The Florida Roundup - Coral reefs in the warming Atlantic, Disney settles Florida lawsuit and weekly briefing

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we talk about warm waters in the Atlantic and what it means for coral reefs with Brian McNoldy and Dalton Hesley with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science and WLRN’s environmental editor Jenny Staletovich (00:30). Plus, we talk about this week’s legal settlement reached in the ongoing feud between Disney and Gov. DeSantis’ allies with the Orlando Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher (26:00). And later, why the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore is a chilling reminder for Tampa Bay residents (37:14), ‘mangrove rangers’ roam the coastline in a bid to preserve our disappearing mangroves (38:33) and a conversation with photojournalist Octavio Jones about his recent reporting trip in Haiti (44:52).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. Tom Hudson is out this week. Last year, records were broken as the planet suffered through high temperatures. Florida was hit with a marine heat wave, with ocean temperatures reaching hot tub levels in some places, and reefs from the Keys and beyond suffering devastating bleaching events that sent scientists scrambling to rescue the stricken corals. suffering devastating bleaching events that sent scientists scrambling to rescue the stricken corals. Now, the waters of the North Atlantic are ominously warm, and scientists are worried. Freaking out, as our one recent headline put it. Well, for this conversation, we welcome Brian McNulty.

He's a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami Rosensteil School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. We also have Dalton Hesley with us, a Senior Research Associate at Dr. Diego Lerman's Coral Reef Restoration Lab there at Rosenstiel, and Jenny Stiletovich, Environmental Editor for our partner station WLRN in Miami, where all three join us now. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for having us.

What do you want to know about how the warming waters are affecting marine life and a potential impact on storm season? You can email radio at thefloridaroundup.org or call us. We're at 305-995-1800. Brian, I want to start with you. You've been keeping track of the ocean temperature and on Twitter, you wrote this week that, quote, the ocean says it's June 3rd in the tropical Atlantic. Anomalies this large aren't supposed to happen and certainly not for 10 consecutive months with no end in sight, end quote. So put this in perspective for us. Just how warm is the Atlantic right now and how does this compare to say this time last year? Yeah, that's a great question. We started seeing ocean temperatures break records in the North Atlantic as far as like sea surface temperatures go, which is kind of the skin temperature of the ocean. That started breaking records in March last year, and it's been breaking records every day since. There's another metric or quantity that we look at called ocean heat content.

So that's kind of more of a how much energy is in the ocean through a depth, so not just at the skin. And that's been breaking records now since May, I believe it was. So we saw records breaking in 2023 already by this point, and we're exceeding those records now. Okay, so the question, I guess, is why? Is this a knock-on effect from the record temperatures we saw last year? There are other factors at play. What's going on out there?

That is indeed a fine question. I have not seen a great consensus explanation yet. I think there's a few reasons that are maybe coming into phase with each other and helping it to happen. But I don't know that there's a single explanation. I can kind of go over a few real quick. But I think at least for the North Atlantic, one thing has been we've had a weaker than normal high pressure system that lives over the subtropical Atlantic.

That reduces the winds blowing across the Atlantic and then that increases the ocean temperature. We've seen less Saharan dust blowing off the continent. That instead of the plumes of dust intercepting the sun's energy, the ocean intercepts the sun's energy and warms it. And the other thing that's in there, it's hard to quantify what slice of the pie it makes up, but in 2020, the rules changed on the fuels that ships use. And so they, ever since then, they emit about 90% less sulfur. So those little bits of sulfur that used to get emitted by ships would actually help low-level clouds form.

And now without those low-level clouds, the ocean is intercepting that energy too instead of being reflected back to space by the clouds. So it's kind of counterintuitive. You're having less pollution, but in in turn the ocean is warming up faster yeah yeah i think that's that's in there like i said i don't know exactly what slice of the pie that's making up but it um there's pretty strong reason to think that it's a piece of the pie at least what about this relationship between el Nino and La Nina?

I don't know if you have like the kind of elevator 60 second explanation for folks on what that is exactly, but we are shifting into La Nina, right? So how does that impact weather and ocean temperatures? Yeah, so in general, if we zoom way out, the way we define El Niño and La Niña is actually what the temperature anomaly is in the eastern Pacific Ocean. So if that's near the equator, if that's much warmer than average, then it's an El Niño, which we're just coming out of. much warmer than average, then it's an El Niño, which we're just coming out of. And if it's much cooler than average, that's a La Niña, which all expectations are, that's what we're headed into. And that actually plays a role in so many places around the world. And so part of the warming, again, this is one more slice, El Niño generally does contribute to a warmer atmosphere around the world because it's such a significant warming of the ocean there. So, yeah, that was also a piece of it. And I guess this year we'll get to see if that slice matters enough as we transition to La Nina, if these warming anomalies take a dip at all.

