I was recently invited to take a boat trip out to Florida Bay by Orvis, the apparel and outdoor gear company, Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation. We met at Angler House near mike marker 80 in Islamorada and headed out to the bay from there. Steve Davis, the chief science officer from the Everglades Foundation, came with us to interpret what we were seeing. Seeing the bay delivered a gut punch I did not expect. The once clear, crystalline waters that I remember so well from my childhood and youth, were now a pea-green murky mess. I couldn't even see the engine propeller, the water was so murky. A toxic blue-green algae bloom had taken over the bay, right off the keys coast. Such algae can kill fish, grasses and tourism, Davis explained. The groups had produced an excellent short film about the journey of water from shingle creek in Orlando to Florida Bay. Upon our return to Angler House, I interviewed Orvis President Simon Perkins, an avid fly-fisherman who had come along on the boat ride.
I was recently invited to take a boat trip out to Florida Bay by Orvis, the apparel and outdoor gear company, Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation. We met at Angler House near mike marker 80 in Islamorada and headed out to the bay from there. Steve Davis, the chief science officer from the Everglades Foundation, came with us to interpret what we were seeing. Seeing the bay delivered a gut punch I did not expect. The once clear, crystalline waters that I remember so well from my childhood and youth, were now a pea-green murky mess. I couldn't even see the engine propeller, the water was so murky. A toxic blue-green algae bloom had taken over the bay, right off the keys coast. Such algae can kill fish, grasses and tourism, Davis explained. The groups had produced an excellent short film about the journey of water from shingle creek in Orlando to Florida Bay. Upon our return to Angler House, I interviewed Orvis President Simon Perkins, an avid fly-fisherman who had come along on the boat ride.
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Unknown
Welcome to the nature of Florida, the Sunshine State's only podcast dedicated to its wild and natural places and the fight to preserve them. I'm your host, Oscar Corral. I've dedicated much of my career to making films about environmental issues.
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Unknown
Tune in each week to hear from a broad range of voices from scientists to surfers, activists to mermaids who are working on the front lines to save what's left of Florida's natural beauty and its wildlife. Today's episode of The Nature of Florida podcast is a little different.
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Unknown
Last week, I was invited on a boat tour of Florida Bay that was organized by Orvis, the outdoor apparel and equipment company captains for Clean Water, a nonprofit organization of fishing captains and boaters that act as a kind of guardian of Florida's waters and the Everglades Foundation.
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Unknown
I had interviewed one of the captains members, Benny Blanco, in a previous episode of this podcast. And this podcast is usually an interview with one person. But in this episode, I'm taking on a field trip to the frontlines of the fight to save the Everglades.
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Unknown
The occasion was to announce the release of a short documentary film that they produced about the Everglades and its restoration process. I watched the film beforehand and thought it was an excellent snapshot of the complexity and importance of restoring the Everglades.
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Unknown
And how could I turned on a boat right on one of the most beautiful bays in the continental United States? So off I went to meet the group at Angler House in Islamorada, near Mile Marker 80, before setting out on the boat tour.
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Unknown
A few people spoke. This is Simon Perkins, the young president of Orvis and an avid fly fisherman. This ecosystem is really, really unique. It's one of the one of our nation's most incredible treasures. It's one that when I was little growing up, you know, I watched I watched my grandfather travel around to many different places, trying to
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advocate for many different places, protect many different places. This the Everglades always had a really, really special place in his heart, so much so that every year on his birthday, he and his best friend, who was a guy, family members would come and spend two weeks.
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Unknown
They take a houseboat in the middle of the Everglades, and that's how he wanted to spend his birthday every single day, because it was it was the ultimate experience when it comes to connection, connecting with the with the resource and and a resource that really puts everything in perspective.
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Unknown
And so when you're when you're a kid and you're growing up and there's that type of conditioning happening all around you, you're you're lucky because you quickly understand that, like, these places are really, really special. So when when it was 20, 30 years ago, where we started were where people started to raise the flags, raise their hands
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Unknown
, start, start the work. It was really important for us to be a part of it. And the amount of work and effort that's gone in over decades is incredible. And what's what's amazing is we're at a point now where we have this momentum to really see this thing through.
