Page 65 - Panama City Living Magazine September-October 2019

REDFISH RELEASE
is highly important. “An intact ecosystem not only benefits recreational anglers; it contributes to the Florida economy,” he reiterates. The FWC, using data from Southwick Associates and the American Sportfishing Association, reports that Florida’s sport fishing industry, which includes both salt- water and freshwater fishing, supports more than 106,000 jobs and generates $11.5 billion in eco- nomic activity each year.
Replenishing the fish population helps, but it doesn't solve all the problems red tide brings to places like Port St. Joe. Sven Kranz, assistant pro- fessor of oceanography at Florida State Univer- sity, says communities can help by “getting their water quality to a more pristine level.”
In some places, like Tampa Bay, efforts to clean the coastline of the excess nutrients that feed red tide have shown progress. The Smithsonian Institute reported last year that following a pop- ulation boom in the 1950s, Tampa Bay became covered in a thick layer of algae after the removal of mangroves and the dumping of polluted water into the bay. By reducing the nutrients and pol- lutants flowing into the bay, the efforts brought seagrass back to levels not seen since before the spike of human population on Florida’s coast around 1970. One effect of red tide in the rela- tively shallow waters of bays is that excessive al- gae growth deprives seagrass of the light it needs to grow. Seagrass is a key part of the ecosystem and without it, the marine life that rely on it will disappear, eventually causing the entire ecosys- tem to collapse. When that happens, popular fish- ing spots become fish-free zones.
The return of seagrass to Tampa Bay has been one success story in the fight against red tide, but it is not a quick fix. The Smithsonian reports that the turnaround in Tampa Bay, from ecological col- lapse to visible strides toward recovery, took 30 years. Another effort that is being tried with suc- cess in Florida is the addition of shellfish to wa- ters where red tide is a problem. Franz says adding shellfish, such as oysters, provides a natural filter
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