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                         NEWS ITEMS FOR THE MOORINGS BAY AREA

                                         

NEW CHARTS FOR DOCTORS PASS AND MOORINGS BAY:

     Bill Lazear has prepared new depth charts for the pass and its approaches.  The charts are in two sections and can be viewed by clicking on West or East.  There is also a chart of Moorings Bay.  Click here for it.

WILLIAM LAZEAR BOOK AWARD:   Marilyn Tempest,our President, presented this year's Award to Rheanon Ketover, a Marine Biology student at Florida Gulf Coast University. The student was selected by her professors for this third Annual Book Award to be used for the purchase of textbooks and necessary materials for coursework. In creating this award, we in Save The Bays chose to honor our long serving water quality and depth measurement chairman, Dr. William Lazear. Bill devised a special method of measuring and charting the depths in the Moorings Bay System. This method was accepted by NOAA and has produced precise and easily readable charts for Save The Bays to distribute to its members and to City Hall, marinas, yacht clubs and boating associations in Naples. Save The Bays has two missions: preserving the quality of the waters inside Doctors Pass and the safe navigation through these waters and the Pass. Bill has been active for many years in both endeavors, working with the Conservancy of SW Florida on the water sampling for quality testing.



WHAT A CONCH!  A 22 inch long conch was found in our waters during a recent inspection of our planted mollusks. This is near record size. We hope that it (not sure of gender) grows to beat the record.



OUR ANNUAL MEETING:

Our President, Marilyn Tempest, opens our Annual Meeting held at City Hall in April..  As part of our regualar business, new Board Members and Officers are listed at the end of this page.  Just outside our window, a mother and her brood were listening carefully.
              

Mike Bauer, Environmental Manager for Naples, reports on the City Program to grow Oysters on shells planted on the tidal shoal in Moorings Bay.  A second layer may be planted as spat has not collected on the shells as desired.  The shells, however, have been a good habitat for marine life. (See below)  A Marine Depth Survery has been completed for Doctors Pass, and the City is working on a dredging permit.  A 22 ft. boat has been ordered that should help them better pursue their marine activities.


Al and Roz Katz presented a very interesting Power Point show of our program with Florida Gulf Coast University to establish whether or not live clams and oysters will continue to live in various sections of our Bay.  Results have been most encouraging as shown below.  The monthly inspection of the clams and oysters has involved considerable work by the University. We appreciate their outstanding effort


Hope that you were there.  If not, please come next year!  If you would like to read the Minutes of the Meeting, click here.

OYSTER AND CLAM PROJECT - DANIEL SPINA GRANT:  On behalf of Save The Bays, Dan Spina presented a Grant to Professor Aswani Volety, Head of the Marine and Ecological Dept. of Florida Gulf Coast University.   The grant will fund a study of clam and oyster growth in our bays.  These mollusks filter nutrients from the water as they feed.  We hope that ultimately this technique can be used to improve the water quality throughout our system. In naming this Grant, we chose to honor Dan Spina, the founder of Save The Bays, long-time President and now our Chairman Emeritus.



     The first part of this program was undertaken recently with the planting of live clams under selected docks in the whole Moorings Bay System.  The planting of oysters will come later when the cultured oysters have reached the proper size. Professor Vincent Encomia and Heather Benton, a student, are handling the project for FGCU. Al and Roz Katz, our CoChairmen for Water Quality with responsibility for this project, report on the planting experience as follows: This morning, Roz, Al, Katie Fuhr, Heather and Vincent from FGCU all met at our dock at 9:00AM. Dan Spina came down to wish a bon voyage and take a few pictures. We had enough baby clams for 5 locations. Clams were good size, actually edible. We visited 5 sites from Pirates Bight to Banyan and placed the clams on the bottom. A lot more work than I ever anticipated. Clams are placed in a large mesh bag, about 4' wide X 6' long and placed on the bottom, then held down with wire type anchors with a string attached to a dock. Lots of diving down to make sure the wire anchors were in place. At Banyan (we got permission from Charleston Condos to use their dock), the water was so dirty that our FGCU folks needed to be hosed down before we let them back onto the boat. We couldn't use Bill Lazear's dock because the water depth when we got there was 10'. Too deep. When we do our monitoring, we will have to go at real low tide so the FGCU folks can work in the water. We have lots of photos to share which we will get up soon(Selected photos shown below). We plan to have one more clam site and 6 oyster sites. Oysters will be a lot easier. The oysters are actually being grown for us now and should soon be ready. The small live oysters are suspended from a dock in a mesh bag. We think the monthly monitoring can be done by car and we won't need to go by boat. That will save a lot of time. Park Shore Marina lent us a boat for the job since we are without one right now. More to come later. Let's hope our little clams survive and grow. We also did a decent water quality measurement at each site and will continue to do this for the year. Al Katz




Acknowledgement:

We would like to thank Tony Heebe of Cutthroat Clams (www.cutthroatclams.com/cutthroat/) for supplying the live clams and Curt Hemel of Bay Shellfish at Terra Ceia (near St. Pete) for supplying the live oysters.

