Gulf Coast Crustacean Research – Marine Rehabilitation Projects

Now the grassflat in this video is another that had been taken down to barren Sand Wasteland less than a year ago by SeaTow "prop Dredging" a boat off of this spot. Literally there was an area 200 Yards wide by almost 1400 Feet of lush grassflat taken down to nothing but sand. With the assistance of someone who donated the money for fuel to Gulf Coast Crustacean Research (see how at http://myspace.com/tkiergen - over on the left of his page) we were able to not only restore the grassflat to its former beauty.... We were able to run down to the keys and get some plants that used to be in this area and transplanted 3 150 Quart coolers full of what they call "shaving brush" which is a pretty neat plant in that not only does it provide a home for many of the micro crustaceans that used to be normal to the gulf; it exudes calcium into the water and at the same time provides a natural particulate filter that clears up the water so folks can enjoy things better. The shaving brush plant is doing excellent and has covered about 100 yards by close to 1/4 mile so far. Normally this grassflat would have taken about 3 years to recover this far along. Compliments of a donation for fuel and Marine Dynamics of Englewood, Florida (http://www.marinedynamics.com)making sure our boats keep running on the cheap.... This flat has been recovered in just under 1 year - using only species native to Florida. Time invested was a couple of days wandering Florida bay in the keys, a day or so pulling just a few plants from a variety of local grassflats and about 3 weeks straight of replanting the barren wasteland that had been left by SeaTow's irresponsible actions -- total fuel bill was just under 1800 bucks. Restoring these areas is important in that they are the nursery for the gulf - all of the little baby fish you see in the vids stand a better chance of growing up when they have an adequate diet and places to hide as well as good quality water which the filtration action of our Florida grassflats provides.

    Marine Dynamics has been committed to restoring our waterways but like a lot of other marinas cannot afford a whole lot of money so the teamwork with Gulf Coast Crustacean Research works out pretty good for both sides. Gulf Coast Crustacean Research gets parts at cost and Marine Dynamics is able to help improve our waterways which is in fact good for business. When one considers that any marina is in the business of wanting to get people in their boats and on the water, it just makes good sense for Marine Dynamics to want the area around them to be in good shape and pleasant for folks to looks at. If folks have something nice to look at in the water and the fish are attracted so folks can fish for something then marinas do more business. So perhaps it could be said that Marine Dynamics has a business interest but the owners remember a Florida from years past that looked a lot better than our area did a couple of years ago.  If you think about it – The area from Sarasota to Goodland 30 years ago looked pretty close to what the keys look like now (and the keys looked a whole lot better than they do now) So while the average yankee coming down for a vacation is still getting one heck of a beautiful view – it is nothing like what it could/used to be. Marine Dynamics is committed to helping make some of it come back.

   Gulf Coast Crustacean Research Studies Micro Crustaceans on a really limited budget and needs the grassflats to study the natural habitat of the species in question but it goes further than that. Like the owners of Marine Dynamics remember a Florida from yesteryear before it got trashed by a bunch of yankees == The folks at Gulf Coast crustacean research remember wandering Floridas waters with their grand-dads and as kids wandering the grassflats and beaches from the banks in waters that were a lot healthier. All would like to see just a part of the pretty Florida they remember come back even if only small areas are all that can be helped.

  The efforts of Gulf Coast Crustacean Research are responsible for restoring 8 different grassflats in the Englewood/Charlotte Harbor/Venice, Florida areas that were destroyed by irresponsible BoatUS and SeaTow Operators over the past 3 years.

  Other projects include gathering corals out of the washed up dried plants on the beaches. These are either deemed healthy and placed in areas of the intercoastal where most boats are not likely to get to or taken to the tanks hosted at Todd Kiergens House (791 Porpoise Rd) where the folks from Gulf Coast Crustacean Research have been healing some and failing to heal some. The system they use is massive and is not only ideal for the breeding/study of micro-crustaceans but is fairly good for healing corals. Progress of the system at all times can be seen at THIS LINK. If you click over to the last few pages: those are the most current pics up and available. Instructions on how to donate or send water samples are found at http://myspace.com/tkiergen over on the left hand side of the page. Make no mistake about it though – the donations are few and far between as they are too lazy to file for an NPO due to the time and expense involved. Most of what they do comes out of the pockets of 3 people and those are retired guys on limited incomes. Some comes from the raising of Eco-friendly Live Rock (really aqua cultured in tanks – not some jerks doing it in the gulf) and a little from the raising/ propagation of really rare NON-US corals which colonies have been with Todd for a long time.

   Still more projects include building small mini reefs with native species under peoples docks, planting native species corals in marina basins towards the more sheltered spots, converting peoples pools along the intercoastal into coral gardens / seahorse farms which not only gives the owners something beautiful to look at but the redraining into the intercoastal helps repopulate the intercoastal with native species corals that are so lacking in recent years throughout our waterways.  In the past couple of years, other marinas besides Marine Dynamics have stepped forward and donated old boats they had laying around as have individuals and the folks from Gulf Coast Crustacean Research have tended to pass the ones they dont use along to folks who need a place to live (if big enough) or just to folks who want to tinker. The general rule is that if GCCR keeps one then they give one of theirs away – except in some cases where a sawzall and some elbow grease accompanied by a call to the dumpster company has been the best solution.