Waterway Study

I am starting a project where I will be sampling from each of the waterways in Fort Lauderdale. The reality is we are all exposed to these waters now. We need more information about what is going on. I will take a series of drone pictures(where permissible, which unfortunately means most of fort lauderdale is not permissible. Thanks FLL lol) wide angles, featurette photos, down to macro, and finally microscopic images of things found in the water. Things that it really only takes some curiosity to figure out. I’m starting local, but slowly I’d like to branch out and investigate sites near places I’ve learned about, or other frequented areas like the florida keys….

Stay tuned this week for my first entry of the Victoria Park Canal which is basically the closest body of water to my residence. You could say the water likely represents the activities of the neighborhood. Things I observe are people walking their dogs in parks, people not picking up after pets, a proponderence of iguanas, plastic fishing line left, haphazardly. Trash. God. So much trash. Cigarette butts.

A year ago, this sample was from there. I paddled through some pretty thick green just up the way. This was at the height of the blue green algae, and finally impending red-tide crisis in South Florida.

This is what got the state to investigate the Las Olas Isles, among other reports that were coming in that people witnessed a shiny green on the water. Something similar to what they’ve seen on the news, I’m just a regular curious person. Are you curious too? We need to do something.

I am happy to say, so far this year, the isles water seems cleaner. I’ve witnessed many fish on the banks. However, during the recent water main break in the isles, the water seemed to have a lot of odd sediment on the surface. What concerns me is there is no simple to find method of information as to when this is occurring unless you know to go to a city website, etc to stay up to date. Many tourists enter that water for paddle boarding and other water activities, completely unaware of the hidden dangers to their wellbeing, because we’ve reached a point where the system is vulnerable to imbalances?

The water seems to have cleared a bit again, but people are in the water, and just a couple of weeks ago that was mixed with raw sewage.

Let’s see what the microscope says. Stay tuned!