But that's not happening yet. You've been getting quite a bit of reaction to your comments on social media, Brian, and some of the comments you've made, like you're saying you're flabbergasted about this. I'm wondering, even if there's no consensus necessarily at this stage about why the oceans are sort of warming at the rate they are and where we are in the season. What about the response from other scientists and folks who are tracking this? Like, is there any precedent for what we're seeing now? No, there isn't. That's what is fairly alarming about this, I think, to a lot of people looking at it is there's been, we don't have anything like this in the historical record. So, I mean, we're, we're all kind of watching and learning this at

this, watching and learning from this at the same time. Um, it's, yeah, we're, we're breaking records by so much. Um, I guess like in nature, usually if you're going to break a record, it's here and there by a little bit. That's how we generally think of an afternoon high temperature record or something. You don't think of breaking records for a year straight by a gigantic margin, and that's what's happening. The number is 305-995-1800. If you want to ask a question to our panel here, let us know what's on your mind about the warming oceans, the rate at which they're warming, some of the potential impacts of those, 305-995-1800. You can also send us an email.

We are at radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We do have some folks writing in with their questions. Brian, let me just put this one to you. William in Palm Harbor writes let me go to Greg rather in st. Pete Greg writes the Gulf looks to be the hottest ever anyway to measure guess anyway is there any way to measure or guess how this will affect storm strength so we are not yet in storm season of course but what are you thinking when you look at the the graph and kind of think about the

energy as you say that the oceans of imparts or can impart to those storms? Yeah, that's a whole other aspect of this story is I think what the impact on these anomalies are going to be as we get into hurricane season. Right now, even though the ocean thinks it's already hurricane season, hurricanes actually need a bunch of other ingredients. And those ingredients aren't in place yet. But the ocean is primed. And so what these anomalies do is they can help kind of extend hurricane season. So we might see some activity prior to the official start of the season. We might see activity outside of where we typically would at the beginning of the season,

just because when the rest of the conditions come into play, the part of the ocean that can maintain a hurricane is a, you know, a much larger area than it would normally be. So just break it down for us. I mean, what are the ingredients that you need for storms to form? A couple of general large-scale environmental things. You generally need moist air. So, you know, if you're getting these dry plumes off of the African continent, that's not so good for hurricanes. And then you,

let's see, you also need low vertical wind shear, which is a change in winds with height. Hurricanes do not like that. And usually in the spring, there's still quite a bit of wind shear out there. And then the other really key thing that you need, which doesn't exist yet, is you need some sort of pre-existing either group of thunderstorms or these waves that come off of Africa. You need some pre-existing thing to kind of serve as the egg, I guess. Right. And then you mentioned the Saharan dust too, which of course during a hurricane season we kind of get graphs of that

and see how that is sort of interfering with some of those waves coming off the African continent. But as you point out, there hasn't been a lot of that about lately and that's kind of having an impact on ocean heat as well. Right. 305-995-1800 is the number. You can also send us an email.

Let us know what you're thinking about this anomaly in the ocean, the ocean heat and where we are right now. We are at radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Well, the seas around Florida did reach hot tub temperatures in some places last summer. That was bad news for coral reefs. Part of the rescue efforts for those reefs included evacuating the corals, nursing them back to health in labs. There were some glimmers of hope. Here's marine biologist Andrew Baker talking about elk horn and staghorn corals, which spawned after being moved to a lab at the University of Miami Rosensteel

School. When they're out in the wild, lots of them probably end up just being washed off the reef and they're lost or consumed by predators so we are actually hoping that by managing the breeding process by looking after these things as long as we keep everything clean and happy we'll actually get a much greater rate of return. So Jenny Stiletovic let me bring you into this conversation I mean you cover a lot of environmental stories. Some of them are kind of unfolding disasters. Some of them are a little more positive. But last year was one out of the box, right? So just remind us of the impact of last summer's marine heat wave and what that had on reefs, the work that was also done to protect the corals from some of those worst impacts of

