoon is a fascinating thing because of its vast number of species that are found there. If you compare this, for example, with an estuary in North Carolina, we have probably 2 to 3 times as many species as they would have there because that is just a temperate zone estuary. If you went further south to the Keys and looked at an estuary in the Florida Bay or Shark River Slough, you would have fewer because that is strictly a tropical zone down there. So, it is the overlap up here in the IRL which makes it really fascinating for a scientist.


Q: It is constantly being mentioned that the key to saving the IRL is through getting the water right. What is meant by this?

A: The main thing is the clarity. In the past, the ecological system of the lagoon was based on seagrass. Around 50 years ago, people began to use fertilizers, which caused a fantastic growth of seagrass that in turn caused turbidity in the water. As a result, the light diminished and seagrass couldn't survive anymore. Today, we only have seagrass surviving in the shallowest regions where there is adequate light penetration or around inlets where there is more flushing to clean out the water.

So the turbidity affects the seagrass and of course when the seagrass are lost, that affects the food, everything from manatees to parrot fish. A lot of things eat seagrass, either directly or indirectly, so a loss of rich seagrass communities is a real liability.


Q: So what exactly causes that turbidity in the water?

A: One is too much stormwater runoff. So much of the upland has been developed that there is much more rainwater rushing into the lagoon from the streets and pavement. In addition, during the 1920s and 1930's, the big rush was to drain everything since this was all swampland. They got all these canals to dump all the water into the lagoon. But the water is bringing two things. It's bringing sediments that shouldn't be coming in and more importantly, more freshwater than there used to be. The additional freshwater lowers the salinity of the lagoon, which affects everything from seagrass to fish.

Even more importantly, the water being dumped into the lagoon is bringing in all of these added nutrients that allow algae, which wasn't there 50 years ago, to flourish and cause turbidity in the water. The algae cloud the water, keeping the light from reaching the bottom and allowing the seagrass to grow. And the algae, of course, continue to thrive because we are using all of these fertilizers and every time our cars leaks oil, that is essentially a drop of fertilizer going into the lagoon. And when they die, the algae decompose and settle on the bottom where they build up these mucky, nasty sediments that are anoxic (have no oxygen). Where these sediments are accumulating, nothing can live. So a lot of the bottom, even if there is adequate light, is full of this crap that seagrass wouldn't grow on, even if it could grow

A lot of the deep dredged channels now have several feet of muck (they actually named it muck, which is a combination of upland minerals that are washed in from all the canals and the decomposing plant matter) So, even if we were to basically improve the water, we still have to deal with that muck. Every time there is a bad storm, it gets resuspended. Or if you're on one of the bridges and watch the big boats going up and down the big intercoastal waterway, the prop wash resuspends more of the muck and this big cloud of crap comes up. And all of it disperses into the water column and adds to the problem of turbidity.

So ultimately, there is the problem of freshwater entrance, sediment, and nutrients. All of these compound the problem of turbidity and stress the system, so it isn't as resilient as it used to be. Now a lot of these aquatic systems can recover if they are given time and you take the stress away. And we know what the problems are but the area still growing like crazy. Every house that is built has people throwing fertilizers on their lawn, watering the lawn too much, washing their car . . . all that runs down the street, into the storm sewer and where does that go? Right into the lagoon. Everyone has an impact. No one likes what their seeing but we're all contributing to it. And the problem is too much population growth. An altered system which is allowing too much of our influence there.

C-25, a man-made South Florida Water Management District canal with the purpose of redirecting water into the Indian River Lagoon. (Fort Pierce, FL) The familiar South Florida Water Management District sign, seen throughout South Florida, identifying the canal. (Fort Pierce, FL) C-25's opening into the Indian River Lagoon as well as one of the many bridges that cross the canal. When it rains the materials on the birdges (garbage, chemicals from cars) are washed into the canal, which leads to the Indian River Lagoon, polluting it. Much of the land around the Indian River Lagoon used to be swamps, allowing the filtration of water before it entered the lagoon. Today, much of this swampland has been developed with homes, buildings, and parking lots. As a result, rain water (with all the chemicals and toxins it has picked up along the way) is directly released into the lagoon. Here, a method of draining the parking lot has been created. It releases the water into C-25, where it is later dumped into the Indian River Lagoon. (Fort Pierce, FL) Development is one of the main factors in destroying the Indian River Lagoon. In Stuart, Florida, the Roosevelt Bridge crosses the St. Lucie Estuary, where fishing boats and high-priced real estate properties are common. Directly on the Indian River Lagoon in Stuart, development is everywhere. The cost of construction is heavy on the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem, especially when it rains and substances are washing into it.