Reeflover once bubbled...
FredT,
I have seen the decline in the health of reef systems over the past 10 years, from many different factors, but lets not add to it, I'd like to appreciate them for a long time to come.
Reeflover
I won't go back now because I'd like to remember The Elbow and Molasses as they were.
If you want to appreciate the keys' reefs there are a few things you should be doing.
1. Remove the water pipe from Homestead south, and from Key West north. Those who stay will have to go back to roof catch cisterns.
2. Remove 90% of the commercial dive boats working in the park
3. Eliminate all cane and other intensive farming south of "The Lake"
4. Eliminate water feed and drainage canals from The Lake south to both coasts.
5. Have the COE fill in all canals to restore water flow to the swamp south of the Lake, including removal of the I-75 water choke
Of course since none of that will happen because it will cost the PTBs too much money out of their pocket, you just have to:
6. Pray for a few Class 5 storms to walk up the straight, about 5 miles inland from A1A, followed in alternate weeks by others up the west coast just west of the shore.
The problem with the reefs in the Keys isn't warming oceans or divers with gloves, its too many nutrients in the water and WAY too many people in an area that can't support them.
The red herrings are interesting, but don't confuse them with something that actually matters!
BTW MY problem is those "regulators" who decide that the pain of others caused by rules THEY impose is not "their problem." Those folks deserve a short rope and a tall tree at best. A week or three as test subjects with the Apache as they try to recover lost cultural captive interrogation skills would be more appropriate, just not constitutional!
If you decide to risk your hands, you are entirely free to do so. I'll applaud your intent, and pity you a little (VERY little) as you heal. You may NOT decide to risk my hands!
Gee whiz, can you tell you trod on one of my major buttons?
Milk does NOT come from cartons, and meat isn't grown wrapped in film on little plastic trays. "Feel good" choices made by those who have no reality on this are almost always wrong, no matter how "PC" they are.