that heat wave. Right. So those temperatures started climbing in the spring, and by July, they were on average about four and a half to five degrees hotter and went on for days. That prolonged heat caused the coral to bleach and bleach very quickly. I think scientists were watching this sort of unfold on ramped up time. It alarmed a lot of people. This was right before spawning season. So a lot of the labs at University of Miami and down into the Keys that have coral nurseries where they're growing these endangered staghorn and elkhorn coral to try and repopulate the reefs, went out to their nurseries and retrieved the coral ahead

of the heat wave and brought them back to the labs because they were very worried that all this hard work to try and help the reef rebound would be lost amid this really big, unprecedented heat wave. What happened to those corals after they were rescued and kind of nursed back to health? Did they put them back in the ocean? Yes. So in October, I know the Coral Reef Foundation started putting their coral back out. Dalton could probably answer what his lab did. But, you know, the temperatures came down, and so the best place. And they were also running out of space.

I should point out that this just massive effort, they were putting coral like all over the place. I know that when I was at University of Miami, they were literally running out of space. They had coral in outdoor tanks, they were putting them inside. One of the cool things to come out of this, you heard from Andrew Baker, is they did in fact get some of these coral to spawn in the lab. This is fairly new science. It's only been perfected about five years ago. They have to kind of replicate conditions out in the wild, like in the lab. But when they get them to spawn in the lab, I mean, I was there one night, and it is super cool.

Yeah, the photos of it do look pretty incredible. It's almost like something from outer space kind of visually. So some interesting work being done there. Let me bring Dalton into this conversation then. Dalton, you're kind of working at the cutting edge of all of this, Dalton Hesley with the Dr. Diego Luhr's coral reef restoration lab at Rosensteel. So what was 2023 like for you? Like, how did it feel to be kind of at the middle of that maelstrom? Yeah, it was unlike anything we had really seen before, you know, coral bleaching events aren't new to this region, you know, so we know how to monitor and respond. But, you know, months prior to when we would typically expect something like that, we had the Florida Keys, you know, sounding the alarm where they were seeing mass bleaching

and entire coral nurseries lost. And we didn't think that was possible. You know, so we had to act very quickly and kind of launch capacity resources, team members to try to essentially move as many corals as possible from offshore, you know, potentially in harm's way onto these land-based nurseries and resources. But we had to build, you know, we didn't have the infrastructure in place. We didn't have the staff in place to then care for these corals once they were out of harm's way. So there were many hard lessons learned, many good lessons learned. But it was a very tough time in the field because we knew that this was the road we were on, but we got there a lot sooner than we had thought. We knew that this was the road we were on, but we got there a lot sooner than we had thought. I want to put a question to you from William in Palm Harbor. You mentioned Dalton coral bleaching. William writes, regarding the process of coral bleaching, once the coral has reached the recognizable white stage, can it be revived?

Yeah, it's a great and important question because there is some confusion on that. And the answer is yes, the coral can recover. So when corals are faced with overwhelming stress, their response can be coral bleaching. That can happen from both high temperatures and low temperatures, actually. And what's actually happening is this plant or algal symbiont that lives in the coral's tissue is expelled. And that's problematic for the coral because that's where it actually gets majority of its resources, its food. And so while the coral is bleached, it doesn't have that algal symbiont. It's kind of fending for itself. So it can still actively feed, consume nutrients.

so it can still actively feed you know consume nutrients but unless conditions subside you know back into their normal threshold the coral will be overwhelmed and that's when you see these these mass coral bleaching events and that's what the Florida Keys experienced this year it was a severe coral bleaching event fortunately Miami-Dade County what was spared. It was what we consider a moderate bleaching event. So we saw coral recovery. And those were some of those important good lessons learned about which type of corals we're able to withstand or recover and why, so that we can integrate that into gardening and restoration. How do those reefs look now, you know, some months on from that

bleaching event? You know, I can't speak for the Florida Keys, but I have to imagine it is a devastating site. And I can't emphasize how hard they were hit by this disaster. Again, you know, Miami-Dade County, where our University of Miami team works, was hit as well. So we saw coral bleaching. We saw corals lost. And these are reefs that are already heavily degraded. And so to have more corals gone is really tough. And it gives a stark state.