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Unknown
And I remember my father telling me that as he's he's he's an optimist. But I remember him telling me that he didn't know if this was ever going to happen in his lifetime. And if it didn't happen in his lifetime, he was pretty pessimistic that it might happen ever.
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Unknown
And all of a sudden, you know, you see that I can feel the energy in his voice when he's talking about the momentum from the last two or three years and the fact that this can happen. We have the people that are going to make sure that it does happen.
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Unknown
And it's just it's a it's this this will this will have major consequences, not just for this incredible ecosystem here that funds industry, funds passion, but but on a national scale as well. So we're very happy to be a part of it.
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Unknown
We're proud to be a part of it on hand. To talk about the problems plaguing the Everglades and the science behind Everglades restoration was Steve Davis, the chief science officer at the Everglades Foundation. He has also been featured in a previous episode of this podcast.
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Unknown
What we see take place in Florida Bay is a response to a reduction in freshwater flow. It's it's a chronic buildup of these problems. But we see these occasional die off events, which are catastrophes, and they're actually worse than wildfires that you might experience out West, because these problems, once we start to see the die off take
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Unknown
place, it's really a downward spiral. And it takes the bay upwards of 20 years to recover. And we only know that because of the first die off and and the recovery took until about really until about 2010, 2012.
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Unknown
And then, of course, a few years later, in 2015, we saw the next die off take place. So I'm going to just put into perspective, you know, the ecosystem, because Florida Bay is the end of of the river of grass.
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Unknown
That's the finish line for water that could start as far north as Orlando and Shingle Creek in the headwaters. This is over 200 miles from top to bottom, 18,000 square miles. That's the really the watershed of this ecosystem today.
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Unknown
We have 9 million people living in it, depending on it for clean water for their water supply. For recreation and the things that we value of the Everglades and at the center. Lake Okeechobee historically was the beating heart.
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Unknown
It would fill up every wet season, swell up and spill over to the south and feed that river grass all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay. And Daniel described how we re plumb the system.
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Unknown
We change the flow of water. We disconnected. We actually cut off the headwater supply of this ecosystem so that water could no longer flow south. That water instead was dumped east and west. Of course, there's a history of pollution of Lake Okeechobee as well, that that exacerbates these problems, fueling toxic blue green algae, exacerbating red tide on
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on the West Coast and and really to suffer the southernmost end due to a lack of fresh water. We often see this system going from extremely wet to extremely dry. And Florida Bay at the southernmost end, Everglades National Park really suffers those consequences the most.
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Unknown
And this is a satellite image, a false color image. But it's not an exaggeration to say that Everglades National Park is considerably drier than the rest of the system. It receives much less freshwater than the water conservation areas.
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Unknown
And so we see problems beginning at Tamiami Trail. We now have bridges that are sending water where it needs to go into Northeast Shark River Slew. These areas are starting to get wetter, longer, which is good. We're starting to see some benefits downstream.
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Unknown
But the key to really restoring this ecosystem is reconnecting the heart of the system back to the Everglades. And the bypass surgery for that is the reservoir. That's the project that's broken ground. We need the funding now from the federal government to build that reservoir.
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Unknown
We have the capacity, the technology to clean the water from Lake Okeechobee through stormwater treatment wetlands. These are massive treatment wetlands that remove the phosphorus pollution so that we're ensuring clean water goes south under the bridges of Tamiami Trail, through Everglades National Park down here to Florida Bay, where that water's needed to nourish both the mangroves, 350,000
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Unknown
acres of mangrove forest around this ecosystem. And then, of course, the seagrass meadows throughout Florida Bay, along the Florida shelf and certainly along the Florida Keys. So that's kind of restoration. 101 in a nutshell, we're going to go out we're going to see some of these areas that are still being impacted today by that 2015 die off
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Unknown
. Daniel Andrews, the executive director of Captains for Clean Water, also spoke about some of the organization's efforts to fight for clean water. This is some of what he had to say. The bleeding is getting to the point now where we're five or six years ago, we all said, hey, this is enough is enough.