Recent Inspection Report:
   Yesterday (Nov. 9), we did our first monthly inspection of the clams that were planted last month.  From FGCU was Heather, our student,; Dr. Vince, her professor and advisor, and a young man, Jim, who Dr. Vince brought along to help.  Everyone was in wet suits and we visited the 5 sites planted last month and we also planted a 6th. site because we didn't have enough clams last month.   Also, regarding the oyster, FGCU now has juvenile oysters in their lab and they need to grow just a bit more before we plant them.  Hopefully, this can be done in Dec., but for sure in Jan.
   So, what did we find?   In almost all of the sites, we found astounding growth of the clams!.   The FGCU folks were amazed.  The growth is quite visible, just by looking at the rings around the outer edge of the shells.  This growth was especially noticeable at the Banyan site.   Perhaps lots of nutrients there. Also, the mortality was quite low.   Mortality will be the result of sickness of the clams or from predators --- sting rays, sheepshead etc.  If mortality results from illness, the shells are usually intact and empty, but if the result of predators, the shells are usually all cracked up.   In one site, we had high mortality resulting from predators.   Lots of broken shells.  The nets we are using have a predator mesh over them but the predators got in anyhow.  It's possible the net and mesh got fouled up on the bottom when initially planted.  Anyhow, it was lots of fun and a more detailed report will follow soon. Roz & Al



January Inspection Report from Roz and Al

Yesterday, we conducted our 4th outing with the folks from FGCU.   It was a beautiful day and we were all really pleased with what we found at each of our 6 locations.  We are attaching 3 pictures to show you our progress:
a.. Oysters At 1 Month - this is the first batch of Oysters we took out of the water.
b.. Oyster Growth After 1 Month - compares the size of a new oyster to one we just took out of the water!
c.. Clams Continue to Grow - This is Heather Benton (the student who is conducting our project) holding a clam that was "planted" in October. The white bands are indications of growth!
We'd say that it looks like our clams and oysters are happy to be in the Moorings Bays!   Except for the one location where we have seen a tremendous amount of predation we have not lost very many.   Our next outing will probably be on February 7th or 9th.  Please let us know if you would like to join us for all or part of outing - we start around 8:00 AM and finish around 2:00 PM.



February Inspection Report from Roz and Al:

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday's outing. The clams and oysters continue to grow (there was minimal loss this month) and, at 2 locations we discovered baby scallops. Our friends from FGCU tell us that this is a very good sign, since scallops need a high level of water quality.



NEW FGCU MARINE SCIENCE LAB AT BONITA SPRINGS

   Bill & Nancy Lazear, Al Katz and Dan Spina visited the new FGCU Marine Field Station in Bonita Beach on Estero Bay. We were met there by Dr. Mike Bauer, Director of Natural Resources and Katie Laakkonen of the Naples City staff. We met with Dr. Aswani Volety of FGCU who gave us a very complete tour of the laboratory, outdoor breeding site for oyster spat, tank facility for growing algae and conference room for holding scientific meetings. Dan Spina presented a check to Dr. Volety for an additional contribution from Save The Bays in conjunction with the assistance Save The Bays is receiving in conducting our oyster and clam project in the Moorings Bay system. This initial project is slated for completion by the end of 2008 at which time the oysters and clams that have been grown will be deposited in the Bay to live on their own. A couple of clams and oysters will be tested for bacteria and also for heavy metals to determine if they are safe for human consumption. The projects results will be thoroughly analyzed by the FGCU staff and the City of Naples to determine the next steps in this endeavor.