And so there is some hope. There still are healthy corals out there that we can learn from, leverage, and hopefully use as a way to rebuild. But it's definitely a different site offshore these days. We've got to go to a break in a few seconds here, but how kind of advances this technology or this kind of method, I guess, of breeding these corals in these kind of enclosed habitats? It's really accelerating. The Florida Aquarium, Secor International are two groups to name, just a few, that are pioneering the way for

sexual reproduction, where they can create these arcs on land to grow and breed and make thousands, if not tens of thousands, of coral offspring that then can be used for research and restoration. And so the entire field of coral restoration has become extremely collaborative. And there's now a network or consortium of organizations across the state that all work very closely together so that we can do as best a job as possible in this fight for the future of coral reefs. So it's been inspiring to see their work unfold and be a part of it. We'll continue the conversation about the warming ocean and answer your questions, more of your questions after the break. We'll also talk about Disney and DeSantis, the allies there settling a lawsuit ending a

years-long legal battle. What does it mean for the theme park giant and the DeSantis administration? Your call is 305-995-1800. You're listening to the Florida Roundup on your Florida public radio stations. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. Well, next week on our program, we're expecting the Florida Supreme Court to release opinions on proposed constitutional amendments on recreational marijuana and abortion. If the Supreme Court weighs in, we'll bring you analysis of what that means for Florida. Right now, though, let's get back to the conversation about the superheated waters of the North Atlantic and the ominous signs for the upcoming hurricane season and the health of our oceans, including corals, which suffered through an unprecedented marine heat wave last summer with us for this conversation brian mcnulty senior

research associate in the department of atmospheric sciences at the university of miami rosenstiel school of marine atmospheric and earth science dalton hesley senior research associate at dr diego lerman's coral reef restoration lab there at rosenstiel and jenny stiletovic environmental editor for our partner station WLRN in Miami. I want to hear from you two. What do you want to know about the spike in ocean temperatures? Are you already planning for hurricane season or reflecting on changes you've noticed around the reefs? You can call us 305-995-1800. Let's go to Lee in South Miami. Lee, you're on the air. What's on your mind?

Well, considering the situation with this aquarium and our need to save the corals, I was suggesting that maybe the county and others would consider converting this aquarium into a breeding facility and maybe even put it under the UN school as a place where we can raise corals and other endangered sea life and put this to a productive purpose instead of maybe turning it into another commercial development that we really don't need. That's my suggestion. Yeah, Lee, thank you so much. I appreciate you weighing in. Jenny, I wonder what your thoughts on that are. I mean, has there been some discussion about what to do with the Seaquarium? And

to your point last year, they were running out of space for these rescued corals. What do you think? Well, just this morning, I talked to a coral scientist at SeaWorld where they have about 800 of the rescued coral that were brought in after stony coral started spreading down the reef track. So the aquariums around the state are definitely involved in this rescue effort. I don't know what the county has plans for this aquarium or what that facility has available, but I'm sure that coral scientists would appreciate the extra space and help. Let's go to Paul in Delray Beach. Paul, you've got a question. What are you thinking? Yes, I used to work in an industry where we could

prevent carbon dioxide emissions just by adding what's called a lime scrubber. And if you added lime close to coral reef, you would increase the pH in the coral reef area. I don't know if this would work. It could be expensive because you're diluted by the ocean waters would be diluting the lime. Right. That's an interesting theory. Paul, thanks for your question. Dalton, I wonder if you want to take that question. What do you think? Is that one of the kind of tools in the toolbox there to try and help these corals? Well, it's definitely the type of tools in the toolbox there to try and help these corals? Well, it's definitely the type of conversation that coral researchers and practitioners are having,

meaning, you know, how best can we accelerate coral growth and gardening and ensure that reef states are functioning as they should. So, you know, there's a lot of big pie in the sky ideas about how best to protect corals from these different events, you know, coral bleaching, disease events, hurricanes, ocean acidification. So, you know, while I'm not familiar with that exact methodology, you know, there are ideas like that that are being discussed more and more frequently. And it's because the problems are becoming more and more, you know, concerning. And so we need to think, you know, more interdisciplinary and work with experts outside our traditional spaces. So yeah, it's happening out of need. Let's go to Sammy in College Park. Sammy, what are you thinking? in College Park.

Sammy, what are you thinking? I'm just, I'm really impressed that I was just on a cruise down in the Caribbean and they actually had a tour that would take people out and train them how to work with people into replanting coral to rebuild up reefs.

And some of the generations, the kids all wanted to do the fun stuff, but the parents and the grandparents had already been the kids all wanted to do the fun stuff, but the parents and the grandparents had already been down and they wanted to give something back. So there's organizations that families can get together on and go out and do that is restoration specific for coral reefs and for kelp beds, et cetera. There's a lot of that stuff on the web. I just think that it's nice that people can work a vacation on giving back. Sammy, thank you so much for your call.

