Florida’s coral reefs are already in big trouble. Scientists around the globe have noted serious problems for the delicate but vital ecosystems, especially from “bleaching,” a process that occurs when high heat and sunshine causes devastating effects. But that’s not the only threat reefs in Florida face. A Florida Keys study…
Yesterday, three Florida International University students set out in a small center-console, Mako-style boat to collect water samples in Whitewater Bay, a huge expanse of water on the southwestern edge of Everglades National Park. They never made it back. Last evening, the U.S. Coast Guard got a call that the…
Getting onto the beach in the tiny Miami-Dade town of Golden Beach is, in and of itself, no easy feat. There’s no public access onto the sand, and anyone driving into town has to enter through a gate that snaps their picture. But say, for argument’s sake, you find yourself…
For paddle sport enthusiasts like Sunny McLean, Miami should be a paradise — surrounded by water, blessed with year-round warm weather. But paradoxically, finding a safe place for sports like dragon boat racing and kayaking in the 305 is really difficult. In fact, the waters off Virginia Key are some…
Two years ago, Miami Beach banned all styrofoam from its city. Banning the notoriously polluting material wasn’t particularly controversial, with most local businesses telling reporters they didn’t mind making the change to more compostable materials. Well, Florida being Florida, the state legislature found this simple eco-friendly move abhorrent. Earlier this…
America is still fiercely arguing today about whether the Cincinnati Zoo should have shot and killed Harambe, a 17-year-old male gorilla, after a three-year-old boy slipped past a fence and tumbled into his enclosure on May 29. Zookeepers say it was the only way to save the boy from the 400-pound…
This past October, Florida held its first bear hunting season in more than 20 years. Though the mini-season was scheduled to last a week, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called it off after just two days. Hunters took 302 bears in the short time, just short of the…
Fishing guide Mike Conner putters his skiff across the Indian River Lagoon near Stuart, about a two-hour drive north of Miami. He used to bring clients from all over the United States here to stalk delicious pompano, yard-long snook, and the Holy Grail of inshore fishing: sea trout longer than…
Hurricane Season doesn’t officially start for more than a week, but apparently Mother Nature is itching to get a head start. A system of tropical concern is already developing out in the Atlantic, and it has the possibility to develop into a Tropical Storm that could target Florida. If it…
Mention sea-level rise and most people conjure up images of coastal flooding, where water swells at the periphery and spills over seawalls into the city. But in South Florida, that’s not necessarily the way it’s going to go down. Because the entire state sits atop porous limestone, water is literally…
At this point there can’t be many strange, threatening reptiles from across the globe that haven’t somehow popped up in the Florida wild. We already have instances of giant snakes like Burmese pythons and meat-eating lizards like Nile monitors. Now scientists have confirmed that Nile crocodiles are also in the state. Back in 2009,…
So Miami Beach’s stormwater pumps shoot water from the city’s streets and street drains into Biscayne Bay to combat flooding. You know what’s in the water it pumps directly into the Bay from the streets? Unsurprisingly, some not so clean stuff. A new study of flood waters found incredibly high…
The closest you might get to a mastodon in modern day Florida is during a visit to the Dinosaur World theme park in Orlando, but it turns out that 14,550 years ago, people were visiting Florida to get close to real-life mastodons. In fact, newly uncovered evidence in northern Florida…
Here’s what the discussion around climate change desperately needs: serious international, national and state-level cooperation aimed at curbing man’s contribution and planning for the possible effects. Here’s what the discussion around climate change certainly doesn’t need: another article that basically boils down to “Miami is a dumb city and its going…
As the City of Miami Beach continues to roll out an unprecedented array of sea-level rise solutions, a top Miami engineer is worried that city officials have overlooked one key factor: Back-up generators. In the case of a major storm or hurricane, the electricity that powers the city’s expansive pump…
Every year, the massive Yachts Miami Beach event showcases hundreds of yachts along a ten-block stretch west of Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach each winter. All those boats require temporary docks to tie up to, though, and for years the company who runs the show has installed floating styrofoam structures in…
There are few people in Miami who know more about trees than Bob Brennan. In 1969, the Coconut Grove native founded Brennan’s Tree Service, a tree care and landscaping company to inspect, feed and prune trees. Now an arborist at Fairchild Tropic Garden, Brennan is one of Miami’s foremost experts…
Today, the City of Miami Beach Commission will hold its first meeting after the literally trashy events of Floatopia on April 16th, and as promised City Manager Jimmy L. Morales has prepared suggestions on how to deal with the event and ones similar to it in the future. Morales’s suggestion…
Picture this: In less than a century, ice in Greenland and Antarctica has melted far more rapidly than even the most dire predictions. The seas worldwide have risen by meters, swamping coastal cities like Miami. Even worse, the rapid melt has led Atlantic currents like the Gulf Stream to collapse,…
To many residents in Coconut Grove, trees are sacred. The neighborhood has long been known for its giant oaks, banyans and hardwoods that create an iconic tree cover. But over the last decade, that cover has been under increasing threat. As the neighborhood has undergone rapid development, some of the…
In a letter to the Miami Beach Commission, City Manager Jimmy L. Morales has detailed what he believes went wrong and lead to the trash disaster after this weekend’s Floatopia event. His explanation can be best summed up by lightly tweaking some classic Milli Vanilli lyrics: ” Blame it on the rain…
Miami’s cuteness quotient is about to fly off the charts. Over the past few months, as the weather warmed, stray cats across South Florida got, well, frisky. And now, hundreds of furry bundles of joy are being born across Miami-Dade. Sadly, many of those kittens are abandoned by their mothers…