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Unknown
We can't you know, our kids or our grandkids are going to have literally nothing left. They're going to they're going to be stuck on their phones or be stuck on their iPads. If we can't take what's left, preserve it, and then try to make it at least a fraction of what it historically was as assignments that we
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Unknown
have the momentum, we see the finish line where our job now is just to keep it rolling and don't assume that just because it's rolling now, it's going to continue to keep moving in the right direction. There are a lot of forces that are working against us.
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Unknown
This past legislative session in Tallahassee, Alicia has some some stickers she can pass around. We've got the The Grave Digger four for Senate Bill 2508, which was ultimately vetoed. Reason was because so many people spoke up. So many brands spoke up on it.
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Unknown
Organizations spoke up Raul Unified and said, hey, this is this is a step backwards. We need to be moving forwards. It rallied this massive amount of support that ultimately put us in a stronger place after something really bad happened because everybody was unified and said, Hey, we're smart enough to know this is really bad.
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Unknown
This is going to hurt the Everglades, it's going to hurt our economy, our future, our community, our quality of life. Everything that matters to us was at stake with it. And what we're able to do now, what our job is, is to take that momentum that we got from the defense that we wish we never would have
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Unknown
had to play. We now have all these new people that are paying attention and seeing the threats. We need to push that towards proactive solutions. We need to get all these projects funded. We need to expedite the time timelines.
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Unknown
You know, driving over the bridges this morning on Tamiami Trail, more water flowing under this past dry season than we have in a long time and we need to continue on that direction. You have already spent billions of dollars on Everglades restoration.
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Unknown
We have a lot more that needs to be spent. But these projects are working. There's water is flowing south. We know we need there to be more. And, you know, with the lake operation schedule, with the reservoir, with all these different components that were featured in the film, there is a light at the end of the tunnel
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Unknown
and every single. They were getting closer and closer to that and it's getting brighter and brighter. Just don't give up. Benny talked about what drives him to unite with others around Florida to fight for clean water. And I've spent most of my life in that bay, and I built my business around the bay.
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Unknown
I fed my family for three decades in that bay. And I've watched it through all this metamorphosis. And and I've just come to the conclusion that we have to fight for it. But I think taking five steps back and understanding where we are in time right now is the most crucial thing we can do.
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Unknown
30 years ago, we didn't have social media. We weren't able to talk to each other about what was going on. We thought the resource was unlimited. We thought it would be here forever. And what we've learned. Unfortunately, that education has come over 30 years, that it is not limited and it is actually going away faster than we
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Unknown
could have ever dreamed it was going away. So right now, we have the tools for the first time ever in the fight for the Everglades. We have the tools. We have social media. We have organizations at the front lines with the the science and the backing to get it done.
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Unknown
We have the industry speaking up and standing up, putting their money where their mouth is. Right now is the time we get it done and evidenced by what happened in Tallahassee in February, evidenced by this film, evidenced by the people in this room.
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Unknown
But every single voice is important. Every single industry partner, every single organization, every single guide showing up when we call, every single email was important. I think moments like this, when Orville speaks up and can broadcast it across the country, across the planet, and we can reach more people to understand how important this project is, not just
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Unknown
for the Everglades, for my business, for this community, but what it means for every watershed across the planet that's suffering, every fishery, every group of guides, every community that relies on resources that's being placed second to progress and and return on investment, that our investment really is in the environment.
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Unknown
If we want to have a future on this planet, we were finally ready to head out on the boats. I ended up on the boat driven by Benny Blanco. That included Simon Perkins. It didn't take long to see why they had brought us out here.
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Unknown
We're drifting a little bit off Islamorada here, where we went out into Everglades National Park of Florida Bay, and I was a little shocked to see the water. So green supposed to be clear, but an algae bloom has made it green like you like green Gatorade, as somebody here described it.
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Unknown
So we're finding out what's going on and and why this is happening. The water in Florida Bay was pea green and opaque. This is a bay that I knew well since I spent many weekends in my childhood and youth on boats out here.
