The artificial mini-reefs Garrett Stuart is installing along the Florida coastline are cleaning millions of gallons of water every year and giving marine life a place to call home.
Stuart is a scientist and educator who has earned the nickname Captain Planet thanks to his efforts to save the environment. The mini-reefs are "universally tested and proven to filter an average of 30,000 gallons of water every single day, and an average of 300 fish and 200 crab per year that they house," Stuart told Fox 13.
The mini-reefs help fight against blooms of the red tide organism karenia brevis, with Stuart saying the marine life that grows on the reefs "literally eat algae, they eat the red tide." He recently installed mini-reefs under the dock at the Pelican Alley restaurant in Nokomis, and crabs have already moved in. Pelican Alley owner Tommy Adorna told Fox 13 he will "do what I can to help with the environment. The water quality is very important because people don't want to come down and have dinner on the water if the water is disgusting."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly TuttleFeature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"
-
Film reviews: Eden and Honey Don't!Feature Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery and a queer private eye prowls a high-desert town
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitionsFeature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
