Blurbex

Just in time for Memorial Day:

Yesterday, coastal expert Dr. Stephen Leatherman — better known as “Dr. Beach” — named Caladesi Island State Park as America’s Top Beach for 2008.

If you’ve ever taken a trip out there, you know exactly why: The sand is white and powdery and the water is a perfect blue-green. There are plenty of kayak trails, a lush mangrove forest and tons of birds. Best of all, there are no roads and, by extension, cars. In fact, you have to take a boat to get there.

Fort DeSoto, a frequent Best of the Bay winner, won this award in 2005.

I’m sure the Pinellas County tourism authority is having a party right now. And I hate to poop in their punchbowl, but there are some troubled waters on Florida’s west coast.

Last year, the health department closed Treasure Island (a popular sea turtle nesting spot) and Ben T. Davis Beach (off the Courtney Causeway) for high levels of bacteria, including fecal coliform. In early April, health officials closed North Shore Beach.

It’s important to note that if we don’t get a handle on pollution on our coast, we won’t be winning these distinctions. Call the judges crazy, but you don’t win “Best Beach” awards when you have poop floating in the surf.

You also don’t win those honors with oil rigs off your coast.

But it’s not enough to bitch. It’s up to us to keep our waterways pristine.

While researching a story on water pollution last year, I found out there is no government agency that cleans up polluted waterways.
“There’s nobody cleaning up the waterways — not local, county or state,” Kurt Zuelsdorf, who sponsors local clean ups, told me last fall. “On the ground somebody is responsible, but once trash hits the waterways, nobody is responsible.”

So, he gathers up volunteers about a once a month to patrol the creeks, bayous and bays with kayaks, picking up trash. He even provides the kayak.

There are also a host of beach clean-up crews, including this one in Dunedin.

And to guarantee we don’t have some ExxonMobil action off the coast, make sure you call and e-mail your congress people NOW, before the lobbyists do.

But most of all, enjoy the beaches this weekend (or if you’re scared of crowds, next weekend). You can’t advocate for something you’ve never seen.

Posted in Our Government, The Morning Papers, Urban Explorations | Leave a comment