To the editor:

Last Wednesday, the Florida Commercial Watermens’ Conservation (FCWC) teamed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to begin a program for testing the waters of the Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve and the adjacent North Spreader Canal in Cape Coral which feeds into the Preserve.

Waterman Casey Streeter, founder of FCWC and family-owner of Island Seafood Market in Matlacha, was accompanied on this maiden testing run by Dr. Chris Kelble, Ph.D., director of the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Dr. Kelble is the principal investigator for the Ecosystem Assessment and Modeling Laboratory within the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division at AOML. Streeter and Dr. Kelble have been working together with other Gulf Watermen testing waters throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

The FCWC was founded by Streeter and his colleagues three years ago to locate sophisticated water-testing equipment on commercial boats throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The Watermen now provide data to rid the Gulf of red tide and restore the off-shore fisheries. Watermen with FCWC have circumnavigated the Gulf, often in the company of Dr. Kelble, who is receiving the data from the Watermen in near real-time.

This new mission takes the water-testing program in-shore to the Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve. The Matlacha Pass, under federal standards, was classified as an impaired waterway due to nitrogen, fecal coliform, and mercury in fish shortly after the Ceitus Boat Lift Barrier was removed by Cape Coral in 2008 from the North Spreader Canal near Serenia Vista Park.

Using the sophisticated testing equipment obtained by the Watermen, the water samples will provide data on nitrogen/phosphorous levels, sedimentation, turbidity, chlorophyl, oxygenation, salinity and other information. This initial testing will be taken up by volunteers in the Matlacha area and by watermen. Of particular concern on this trip was the brown milky water patches proliferating around Matlacha and the Pass the last few weeks.

Streeter and Dr. Kelble were accompanied by me, Michael Hannon, of the Matlacha Civic Association.

This pinpoint data will allow us to supplement the already abundant data which indicates that the source of pollutants in the Matlacha Pass is the North Spreader Canal in Cape Coral. While a single sample means little, we saw very low oxygenation levels in the Pass and even lower levels in the Spreader Canal.

We traveled the oyster bars south of the Matlacha bridge which were once an abundant breeding ground for commercial oyster harvesting.

“The water here is now dead,” said Streeter. “Few people today know that the building on Pine Island Road where ‘Island Treasures’ is now located was once a bustling waterside processor for the oyster industry.”

The Federal Clean Water Act prohibits a point source such as the Cape Coral canals from delivering pollutants into the Waters of the United States without a permit. The Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve is considered Waters of the United States. Affected persons may bring a lawsuit against the owner of a point source who unlawfully discharges pollutants. If the affected persons prevail, they may be awarded attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in the lawsuit, as well as remedial action by the point source polluter.

For more information, go to www.FloridaWatermen.org. Persons interested in volunteering to help with the water-testing should send an email to info@FloridaWatermen.org.

Michael Hannon

Matlacha