Environment

One of two large, acyclic windows was placed in the Gulf of Mexico habitat. The large acrylic windows have to be installed before the roof it put on. This acrylic piece, which measures 26’ L x 17’ H x 11” W, and weighs 27,900 pounds.

Mote Marine's new laboratory near I-75 will feature the Gulf of Mexico -- but miles from saltwater

Mote Marine Laboratory’s $130 million science and education aquarium is being built at Nathan Benderson Park along Interstate 75 in Sarasota County.

A NASA satellite captured the huge bloom of blue-green algae the same week in early June that Captains for Clean Water flew a plane over Lake Okeechobee and filmed remarkable images of the cyanobacteria. If heavy rains or a hurricane come this way the Army Corps of Engineers will release this water down the Caloosahatchee River to protect the people living around the lake rather than test the integrity of the reinforced Herbert Hoover Dike any more than has been done with the lake level over 14 feet

Environment

Water Quality Report: Video shows blue-green algae outbreak on Lake O

Tom Bayles

Lake Okeechobee getting full... cyanobacteria. If heavy rains or a hurricane come this way the Army Corps of Engineers will release this water down the Caloosahatchee River to protect the people living around the lake

Environment

Florida's bald eagle nesting season proves resiliency of the iconic raptors

Tara Calligan

The theme of this year’s Bald Eagle nesting season is resilience, according to Audubon Florida’s EagleWatch Report. We discover how bald eagles are able to endure Florida’s ever-changing landscape and discuss our fascination with the iconic birds of prey.

The same mosquito that can harbor malaria takes a blood meal out of a volunteer

Environment

Eighth malaria case confirmed in Sarasota equals largest U.S. outbreak of the disease in decades

Tom Bayles

A seventh Sarasota-area resident has been infected with malaria acquired by a mosquito bite in town, which adds an eighth person to tie the largest U.S. group to parasitic virus in nearly a century.

Jake Waleri of Naples, right, and friends caught this 19-foot Burmese python in the Big Cypress National Preserve earlier this month, setting a world record for the longest snake of that species ever caught. The capture perhaps rid the Everglades of one of the original snakes to escape captivity in the 1990s and invade the River of Grass, where they are creating environmental havoc today. Friend Stephen Gauta helps hold up the snake after the duo brought the beast to the Nature Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples to have it measured and donated for studies

Environment

Naples man captures 19-foot Burmese python in Big Cypress; confirmed as a world record

Tom Bayles

Naples resident Jake Waleri, who is 22 and an amateur python hunter, caught a world-record 19-footer with some friends earlier this month in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The restoration of Puschel Preserve along Periwinkle Way by the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation was delayed by nearly a year because of Hurricane Ian

Environment

Water Quality Report: Puschel Preserve restoration continues

Tom Bayles

The restoration efforts at Puschel Preserve are on once again after Hurricane Ian. The progress is swift. And it’s (almost) all about the water, where it’s going, what’s using it, and how clean it stays.

The Earth's poles have tilted since pumping water from underground has upset the planet's internal equilibrium more than it already is by a host of other factors

Environment

Water Quality Report: How much H2O does it take to change the Earth's poles?

Tom Bayles

By pumping water out of the ground humans have redistributed so much water from beneath the surface we’ve tilted the Earth's poles. It is perhaps the second-largest contributor to sea-level rise

Science/Tech

Webb Space Telescope reveals moment of stellar birth, dramatic close-up of 50 baby stars

The Associated Press

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth.NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

Environment

Dispatch from Kimberly's Reef: An underwater reef complex made from cement culverts

Pam James

This spring, The Water School at FGCU deployed a new artificial reef complex eight miles off shore from the county line between Collier and Lee. While WGCU is producing a documentary about the reef and the scientific research it hopes to study, we will keep our friends informed of the progress of the reef and the documentary with Dispatches from Kimberly’s Reef. Here is the second dispatch which tells the story of the creation of the reef complex from cement culverts donated by Oldcastle Infrastructure in Cape Coral.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Florida Department of Health, above, issued warnings about mosquitos that are transmitting malaria in Sarasota County; The cluster of seven cases in Sarasota and the one in Texas is the largest number of home-grown cases in the U.S. in 20 years

Environment

Cluster of six malaria cases in Sarasota County, one in Texas, most in U.S. in 20 years

Tom Bayles

The largest number of locally-acquired malaria cases in the U.S. in 20 years is clustered in Sarasota County, where there have been six cases since late May.