I was checking out the water from family dock in the 4th street canals, ZERO barnacles on the pylons.

Used to be able to pull up and old bait bucket, covered in barnacle and full of baby crabs, shrimp, little mud guppies......All the things sheephead would hang around and eat.

Now all I see on pylons is "fresh water" looking algae and weird plants that look like dollar weeds....anyone know what they are?

Never seen them in 20 years of being on that canal...

Also, not trolling, anyone think the manatees helped destroy lagoon by eating whatever seagrass was not being choked by algae?

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nope - not the mantees

take a picture of the weird plants?

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I will def get a pic, but you dont think the manatees could have a negative affect given the shear tonnage they eat(more abundant now than ever) and the toxins in their poo?

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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

nope, it's a little like asking if buffalo caused the dust bowl 

plenty of research and evidence, here's a start if interested

http://myfwc.com/media/415241/Manatee_habitat_human.pdf

just a clip "Etheridge and coworkers calculated that 18 manatees per hectare would be needed in Crystal River alone just to maintain the measured standing biomass of hydrilla at a constant level (Etheridge, et al., 1985)."

and if you've been to Crystal River recently,

you can see the hydrilla is still winning...

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Have had very little rain since early October. Subsequently the nutrient load is down and the water is clearing up a lot compared to last year. Looks good in spite of being so warm that there is still some pyrodinium bioluminescence.

Plus, a lot of lawns in the hood are being allowed to go dormant in this dry weather with just enough water applied to keep them on life support. On a negative note, a few neighbors are watering 3 or more days per week and laying down the nitrogen to try to force their lawns to stay super green through the dry season.

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Weird plants were not on seawall over xmas, water actually looked a little better, still no barnacles though. Tons of mullet at night and a few little trout under the light.

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Panda spent time looking for barnacles in CB canal.  Not as profuse for sure.  But some living.   Water not as clear as winters past yet.  Still time.  First time in a while dolphins jumping playfully.   This lagoon needs help.

Would a cold snap of merit help?

Winter brown blooms seems to be kicking up again.

Nothing formal, just an eyeball assessment.

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Was just looking at the ORCA kilroys and noticed that chlr A is in RFU, relative fluorescence units.

Weren't they in ug/L before?

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I hope it gets better, the dolphins I saw on the flats were having a field day as no grass to hide in!



Houston we need a translation lol

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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

Apologies, my geek was showing?

the kilroys are the real time monitoring station in the Lagoon http://www.teamorca.org/orca/kilroy-map.cfm

chlr a is chlorophyll A, a common measure of phytoplankton density

it's usually reported in micrograms per liter, ug/L, which is parts per billion

the kilroys are collecting data using a fluorescence method that reports in RFU

and that needs to be converted (how down and geeky do you want to get here? )

to ug/L so we can get an idea of what the phytoplankton are doing out there

about 0-10ug/L or even 20ug/L is kinda normal for the Lagoon.

30ug/L is getting pretty thick and the "superbloom" had readings in the 200 ug/L range

we now return you to your regular program

"Dancing with The Surfers"

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