MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Environmental advocates say the Biscayne Bay is dying, which is why Wednesday a group is coming together with stakeholders like Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to come up with an action plan.
“We’re looking at trash collected by volunteers. Some of this, of course, are from people who were out on their boats and littering, but most of this comes via the storm water system,” said Emilio Lopez.
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Lopez is with the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Coalition, whose mission is to help clean up the bay. Other representatives from the organization say the bay continues to be polluted with everything from trash to storm water runoff.
“Everything that enters the bay, it impacts it. Even dry leaves or fertilizer or storm water, everything that comes in has a negative impact because it’s loading it with nutrients and it changes the balance and Biscayne Bay is not able to re-balance back,” added said Camila Quaresma-Sharp, who is also with Biscayne Bay Marine Health Coalition.
Quaresma-Sharp adds because of the imbalance, the bay is dying, and it has caused fish kills and the loss of almost 80% of the seagrass in portions of the water. But the coalition isn’t standing idle by. Wednesday, the group will host their third Marine Health Summit to come up with solutions.
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“What we’re really trying to do here is bring all the stakeholders together government elected officials staff community organizations and scientists and we’re bringing everybody together and convening them so we can discuss ways we can improve Biscayne Bay and stop the pollution,” said Dave Doebler, one of the summit organizers.
The event is open to the public and organizers say they need the community’s participation to ensure the bay makes a full recovery.
“We first encourage everybody to watch the live stream tomorrow and then figure out how you can get involved,” added Doebler.
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For details on how you can participate, click here.