TESTING WATER QUALITY

     Kathy Worley, Environmental Specialist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, reported on water quality analyses for samples taken this past December.  Her summary of the findings follows:
*Moorings Bay still appears to be driven by weather, tidal conditions and to some extent rainfall and stormwater runoff.  Extreme low tidal conditions in combination with a strong outgoing tide could promote movement of water from the Clam Bay system to the Moorings system as observed during this cycle.
*Tendency for slightly higher nutrient levels and lower dissolved oxygen readings at the North and South ends of the Mooring System (the North end and Seagate in particular this sampling period).
*Tendency for surface water to have lower average physical parameter measurements (except D.O.) and higher average nutrient levels than their corresponding bottom stations during this August sampling.
*Rainfall and runoff appears to have a more localized effect on some areas within the Moorings system.
*Overall there is still a possibility of a decreasing trend in Dissolved Oxygen and Water Clarity developing in Moorings Bay.  The station at Ardison had dissolved oxygen readings below State Standards, which is unusual given the temperature and time of year.  At all other stations, dissolved oxygen levels were within State Standards - WATCH
*Possibility of an increasing trend in nutrient levels such as nitrite and ammonia in Moorings Bay - WATCH
    If you would like to see the complete report with graphs, click here.

OYSTER HABITAT ON THE MOORINGS BAY SHOAL

     As you know from past readings of this page, the City planted an oyster habitat on the sand/mud bar in Moorings Bay  This is a test to establish whether they will clarify the water.  In addition, Save The Bays is working with Florida Gulf Coast University on a similar plan with plantings in other parts of our Bay System.

Katie Fuhr, Environmental Specialist for the City of Naples, describes the operation as follows:
      With the help of 30 Volunteers (4 from STBs, Naples Dock and Marine, Naples High Students, DEP, CDM, and other residents), 200 shell bags were placed on the shoal in the shape of an "L" just north of Doctors Pass. The deployed bags are marked with 2 red buoys and 2 yellow buoys.  This reef will be monitored by City of Naples staff at least twice a year and it is the hope of staff that oyster spat will recruit naturally onto the shell bags to form an oyster reef.  The ultimate goal being to provide more habitat in Moorings Bay by utilizing the shallow substrate that currently exists.

  

     The City Staff made an inspection of the Habitat recently, and Katie describes their experience as follows:

Hi Folks-
Just thought I would send some photos of our last site visit to the shoal in September.  The bags are getting buried with sand, so I am not sure how much actual hard substrate will survive for oyster attachment.  We have not observed any spat yet, however, it has only been 6 full months since they were deployed, and in oyster recruitment world, that is not a long time. We have observed stones crabs, blue crabs, juvenile mangrove snapper, and tunicates utilizing the bags though. Also, a smattering of seagrass--Shoal Grass--has popped up just to the East of the bags too, which we have not observed before.
Our reef is attracting considerable marine life. Pictures taken by Katie during this inspection are shown below:
 

TIDE GAGE ON MARKER "5"

     We placesd a Tide Gage on Marker 5 to help those with deeper draft boats navigate Doctors Pass.  We have had a problem with barnacles coating the scale on the gage making it difficult to read.  The barnacles are very tenacious and scraping them off takes the lettering off with them.  We tested a transparent marine coating to keep the barnacles from growing on the scale.  Unfortunately, the coating did not prevent marine growth.  We are looking for ideas on how to solve this problem.   Suggestions will be welcomed.  As an alternative aid, you might consider using our monthly tide chart which can be printed and kept on your boat.  Click here to see it.


BAY TRASH REMOVAL - CITY POLICY

     Naples has established a Policy for trash removal from the Moorings Bay System.  This activity is carried out by the Community Services Department headed by Director David Lykins. Observations of these problems should be phoned to 213-7120, and the Receptionist there will forward the problem to the appropriate person in the City Government.  The complete Policy can be read by clicking here

     In addition, we would appreciate your letting Save The Bays know by calling Jerry Rosow at 263-2280.  Please let him know whether or not you have advised the City of the problem.

SAVE THE BAYS BOARD AND OFFICERS The Board and Officers listed below were elected at the Annual Meeting. Stephen Burberry Dave Craig Dudley Herndon, Treasurer Al Katz, Vice President Bill Kroeschell Will Larson Bill Lazear Dan Spina, Founding Chairman Emeritus Marilyn Tempest, President Ed Ten Eyck Michael Williams In addition, we have the following Committee Members actively engaged in our projects: Bob Brady Roz Katz Jerry Rosow Kathy Worley

WEB SITE: Don't forget to tell your friends about our Web Site. They can find out all about us and may want to become Members. We need your help in passing the word along.