MELBOURNE – Congressman Bill Posey described his days growing up along the Indian River Lagoon, catching fish in water so clear he could identify the species from afar.
But on Tuesday, he and other politicians heard Florida Tech scientists describe a dying estuary, blackened with thick, noxious muck.
Politicians and scientists agreed that keeping the public involved in the solutions is critical.
“Never before have I seen the lagoon receive the kind of attention it’s getting right now,” Posey, R-Rockledge, told a group of about 50 Florida Tech scientists, students and local and state government officials. “Our lagoon touches the lives of everyone in this county. It plays, obviously, a vital role in our economy.”
Scientists briefed Posey, as well as several state and local representatives, on FIT’s newly formed Indian River Lagoon Research Institute and its plans on how to restore the estuary.
FIT’s lagoon research institute is a collaboration of the university’s scientists, engineers, coastal resource managers and educators.
“The fact is we’re not going to fix it overnight,” said Kevin Johnson, an associate professor of biology at Florida Tech.
“We need to be able to involve the public.”
Johnson is studying zooplankton, organisms that graze on algae, to determine what role the tiny “grazers” might play in preventing severe algae blooms. One theory is that algae thrived when zooplankton died in harsh cold snaps that preceded a green algae “superbloom” in 2011.
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That bloom was largely responsible for killing an estimated 47,000 acres of seagrass, about 60 percent of the total seagrass area in the central and northern lagoon.
Johnson will collaborate with two other Florida Tech professors who are studying the lagoon’s muck.
In December, FIT professors John Trefry and Ashok Pandit, and Jonathan Martin of the University of Florida, were awarded a contract for $865,000 from the St. Johns River Water Management District to study muck sediment and groundwater in the lagoon.
The two projects bring a total of $1.1 million to Florida Tech’s newly established Indian River Lagoon Research Institute.
Johnson said it’s important to measure baseline conditions in the lagoon, to determine whether countermeasures such as muck dredging and fertilizer ordinances actually improve the water quality.
“You have to have a baseline to measure against,” he said.