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Unknown
Back then and until recently, the water had been crystal clear, with plentiful sunlight reaching the seagrass meadows at the bottom. Today I could not see the propeller on the boat. The water was so murky. You can see this is this is not what people want to come here.
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Unknown
I mean, I don't want this want to go. And it's an immediate drain on the local guys. The media drained for me to drain all the guys, drain all the restaurants, motels, every other ancillary business of what we do.
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Unknown
So coming here and seeing it, I'm glad you had the reaction you had when you saw it. I'm hoping you guys had the same reaction. Like why? Why is it so green? Confused? When I came here, when I was a kid, this was clean water.
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Unknown
That's right. That short period time, it. It's gone from clean water all the time to this regularly. I've never seen the bay like this. You can smell it. I mean it. It's not even the visual thing. You smell it.
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Unknown
What I was witnessing was a massive blue green algae bloom covering a huge swath of Florida Bay between the Keys and the mainland. According to Steve Davis, it was caused by an excess of nutrients from polluted water, combined with a lack of freshwater flow into the bay.
00:14:01:17 - 00:14:18:15
Unknown
Since the beginning, this podcast has been about giving a voice to people who stand for something that has included people who love and care about precious, natural places in Florida. Everyone from surfers and mermaids to top scientists. After spending some time on the boat with Simon Perkins, I saw that this young business leader was also taking a
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Unknown
stand for something he believed in. So I asked him for an interview. We spoke at a table at anglers when we returned salmon paint a picture of today. What are we doing? Where are we and what are we doing here?
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Unknown
So we're here in Florida Bay, and it's a chance to go out and see the impact of this entire Everglades issue that we're that we're talking about, that we're trying to deal with. I mean, Florida Bay really is where you can go and see downstream, if you will.
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Unknown
Everything that's that's being impacted by for the Everglades and and what we're trying to correct. And what are your impressions? I think there's there's nothing like seeing it in person. These are incredible stories to to read, about, to watch, to share, to tell.
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Unknown
But until you're there and you really see it, there's that you really feel how big of an impact this really has. So being on being on Florida Bay, a place that anybody that enjoys fishing or fly fishing knows and has either seen pictures or seen it in person to go out there and to see the color of
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Unknown
the water and to see how much it's changed from ten, 15, 20 years ago, and to see how easily that can impact the surrounding areas with a change of wind direction and really understand what it means not just to the ecosystem, which is one of the most incredible ones in this country, but also to to that to
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Unknown
the businesses and the the the multibillion dollar economy that that relies on on all of this. It's it's very, very tangible when you see it in person. You mentioned earlier that you have traveled here before and fished and sort of bay before.
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Unknown
Describe to me your memory of it and how you remember it and what you saw today and how it compared. Well, my my view is very it's very much shaped by being a fly fisherman. So when you're a fly fisherman and you're fishing saltwater, it's all about sight fishing.
00:16:31:09 - 00:16:49:17
Unknown
And so the clarity of the water is so critical. And it's something you remember when you have successful fly fishing on the flats. A huge part of that is, is because of the clarity of water. So just purely trying to be successful as a fly fisherman, you remember all the different things that either impact it positively or
00:16:49:17 - 00:17:05:03
Unknown
negatively. So Florida Bay is a place that historically just has crystal clear water, and it's incredible for that site fishing. And today we go out there and we're in the middle of one of those algae blooms that's that's now moved into one of the bays.
00:17:05:03 - 00:17:20:04
Unknown
And and you're in two feet of water and you can't see the bottom. You've no idea if you're two feet of water, if you're in eight feet of water. And and for a for an angler, that that's that leaves a searing impression for sure.
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Unknown
Why do you care? Why do I care about us? Orbis care. I mean, in a way, you represent all of us. And, yeah, you point all of us in the direction it should go. So. And I think it starts with your personality.
