Winknews.com
Reporter: Stephanie Byrne
Journalist: Jackie Winchester
October 12th, 2020
Communities along the Caloosahatchee River are preparing for water releases from Lake Okeechobee this week, and many are wondering what effect it will have on our river, canals and beaches.
For one fisherman, it isn’t algae he’s most concerned about, it’s the seagrass and oysters.
“It’s just overall destruction of the resource we have out here,” said Capt. Daniel Andrews, co-founder and executive director of Captains for Clean Water.
Andrews keeps his eyes on Pine Island Sound for more reasons than one.
“Once you’re out here every day, you kind of look at it a little differently,” he said.
“We’re seeing a lot of activity, a lot of life.”
An avid fisherman and clean water advocate, Andrews knows what’s at stake in the face of Lake O releases.
“To me, the concern right now is less about the algae and more about the amount of destruction that these releases are going to do to our seagrass beds and our oyster beds that have already been stressed out from our local basin runoff.”