Governor Scott's Executive Order to #SaveFL from the #ToxicTide Falls Short and Here's Why

On Monday, Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a State of Emergency to address the 9 month-long Red Tide algal bloom that has killed nearly a million marine animals, including several endangered species, along 100's of miles of Florida coastline. The executive order will release funds to clean up Florida’s marine life and Florida’s public image. Visit Florida -- the state’s marketing board -- will receive $500,000, to handle the impact of dead animal imagery on Florida tourism.

However, NO funds will be allocated to mitigating the root causes of this #ToxicTide, like Florida’s agricultural runoff from Big Sugar and the impact of warming waters from climate change.

Gov. Scott believes that simply cleaning up the beaches will erase this issue from the news. But we know it won’t solve the problem -- sea animals will continue to keep dying and residents will continue to keep getting sick until the Governor follows 22 other states to create an action plan to address future blooms.

We must keep fighting to show the Governor that the only way to ensure this disaster never happens again is to invest in research and stakeholder cooperation to create an action plan for the state of Florida that actually addresses the contributing factors of toxic blooms in Florida’s water bodies, not just puts a band-aid on it for Florida tourism.

“Governor Scott’s Executive Order is nothing more than a dog and pony show intended to make the public think the crisis is over so that our economy doesn’t die as fast as our treasured flora and fauna. Notice how the monies being allocated are for superficial purposes intended to coverup the crisis which directly puts public health in harm’s way instead of executing any meaningful action to fix the root of this problem.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars disbursed to Lee County, that was used to clean up the millions of dead animals, over 276 Tons on Sanibel Beach alone, has already been depleted and the beaches and waterways are full of dead animals again only days later. How does Governor Scott think that a few hundred thousand more dollars will make any lasting impact other than a nice photo-op to fool the tourists into visiting, when it is still not safe to do so.

If Governor Scott legitimately wanted to fix this ecological disaster, he wouldn’t be giving $500,000 to Visit Florida, the state’s marketing board to coverup the devastating extent of this crisis. Instead he would join 22 other states by creating a HAB Action Plan that addresses the root of this issue in order to stop it from every happening again.  Anything else is election year lip service and should be treated with the respect due, which is zero.” - Nicole Forbis, President of the Florida Naturekeepers.

Want to fight back and make sure substantive action is taken? Join the movement --> bit.ly/SaveFLGroup