I appreciate that. Dalton, what about that? I mean, you do have kind of an all-hands-on-deck approach, I guess. What are you seeing in terms of people stepping up and saying, we want to help out? Yeah, I'm so glad this came up because, you know, we've really focused on our lab's research and restoration activities, but we're transparent in that we need public support, community participation. And so Dr. Learman

actually created a citizen science program out of our lab called Rescue Reef. So we've been around for around nine, 10 years now with thousands of community members coming on the boat with us to learn about our research, why we do it, how they can help for actually getting a chance to work alongside us in our coral nursery, tending to the corals, collecting the corals, and then transplanting them back onto local reef populations. And that's obviously having a positive impact ecologically, rebuilding our coral reefs. But we think the experiential educational benefits are equally important because we really want people to understand just how important our

coral reefs really are to them, their loved ones, community members, and what they can do about it. You know, we think people want to help. And so we're trying to give them a way to do that through Rescue Reef to create more stewardship. We've been speaking with Dalton Hesley, a senior research associate at Dr. Diego Lerman's Coal Reef Restoration Lab at the University of Miami at Rosensteel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. Dalton, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Also with us, Brian McNulty, senior research associate in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Rosensteel. Brian, thank you so much. My pleasure. I appreciate it. And Jenny Stoletovic, Environmental Editor for our partner station WLRN in Miami. Thank you as well. You're welcome. We're turning now to an update on the battle that's been raging between Disney and the DeSantis administration,

the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the governing body created by DeSantis, and the Florida legislature last year. This week settled lawsuits over who has control over design and construction at Disney World. Let's hear from Vice Chair of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. It's Charbel Barakat, and this is him ahead of the vote to approve Disney's settlement offer. With this settlement, which is complete and significant, we are eager to work with Disney. I'm certainly eager to work with Disney and all other businesses to make the country's tourism destination famous for a second reason, which is good government.

country's tourism destination, famous for a second reason, which is good government. But the feud between the governor and Disney goes back to the theme park company's objections to DeSantis' controversial 2022 legislation, which bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Now, DeSantis says his actions on changing Reedy Creek and the education issue have been vindicated. Everything we've done has been in the best interest of the state of Florida, and we have been vindicated on all those actions. Going forward, we're going to continue to govern with the best interest of the state of Florida. So I'm glad that they were able to do that settlement. Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahl, meanwhile, said in a prepared statement

the company was pleased to put an end to all litigation pending in state court. And of course, Disney filed a separate federal lawsuit and appealed after a U.S. district judge in January dismissed that case. That appeal remains pending. I want to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think this signals about the political situation here in Florida and the way Disney does business you can send us an email we're radio at the Florida roundup dot org also give us a call we're at 305 995 1800 we're joining us for more is Orlando Sentinel investigative reporter Skylar Swisher Skylar welcome to the Florida roundup

thanks for having me on Matthew so the story is kind of convoluted. Just kind of walk us through this. How does this lawsuit start and who was suing whom? Yeah, so really we have to go back to 1967. That is when the Florida legislature created something called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. If you think about Disney World, it's like a city onto itself. And any city needs government services. They need somebody to take out the trash, fire protection,

some entity to keep the place running. So they created a special district. And for decades, Disney essentially controlled this special district. They were able to elect the five board members. But when this feud started between Governor DeSantis and Disney, the legislature totally upended that arrangement. Last year, they passed a law that gave the governor the ability to appoint those five members. the ability to appoint those five members. So what happened was when the five, you know, DeSantis-friendly board members came on to this new board, which is called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, they discovered that their predecessors, the Disney-friendly members,

had approved these development agreements that essentially tied their hands and kept everything in place and allowed Disney to keep controlling, you know, the development, the planning for this district. So this new DeSantis board sued Disney and was working to get those overturned. So what happened on Wednesday, and it was pretty unexpected, was Disney settled with the district and they agreed to just declare those development agreements void and go back to the 2020 plan and any changes to the development plans would have to be consulted with Disney. So now they're saying they're going to be working together collaboratively. Just remind us too, Skylar, I mean, does the Central Florida

Tourism Oversight District do anything other than administer what goes on at Disney? Because it's obviously Disney is not the only theme park company in Central Florida. Yeah, it's primarily Disney. There are a few other tenants, a few other properties in that district, but Disney pays almost all of the property taxes there. So is this governing body, I mean, is it really going to have a close rein on what Disney does? I mean, I'm just wondering how different this Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, granted it's been around for a month or two already, a little while yet. What difference will it have between what it does going forward and how the old Reedy Creek Improvement District ran things? Sure. Yeah, it's actually going to be a pretty big difference.

