We round out National Estuaries Week with an article about yet another marine animal that was once common in lower Pensacola Bay and disappeared. This is one that many local residents would LOVE to see make a return. It is the bay scallop. Many ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
Happy Estuaries Week! Begun in 1988 to educate lawmakers and citizens about the importance of estuaries nationwide, the third week of September celebrates all things estuary. But what is an estuary, exactly? The most frequently cited ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Conservation, Natural Resources, Recreation, Water, Wildlife
Another creature that was once common in Pensacola Bay, declined, and is trying to make a comeback is the horseshoe crab. Many know about the shallow area in the center of Little Sabine, but you may not know that it was once an island that ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
Another metric of a healthy estuary is the diversity and abundance of fish and wildlife. Estuaries are teeming with a variety of benthic creatures like annelids worms, mollusk, and crustaceans. I have personally collected 101 species of ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
You cannot have a healthy estuary without healthy habitats. Estuaries include habitats such as mud flats, sand bottoms, salt marshes, mangrove swamps, oyster reefs, and seagrass meadows. Here in the Pensacola Bay system Florida Sea Grant ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
When I first joined Florida Sea Grant water quality was, and still is, a big issue in the community. Many remember the 1960s and 1970s when fish kills were common, industrial waste was discharged into local waterways, fish were changing sex ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural ResourcesWe all know how important oxygen is to all life. It is an element with the atomic number of 8, meaning it has eight protons and eight electrons. It has an atomic mass of 16 indicating that it also has eight neutrons. Oxygen is a gas at ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural ResourcesIn recent weeks there have been reports of large masses of jellyfish along the Gulf Coast. I have actually heard people state “I would rather be in the water with 100 sharks than 100 jellyfish”. Maybe that is true from some. Honestly, ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
On first glance at a gopher apple, one might think there were live oak leaves dispersed across the dunes. On closer inspection, though, you’d find individual leaf clusters sprouting right out of the sand. For the majority of the year, ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources
This is an amazing animal – the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). A relic of an age before the dinosaurs, they have been plowing the sediments of our marine and estuarine waters for over 400 million years. They are thick ... READ MORE
Category: Coasts & Marine, Natural Resources