Aquatic Invasive Species: Hydrilla

How Much Weed Killer Would you Like with your Water?

Adopt-A-Beach Program

Upcoming Conferences

• SE NALMS Lake & Watershed Conference
• Land Grant & Sea Grant National Water Conference
• Kenya National Water Conference

Read More

While fast-growing invasive plants outcompete some native species and threaten some waterways, the lush aquatic life serves as the liver and kidneys of Florida’s circulatory system. Plants like water hyacinth and water lettuce can clog navigation channels and tangle in propellers, but they are also natural filters that help clean all the pollution flowing out of farms, golf courses and neighborhoods.

Critics argue that by poisoning these plants and letting them sink to the bottom to rot, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation is only adding to the thick layer of fertilized muck that has been building in Florida’s wetlands for generations.

When pollution-rich flood water is released into the sea or when hurricanes churn and spread that muck layer across the Gulf of Mexico, scientists believe it serves as a powerful booster shot for naturally occurring toxic algae blooms, including the devastating red tide that occurred in 2017 caused by the churning of waters of Hurricane Irma. Irma blew across lakes like Kissimmee and Okeechobee, hundreds of tons of dead fish, sea turtles, dolphins and manatees began washing up on Florida beaches.

Since 2013, hundreds of square miles of these wetland filters have been sprayed with dozens of different herbicides at a cost of over $100 million.

Read More

Dr. Tyrone Hayes of the University of California- Berkley has been slammed in the media for being a scientist turned activist; of which he is proud. He did not set off to be an activist, but trusts what one man said, “Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” ~ Albert Einstein

Dr. Hayes interest in frogs began as a child at his grandmother’s home. He was particularly interested in frog hormones which are similar to human hormones. After being asked to join a panel of experts conducting studies for Novartis (later Syngenta) on the herbicide atrazine, Dr. Hayes made a surprising discovery. Developing male African clawed frogs and leopard frogs exhibited female characteristics after exposure to atrazine.

Since that discovery and additional research, Dr. Hayes has become an advocate for banning atrazine. For those that don’t know, atrazine is an herbicide that is most often used in corn fields and on lawns. 76 million pounds of it are applied each year and it is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S., second to glyphosate. Atrazine is also the most commonly detected pesticide contaminating drinking water.

Hayes as well as well as other scientists studying atrazine in North and South America, Europe and Japan has found links between atrazine exposure and abnormal male hormone levels in fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Co-author professor Val Beasley says at least 10 studies found that exposure to atrazine feminizes male frogs, sometimes to the point of sex reversal.

While human experiments aren’t possible a study shows that men with .1 parts per billion of atrazine in their urine have low sperm counts. Atrazine applicators have 24,000 times that amount in their urine that is known to “chemically” castrate frogs. Dr. Hayes questions what those applicators reproductive health is like.

Listen to Dr. Hayes Story https://youtu.be/_OHd2rPrtuE?si=yEuq9FADmE7FWvuf