Pollution concerns spread along the coast
The devastating impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs), blue green, brown, rust, and red tides, which have been linked to nitrogen pollution, are sadly not unique to Long Island’s water. In addition to recent local water quality reports that show every major bay and estuary on Long Island was afflicted by toxic algae blooms, oxygen starved waters (also known as hypoxia) or both over the summer, there has been news of massive wildlife die-offs in Florida. We asked Long Island native Andrew Blaurock, who is now a student at Eckerd College in Florida’s west coast, to share the risks he sees ahead for our waters.
Blaurock showed an interest in the environment at a young age. He was part of Long Island Clean Water Partnership founding member Group for the East End’s Summer Field Ecology Program, and later became an intern. His love for nature also inspires some of his illustration work.
“Growing up on Long Island, the ocean was always very important to me,” Blaurock said. “Some of my favorite activities when I was younger was seining in local bays and going through my haul on the shore, checking out every new and exciting creature I’d netted before releasing them back into the sea. I’d always been interested in biodiversity and sought more than what I had typically seen on Long Island when I chose to go to school in Florida.”
School kept Blaurock busy, and he didn’t have the chance to explore local wildlife until the red tide hit, killing dozens of batfish, pufferfish, moray eels, boxfish, triggerfish, angelfish, and more. Washed on the shores of St. Petersburg, these marine species were surrounded by a sea of dead snappers, baitfish, and other bony fish. Blaurock shared these photos last month of the dead wildlife near his campus.
“Seeing this devastation first hand was certainly a wake-up call, inspiring me to get more involved in a field that had always interested me,” Blaurock shared. “This destruction isn’t just limited to Florida; similar algal blooms can occur off of most coastlines, and they are only exacerbated by pollution and general environmental ignorance. There is no definitive end in sight, but something must be done. The time to take action is now, because there won’t be a later.”
Stand up for Long Island’s water and join the Long Island Clean Water Partnership today! You can also attend the 7th annual “Water We Going To Do?” Conference on Wednesday, October 24 to learn what’s next in the fight to save Long Island water.