So the former Reedy Creek was almost, it was referred to as like a Vatican with mouse ears. And if you think about you're trying to build a theme park, it's much more advantageous to you if you're able to also control the government that's you know approving those plans um that's handling all the regulatory issues so in the past you know disney was basically able to fast track and self-govern itself um now they're going to be having to work with uh this new board which is appointed by the governor so that kind of injects a new political dynamic that wasn't there in the past. What about the federal lawsuit? Because Disney's appealing that after it lost the suit.

I mean, is that just going to quietly evaporate? That kind of remains to be seen. I'm told that that lawsuit is still pending. And it appears that, you know, Disney is kind of holding that perhaps in their back pocket if this governor appointed board doesn't work constructively with them. But that lawsuit is still pending from what I've been told. You're listening to the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. This is your Florida Public Radio station. You can give us a call 305-995-1800. Send us an email too.

We're radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Talking with Skyla Swisher of the Orlando Sentinel about the settlement between DeSantis allies and the Disney company. Let's go to Linda. Linda from Lake Kachobi. What are you thinking about this? Yes, thank you.

Can you hear me? Certainly. Go ahead. Thank you. Yes, I wanted to address the Reedy Creek issue that came down today through the Florida court. Many of us are very gratified to see that this is over now and we can go forward. It seemed like Governor DeSantis wants to run the state like a fascist in so far that he has his own agenda and the rest of us have to swim down his current. I believe that Disney was going forward to First Amendment rights, and I applaud Disney for standing up for LGBT community, and thank God that

someone will stand up for what is right and First Amendment rights in the state of Florida. Thank you. Linda, thanks for your call. So I guess, Skylar, a kind of a taste of what some how some folks are reacting. They're at least kind of framing this up. Governor DeSantis would say, of course, that is exactly not what he's doing here. This is this is for the good of the state. But what about that?

This has been a fairly heated debate, hasn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And one of the arguments from people here in Orlando is that we should have local representation, like our county commission in Orange County should be able to appoint a representative to this board. The way it's structured now is the governor appoints all five members. Something that is interesting to note is that there is some new leadership at this district. The new district administrator is Stephanie Coppa-Luzos, and she has very close ties to the governor. She was his legislative affairs director. She worked on the campaign. But the thinking is that she might be a bit more favorable for Disney because she's not an outspoken cultural warrior. And she also has a lot of experience in local government.

She was the county manager of Clay County. And a new board member is also coming on, Craig Mateer. And he has been very active here in Orlando. He worked in the tourism industry. He founded a baggage handling business that, you know, delivered suitcases, luggage to Disney. So the thinking is that he also might be kind of somebody who Disney might view favorably. Of course, he is a GOP donor and he says he's an ardent supporter of DeSantis, but he at least has some experience in the tourism business. Let's go to Kevin from Miami Beach.

Kevin, you're on the air. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. I don't really have a question as much as I have a comment echoing some of the previous ones. It really just seems as if Ron DeSantis wants his name to remain in the news site. Kevin, yeah, thank you for your call. I appreciate that. What about that, Skyler? Because obviously DeSantis had been running a presidential campaign, and wrapped that up not too long ago.

So is there some sense that with that campaign out of the way, sort of move forward in business as usual? Yes, I interviewed a political scientist at the University of Central Florida about this very issue. And his take was, yeah, absolutely. You know, in the build up to the campaign, this got him on Fox News. A lot of conservative voters really bought into this whole battle with Disney. But it also did create some issues for him with libertarian-minded conservatives, with business-minded conservatives, with donors who feel like government should stay out of private business.

And what this political scientist told me is that he feels like there's kind of a rebranding going on and the governor is trying to kind of change the narrative from punishing quote-unquote woke disney to promoting good government so if you listen to what the governor's saying now it really is focusing on hey we're going to run this district uh efficiently and that this is going to be bringing good government to Florida and Central Florida in particular. Indeed and of course Disney does have more kind of potential expansion plans on the horizon so they're quite keen to I guess put this behind them and move forward with that. We have been speaking with Orlando Sentinel investigative reporter Skylar Swisher. Skylar thank you so much for

your reporting and thanks for joining us on the Florida Roundup. Thank you. Still to come, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore this week is a chilling reminder for Tampa Bay residents of the Sunshine Skyway disaster more than 40 years ago. We'll have that story, also mangrove rangers

