DENNIS O'BRIEN: Use half-cent tax to keep lagoon healthy

In response to Dustin Wyatt’s article titled “Volusia: Show road-tax support” in the March 21 News Journal, the Mid-Coast Flyfishers want to make sure that the restoration of Mosquito Lagoon is a high priority for the proposed half-cent sales tax increase. As a local fly-fishing club, our members care deeply about a healthy lagoon that supports a once “world-class fishery,” and are involved in water testing, shoreline restorations and lagoon cleanups. A healthy Mosquito Lagoon needs clean water, expansive seagrass meadows, extensive oyster bars, clam beds and mangrove shorelines to support the redfish and spotted sea trout that have made the Mosquito Lagoon famous to anglers around the country.

Our members have recently stopped fishing in the Banana River and parts of the Indian River sections of the 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon due to the current brown algae bloom and lack of seagrass. Our fear is that as the prevailing winds shift to the south, this brown algae contaminated water will be pushed into Mosquito Lagoon through Haulover Canal, causing another major brown algae bloom that will result in the loss of what little seagrass remains. The problems in Mosquito Lagoon are mainly caused locally by septic tanks, wastewater treatment plants that need upgrading, stormwater runoff that contain fertilizers, weed killer and other harmful chemicals, as well as road oil.

As fishermen, we too share some of the blame, running our flat boats in shallow water, stirring up silt that blocks sunlight, or even running our boats through grass beds, causing propeller scar that will take years to recover. We strongly support additional pole & troll zones and more marked running lanes through the back country.

Our club understands that there are many needs in the county that require a sales tax increase. Currently the most urgent need in Volusia County is to do whatever can be done to prevent a total ecological collapse of the Mosquito Lagoon. In March 2016, Brevard County experienced a severe algae blooms and a major fish kill. Brevard officials took aggressive action, including passing a half-cent sales tax increase with 100 percent of the proceeds used to rescue the Indian River Lagoon. At a recent meeting of the Mid-Coast Flyfishers, Dr. Aaron Adams, senior scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the director of Science and Conservation for the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, stated that “it took Chesapeake Bay over 30 years for seagrass to return once aggressive steps were taken to reduce nutrients from entering the bay.” We need to take aggressive steps now!

To prioritize building more roads and other infrastructure improvements to facilitate large-scale developments over saving Mosquito Lagoon is unwise since according to the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program’s Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2016-2017, the annual economic value of the Indian River Lagoon is $7.6 billion! Volusia County has to prioritize the recovery of Mosquito Lagoon and use at least half of the proposed sales tax increase for that purpose, with a main priority being to reduce the amount of nutrients entering into Mosquito Lagoon.

O’Brien, of Edgewater, is president of Mid-Coast Flyfishers.