00:17:31:07 - 00:17:52:11
Unknown
Yeah, it's it's a good point. So. So whether I whether I look at myself as someone that's leading an incredible team, trying to run a business and trying to have a successful brand, or whether at the end of the day, I just look at myself as someone that whether it's my happiness, my health, my passion or the
00:17:52:11 - 00:18:12:11
Unknown
reason why, why what gives me energy every day, it's it's these natural resources. And I think that goes for a lot of people, especially in Florida, a place that's so, so reliant on tourism. People come here to experience the outdoors, whether that's on the beach, whether that's fishing it this this economy.
00:18:12:11 - 00:18:30:02
Unknown
So relying on it, it's not just it doesn't just impact Florida impacts the nation when you have so many people traveling here. So. When you're talking about the Everglades, you're talking about one of the country's most incredible ecosystems, natural resources.
00:18:30:02 - 00:18:49:21
Unknown
I mean, you're talking about a place that has 2000 species of plants and animals, supports a $33 billion economy. I mean, any way you look at it, this is this is a national treasure. And if you're asking me personally, there are so many reasons that impact me that I want to protect it.
00:18:50:13 - 00:19:08:11
Unknown
But I also also want these places to be around for for my kids, for their kids, for future generations, for others. It's these places are so important to us as us, as a species. Sometimes that's clear. Sometimes we let that sort of stay in the background.
00:19:08:11 - 00:19:18:08
Unknown
But whether it's whether you want to look at it from an economic standpoint, from from business standpoint, whether you want to look at it from an environmental standpoint, whether you want to look at it as far as personal personal passions.
00:19:19:15 - 00:19:30:23
Unknown
And and and and what we love to do there, you know, you look at the studies on mental health in the last couple of years and these types of places are so important. We're talking about one of the meccas in the country.
00:19:30:23 - 00:19:49:24
Unknown
And so this is critically important for all those reasons, including the fact that the Everglades restoration projects are one of the biggest water restoration projects that's ever been attempted. And it's one that I think many people weren't sure if it was ever going to be successful.
00:19:50:11 - 00:20:04:05
Unknown
And there's some momentum. We Orvis has been involved in it for decades, and there's some momentum right now to actually make this happen. We can't take our eye off the ball because there are a lot of different reasons why this could easily be for nothing.
00:20:04:05 - 00:20:18:17
Unknown
But there's a lot of momentum right now. There's a lot of people gathering around looking at this as as something that unites a lot of different people and something that's really worth fighting for. And so at the end of the day, that's that's why I care on a personal level.
00:20:19:03 - 00:20:32:26
Unknown
It's it's also why why at Orvis, we're committing so much time and energy to it. Talking about a call to action. You're a successful business leader. You run a national, international brand and you recognize the value of a place like the Everglades.
00:20:33:05 - 00:20:56:11
Unknown
What is your call to action to fellow business leaders and people in that influential class that have the ability to make things like Everglades restoration happen? Yeah, great question. I mean, the good news is you have organizations like Everglades Foundation, captains for Clean Water, others that have shown that you can't that we all can make a difference
00:20:56:11 - 00:21:11:29
Unknown
. And how powerful are voices? And so it's it's really now's the time to stop and really think about what your priorities are, what you want to lend your voice to. How does that align to your value system? How does it align to your belief system?
00:21:11:29 - 00:21:25:23
Unknown
Because we can go do this if if we if we put in the time and energy and we lend are our voices to it. There are incredible wins that both those organizations I just named have led even in the last couple of years.
00:21:25:23 - 00:21:44:05
Unknown
And they've shown that we can make a difference. And so whether you're an individual or whether you're a business owner, if this at all connects to either what you believe in or what you rely on, and when you take something like the Everglades, it impacts so many people that no matter how you look at it, it's critical
00:21:44:05 - 00:22:02:16
Unknown
that we save this resource. I think I think not only is that an opportunity, but it's also a responsibility that we all kind of need to embrace and really give, give our our time, energy and our voice to not only because it's the right thing to do, but because we know we know we can be successful.
00:22:02:26 - 00:22:14:24
Unknown
Do you want to specify a couple of things that Orvis has done over the last decades to help the Everglades and other environmental causes? Let's focus on the Everglades. Our approach at Orvis, you know, this is this is a key part of our value system with the brand.