roaming the coastline in a bid to preserve our disappearing mangroves. That's coming up on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty. The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Tuesday was an instant reminder for many in the Tampa Bay region of the 1980 Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster. From our partner station WUSF in Tampa, Megan Bowman spoke with Eckerd Search and Rescue about the similarities. Ryan Dilkey was only four when a cargo ship

collided with the skyway, causing a portion to collapse. But he's well aware of the disaster that killed 35 people. Dilkey is now the director of the Eckerd College Search and Rescue, one of the first units that responded. He says watching the cargo ship crash into the bridge early Tuesday morning in Baltimore was an all-too-familiar event. When I saw the video, I felt like I was watching the situation 44 years ago. So to me, they're unfortunately rather identical. In the unlikely event something like this were to happen to the Skyway again,

Dilkey says his crew is ready and able to respond. When a mass casualty of any kind occurs, it often requires every boat or every person you can muster. Dilkey adds his crew uses training and skills developed over 50 years with the primary goal of saving as many people as possible in an emergency. I'm Megan Bowman in Tampa. Mangroves tamper down waves, keeping shorelines from eroding. But they are being chopped down faster than they can be replaced. Steve Newborn from our partner station WUSF in Tampa

takes us on a trip with the Mangrove Rangers, a first-of-its-kind effort to determine how many mangroves still exist and how they can be saved. The condo towers of downtown Sarasota recede into the distance as our motorboat tracks northward atop a shimmering Sarasota Bay. Soon mangroves come into focus. If you've been out on the Gulf Coast, you've likely seen them. They're those long, spindly-rooted trees that look like giant spiders climbing out of the water toward land. Abby Turner leads the Mangrove Rangers for Suncoast Waterkeeper, a non-profit environmental advocacy group. She says 90% of the mangroves in

Sarasota County have been wiped out. So on a sunny afternoon, we motor northward to Manatee County. There we come upon a pristine cluster of mangroves. They're critically important to holding back sediments so that seagrass can flourish and oysters can flourish. They are the nursery for every commercial and recreational fish that you can think of. So they're incredibly important to our economy. But no one is really sure how many are left. She plans to take drone video of this undisturbed mangrove stand to create a baseline that will be used to compare mangroves in areas where development is affecting them. Because this is like the ideal condition of a mangrove, this is our reference site, which means that we're going to compare all the other sites to this one to see how canopy

density and extent match this one. As we approach, she tells how mangroves are facing an assault on many fronts. Homeowners cut them down and environmental changes are taking a toll. Then there's something called coastal squeeze. Meaning like mangroves can't shift landward because there's development there. So when the sea level rises, they just kind of are stuck and might drown. How does that impact mangrove health? There's also the dreaded mangrove heart attack, where one area drowns and it could take out the whole system. So how fast does the heart attack spread is something that we're looking to learn. The Suncoast Waterkeeper recently started the Mangrove Rangers in response to 18 reports of illegal trimming on Sarasota Bay in the past year alone. Homeowners cut them down so they have an

unimpeded view of the water. Shortly after we left the dock, I saw one group of mangroves that had been trimmed to form a circle like a decorative tree at a theme park. I don't even know if that shell mount is going to be close enough, to be honest, but we can try it. If not, we're going to fly from this thing. Oh, yeah? We can do that. As they prepare to launch the drone, Turner and volunteer Mia Esposito place it atop a paddleboard

and walk it to an oyster bar surfacing from the shallow bay. Esposito has a civil engineering background, but decided that sitting behind a desk wasn't for her. I'm definitely very passionate about the water, where we live, and taking pride in that, and also just being one with nature. That's something I'm super passionate about. Turner pulls out a laptop once they reach the oyster bar, and the drone heads for the mangroves.

There we go. It's just like so dense with branches and leaves and roots. You just really can't get through there. So drones, they get us to places that we can't otherwise get. The drone will capture about 400 images of the mangroves, creating a three-dimensional portrait from above. Once they have a baseline, the mangrove rangers will begin documenting other areas of the coast along Sarasota Bay. They can use those images to compare year to year how people are altering mangroves. For now, they have about 20 volunteers, six boat operators, and five FAA-certified drone pilots.

