Environment

Least terns and black skimmers have faced especially challenging conditions at several Sanibel colonies, where repeated plundering by coyotes have reduced nesting success and caused birds to shift to the causeway and islands around it.

Lee County Health Department issues an advisory about enterococcus bacteria off Sanibel Causeway.

Despite news that the last detainee is gone from the immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, the environmental groups that sued to shut it down gathered online Wednesday to make it known that they are nowhere near done.

If you’ve ever gone to the beach to light off fireworks on the Fourth of July, you maybe responsible for the death of a baby bird.

Nesting season began a little over six weeks ago, and this week marks NOAA’s official Sea Turtle Week. The most recent Southwest Florida numbers available are from, roughly, the end of the first week of June, and they are about the same as this time last year.

By mid-April the seaweed, which looks a lot like a watery sweet potato casserole with the brown, crusty topping, had spread across the entire Caribbean Sea, with substantial amounts pushing into the Gulf. Huge amounts washed up along many Caribbean shorelines in what USF researchers call “beaching events” in the bulletins issued at the end of every month.

Memorial Day Weekend kicks off National Safe Boating Week, an annual reminder to people nationwide that many boating crashes and deaths are preventable. Wear a life jacket at all times.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have reopened spillway gates at three dams along the Caloosahatchee River. The spillways were opened this week to restore the downstream flow of freshwater, which is necessary to counteract the tides pushing saltwater up the river

The John and Carol Walter Nature Experience will include a new amphitheater, a food truck and picnic area, expanded walking trails through the preserve and additional electric boats for visitors exploring the Gordon River.

It’s the first week of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida, and this year the thousands of loggerheads and greens that nest on our beaches have a new ally in nine-year-old entrepreneur Naomi Haynam. The Cape Coral pre-teen so loves sea turtles she’s making beach-themed earrings and selling them at home, online, and in parks to raise money to donate to volunteer sea turtle protection groups.