00:22:14:26 - 00:22:29:22
Unknown
It's it's it's been a key pillar of our strategy for over 60 years, which is which is this place that we rely on so much for our passions and for our business. We have to we have to do our part to protect it.
00:22:29:22 - 00:22:51:15
Unknown
So so that's kind of how we're oriented now. A big piece of that is, is understanding all the issues out there and also understanding who some of the most effective people on the ground are that can that can really go go get it done in go, go, really move the needle in a compelling way.
00:22:52:19 - 00:23:09:21
Unknown
And and so with Everglades like that, we've been involved for a long time. And when you get close to something, you you understand all the different critical players in it. And you also understand those ones that are really getting out there and can lead and can and can and can make a difference.
00:23:09:21 - 00:23:24:13
Unknown
And and we're really lucky to have you have Everglades Foundation, which is one of the best science based organizations out there and the work they're doing. It's just so helpful. Truly understanding what we're dealing with, what the impact is.
00:23:24:14 - 00:23:42:11
Unknown
How much time do we have? How do what's the solution look like? And then you have partners like captains for Clean Water that are so good at uniting people and really creating this this collective voice. And so our role is to come in is to find those those organizations that are doing such great work, figure out ways
00:23:42:11 - 00:24:03:09
Unknown
to support them, figure out how we lend both our voice, whether it's with advocacy, but also our platform as far as storytelling and the ability to share the story that that on its own is just so compelling. Share that with as many people as we can, because what we've found is we have we have an incredible, vast
00:24:03:09 - 00:24:17:11
Unknown
customer base and we have a customer customer base that loves what we stand for, which is getting outside and enjoying the environment. And we have a customer base that cares. And oftentimes they look to us to help them understand where to put their time, energy, money, advocacy.
00:24:17:22 - 00:24:29:15
Unknown
And so when you find something like the Everglades, this is what people that people want to help to make the world a better place. And so by sharing the story, this is what this is what people are looking for.
00:24:29:15 - 00:24:46:11
Unknown
And they can they can help help make a difference. Any any final thoughts, SIMON? Anything else you want to add but today or about the Everglades? I think I think the last thing I would add is something that is really energizing for me on a personal level at this point in time, which is.
00:24:48:10 - 00:25:02:09
Unknown
Which is I feel that there are well, there's so many people out there in the world, especially our country right now, they're looking for something that can really unite people. And what we found at Orvis, because, again, we're listening to our customers across the country all the time.
00:25:02:09 - 00:25:17:07
Unknown
And what we found in the last couple of years is that some of these really, really critical environmental issues are things that actually are uniting people across different demographics almost more than anything else. And that didn't always used to be the case.
00:25:17:27 - 00:25:32:14
Unknown
But it's a it's it is a powerful idea that I think can give people a lot of optimism as far as what the future could look like if if we go in and and we do the work that needs to be done.
00:25:32:14 - 00:25:50:22
Unknown
But but in a at a in a point in history when I think so many people are looking for something that unites. And we have some of these issues that, again, no matter how you look at them, it's a it's it's it's a critical issue that that's that's almost that's almost it almost feels like a gift.
00:25:50:22 - 00:26:09:24
Unknown
And and if we can really get people to lean into it and rally around it again, we've there's a track record here that those organizations I talked about, they've shown that we can do this. And we're talking about something that a number of people, including my father, have told me that they weren't sure if this was ever
00:26:09:24 - 00:26:27:14
Unknown
going to be possible in their lifetime. And now they're telling me, hey, this is possible. If we can get everybody to really go after this, we can do this and we can preserve one of one of the most special places in the country for for for future generations really make it sustainable.
00:26:28:07 - 00:26:45:17
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SIMON Thanks for participating in the podcast. This episode of The Nature of Florida podcast was brought to you in part by the Everglades Foundation, the Fairburn Foundation, the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida and Explique a media. If you're enjoying this podcast, remember to subscribe on our website, The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral The Best Outcome
00:26:45:20 - 00:26:52:17
Unknown
. That's the nature of Florida with Oscar Corral, Dog Buzz, Broadcom or find us on your favorite platform and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.