Hopefully this will continue. This is a one-of-a-kind program. It doesn't exist any place else in the world. And so we're really just piloting it and figuring it out as we go and learning new ways of observing these critical systems. The continued existence of mangroves, she says, may just depend on it. I'm Steve Newborn in Sarasota. Floridians waiting on the state Supreme Court to rule on proposed constitutional amendments on abortion rights and recreational marijuana will have to wait a bit longer. While one seeks to ensure abortion rights, the other would allow adults 21 or older to use recreational marijuana in the state. The Supreme Court said in an email Thursday morning that there were no opinions ready for

release, but there is a Monday deadline looming for the court. I'm Matthew Petty, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. A federal three-judge panel has sided with the state of Florida in a lawsuit over its congressional districts. As Valerie Crowder reports, the case centers on the removal of North Florida's only congressional district where black voters could elect their candidate of choice. A U.S. district court in Tallahassee has found that plaintiffs failed to prove that the Florida legislature, quote,

acted with race as a motivating factor in passing the enacted map. Voting rights groups argued that Governor Ron DeSantis did discriminate against Black voters when he vetoed a plan that would have preserved an African-American performing district in the region and proposed his own map that removed the district instead. Under the court's interpretation, plaintiffs also needed to prove discriminatory intent on the part of the legislature in order to support their claims. The former congressional District 5 stretched from Gadsden County to Jacksonville and was the only Democratic-held district in the region. A separate state legal challenge on the

issue is before the Florida Supreme Court. Arguments in that case are likely to take place this summer. For WFSU News, I'm Valerie Crowder. Haiti's government is in turmoil. Its prime minister has resigned and reports say gangs have taken over the capital. Photographer Octavio Jones, who's worked with our partner station WUSF in Tampa and NPR, just returned from reporting in Haiti last week. He spoke with WUSF's Sky LeBron about his experience. I know just even getting into the country was quite a journey in itself. What were some of the barriers that you faced? Well, we had plan A, that's also plan B, that's also plan C. But it seems like we were already on plan B and plan C when we got to

Dajabon because there were some restrictions at the border. Because with things were so in upheaval in Port-au-Prince that the Dominican government, we thought we'd have an easy pass to the border, but that was not the case as a free press. So we were held at the border for like three plus days because there were a lot of back and forth between the Dominican government and also the U.S. government. In that time, are you just kind of sitting there waiting? No, actually at that time we were waiting. But it was also an opportunity to document what was happening at the border itself. Because last year the border, several months of the border was closed altogether.

And I was there last year and this past October on the other side of the border and watched where Haitians, they were not able to get into the DR, Dominican Republic, to do business. And to see the border actively and open this time was pretty amazing because you are documenting life where people were coming into the markets on market day on Thursday to pick up goods, to pick up anything from produce to farming equipment, you name it. They just people come in with truckloads. So it just kind of showed you that life still goes on? Life is going on in Haiti. The Haitians are a resilient people. They would tell you that life goes on.

We have to make do for what we have. Sounds like there are people in the country who are optimistic about its future. It would be hard to find one person who is not optimistic about the future of Haiti. And it doesn't matter if you're not from the elite, more affluent families or neighborhoods in Haiti of those who are very less fortunate.

They believe in a hope for the country. They were first to tell you that Haitians will fix Haitian problems. Do you think you'll go back? I will go back tomorrow if I can. I will go back because this is what Haiti is going through. And to continue to shine a light on Haiti, I think is important because they are our neighbors. I say this, they're just a 12-flight from Miami. They're just like you and I.

Photographer Octavio Jones talking with WUSF's Sky LeBron. And finally on the roundup, Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his parents' children's tale and built a multimedia franchise from the Baba the Elephant stories, died last Friday. He was 98. From our partner station WLRN in Miami, Florida Keys reporter Julia Cooper has more. De Brunhoff died at his home in Key West after a recent stroke, according to his wife. Babar the Elephant began as a bedtime story Laurent and his brother would hear his mother tell. Then, in 1931, his father, Jean de Brunoff, published the first illustrated version of the tale.

But it was Laurent who drew upon his gifts as a painter and storyteller to release dozens of books and an animated TV show about Babar. My tusks, Babar! What happened? bar. The author has called Babar a story about family and fatherhood, though the work has been criticized at points for its portrayal of French colonialism. Dubrinov is survived by his wife and two grown children. I'm Julia Cooper in Key Largo. That's our program for today.

The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa. The show is produced by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Mertz. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels and Jackson Harp. Richard Ives answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by

Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. If you missed any of today's show, you can download it and past programs at wlrn.org slash podcasts. Thanks for calling in and listening.