Page 7 - Wiggins Pass News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Collectively they're called shorebirds, and they're in peak nesting mode now.  "It’s a great, amazing spectacle and if you come across (roped off nesting areas), we ask everybody to respect the postings and to watch out for eggs and little chicks that could be running around," said Brad Cornell, with Audubon Florida and Audubon of the Western Everglades. "They lay the eggs right on the open sand. They’ll do a scrape with their feet and create a little divot and that’s it." Southwest Florida has two large colonies, one at the south end of Fort Myers Beach and another on Marco Island. 

The National Drought Mitigation Center reports that Southwest Florida is abnormally dry and that the eastern half of Collier is in a moderate drought.

The 2020 wet season ended with heavy rains in October, and tropical storms were still dumping rain on Florida well into the dry season.  That late-season rain topped the lake off to the point that it stayed elevated the entire dry season, from mid-October of last year until this past week.  Flows were at about 2,300 cubic feet per second Thursday, according to Army Corps records, with 99% of that volume coming from Lake Okeechobee. The surface of Lake Okeechobee was 13.25 feet above sea level Friday. Kelly said that's about a foot lower than the lake was just one month ago.  He said ...

Researchers at Florida Gulf Coast University are monitoring red tide while helping marine life. To think outside the box, sometimes you have to go in the box. Some huge concrete boxes will soon help FGCU researchers study red tide in Southwest Florida while also creating an artificial reef. “The artificial reef is going to be […]

The FGCU Artificial Reef project will consist of a collage of large concrete structures that were donated by Cape Coral concrete company Old Castle.