|
An arctic blast that brought a rare snowfall to northern Florida last week left green sea turtles suffering from a condition known as cold stunning. Seventeen sea turtles that were found stranded along Florida’s northeastern Atlantic Coast were brought to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, north of West Palm Beach, where they are recovering. “When it’s cold on land, it’s also cold in the ocean. And that led to a number of turtles being beached or very debilitated and just floating in the water,” said Dr Heather Barron, the chief science officer and veterinarian at the center. The staff named the rescued turtles after beverages, and they painted their new names on the back of their shells. Vets are treating them with antibiotics, fluids and intravenous nutrition. While it snowed as far south as northern Florida, which is extremely rare, the frigid temperatures reached South Florida. That meant cold-stunned turtles were also found along Palm Beach County’s coastline. “It is quite unusual for this to happen in Florida. Sea turtles do migrate, and typically they’re migrating down to Florida for this time of year because of warmer water,” Dr Barron said. By Wednesday morning, Espresso, Pickle Juice and Ginger Beer were basking in the sunshine in the center’s “party tank”. The turtles arrived in Juno Beach on Friday from the Marine Science Center in Volusia County, Florida. They all suffered from cold stunning, which causes sea turtles to lose mobility and become lethargic. Most of the 17 turtles are expected to be released back into the ocean in a few weeks. Last year, turtles from Massachusetts were brought to Florida to rehabilitate while suffering from cold stunning. Original story by Cody Jackson and Freida Frisaro, Associated Press. For full story with images, click here.
0 Comments
The impacts of climate change are being felt worldwide, from the devastating wildfires out west to the more powerful hurricanes we saw ravage the Gulf Coast over the summer, but here at home a local tech startup has launched a powerful new weapon to help us become more resilient. Off the waters of Biscayne Bay, along the shoreline of a posh Miami Beach residential island, a brand new sea wall is being installed. It’s not being built using ordinary concrete slabs though. This is the future. “I think it’s a radical change,” said Anya Freeman, founder and CEO of Kind Designs. “I think this method of manufacturing makes much more sense for seawalls.” Kind Designs is a brand new tech start up making waves with their ground breaking innovation. “This is one of our walls,” said Kind Designs project leader and environmental scientist Maddie Rieger. “You can see the mangrove roots that start at the top all the way down.” They’re called Living Sea Walls, made out pH neutral sustainable concrete, which is produced way faster than traditional slabs by using state of the art 3-D printing robots. “We print in one hour what used to take a day in precast,” said Freeman. And the best part is they not only strengthen resiliency and protect property, but they’re also designed to be kind to the environment. “So you get a greater amount of biodiversity that can live on and around this wall because of the design of the walls,” said Rieger. The walls are textured, using biomimicry to create features that imitate what would naturally appear in the ecosystem, like the one in Miami Beach designed with mangrove roots, providing habitat for marine life. “If a marine organism can grip onto this, it protects them from wave action and predators, and then you get these deep caves, so you can almost fit your entire arm in here, so we’ve seen juvenile fish species hiding in there,” said Rieger. This is the brain child of Freeman, a Ukrainian-born University of Miami Law School graduate turned innovator, after witnessing climate change impact her adopted home of Miami Beach. “I’ve been here 15 years, and there’s a very big difference from the day I arrived (to) today in the frequency of flooding,” she said. “The amount of flooding, that’s why cities are passing code to keep requiring higher and higher sea walls protect the coast.” Traditionally, sea walls are typically made of concrete. They’re built parallel to the shore to protect against coastal erosion. They’re very expensive to produce, and usually only last 30 to 40 years before they biodegrade, leeching toxins like chloride into the water that are very harmful to the marine environment. That’s where Freeman saw opportunity, researching a new, more eco-friendly and economical way to bring to market the next generation of seawalls, a living one. “By utilizing 3-D printing technology, we can make sea walls more affordable and incorporate a biomimicry design, so it’s not a flat wall that’s leaching chemicals destroying marine habitats. The Living sea wall becomes, in itself, a marine habitat. Using $6 million of investor seed money, within the year Freeman had acquired warehouse space, three robots, and a team of 20 employees. For full story from Local 10 News and video, click here.
|
Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|
|
HELP PROTECT ALL MARINE WILDLIFE IN FLORIDA AND WILD DOLPHINS IN LOUISIANA AND SOUTH CAROLINA.
©2025 Universal Media and Marketing, Inc.
|
|