Item E1 E.1
G BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
County of Monroe Mayor Sylvia Murphy,District 5
The Florida Keys l'U � � Mayor Pro Tern Danny Kolhage,District 1
�pw° Michelle Coldiron,District 2
Heather Carruthers,District 3
David Rice,District 4
County Commission Meeting
September 18, 2019
Agenda Item Number: E.1
Agenda Item Summary #5973
BULK ITEM: Yes DEPARTMENT: Tourist Development Council
TIME APPROXIMATE: STAFF CONTACT: Christine Limbert(305) 292-3470
No
AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval to retain or utilize already engaged consultants to study
and prepare a report regarding the effects of excessive Sargassum Seaweed on the tourism industry.
The study and report will include the potential economic effect of Sargassum Seaweed on the
tourism industry, if any, and will identify solutions and the cost associated with those solutions. It is
anticipated that the cost of the study will not exceed $49,999.99, but in the event that cost exceed the
competitive solicitation threshold, approval to waive the competitive solicitation process for
professional services as needed to complete the study.
ITEM BACKGROUND: The Board at its August 21 st, 2019 meeting directed the TDC
administrative office to conduct a study on the economic effects of the Sargassum Seaweed Bloom
on tourism and identify solutions to alleviate those effects and include the costs related to
implementation of identified solutions.
The TDC engaged consultant, Rockport Analytics, to perform a study of the overall effects of
tourism on the local economy. It is expected that this consultant may be utilized to address the
specific economic impact of excessive sargassum seaweed build-up on tourism and will utilize
already established scientific data from other on-going studies as explained in more detail below, if
feasible. Since this consultant is already familiar with the overall economic aspects of tourism, it is
expected that this will result in a better understanding of impacts specifically from the sargassum
seaweed bloom. In addition, the consultant should evaluate data from other destinations such as
Mexico that have been impacted by excessive sargassum blooms.
The TDC's consultant will be directed to utilize data already gathered or to work with scientific
consultants to gather the necessary scientific information as needed to address the impacts of the
sargassum seaweed bloom. As the Board is aware, the County has in partnership with the Florida
Department of Environmental Protections (FDEP) funded an ongoing study that is being conducted
through the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences that is in the second year of a two-
year Florida Keys Nearshore Water Quality Monitoring Project. The study is monitoring 65 sites
from Key Largo to Key West and includes the role that sargassum seaweed has played in the water
quality region. The study to be conducted will seek to utilize relevant data from this ongoing study,
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E.1
if feasible. Utilizing already established data which will not only provide a greater level of data but
will also allow the study to be concluded in a shorter period of time.
The TDC's consultant will also be directed to utilize County engineering consultants, retained and
engaged to address seaweed issues and solutions as part of the canal restoration project. It again is
anticipated that familiarity with the nearshore water conditions and canals, although it may differ
from effects on our beaches, can be used to identify solutions,permitting requirements and cost of
such solutions for purpose of this study.
The TDC administrative office has agreed to utilize the research portion of its administrative budget
to fund this study. If any capital project solutions are identified in the study, those capital project
cost may potentially be funded under the beach and beach park facility category under the capital
funds budget, which is 10% of the overall TDC budget.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION: Directed the TDC to conduct a study at its 8/21/2019
BOCC meeting.
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES:
N/A
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
DOCUMENTATION:
Studying the surging seaweed that is sargassum
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Effective Date: TBD
Expiration Date: TBD
Total Dollar Value of Contract: It is anticipated to be 1/t $50,000, but if it exceeds $49,999.99
approval to waive the competitive solicitation process is requested.
Total Cost to County: None (Will be Funded by TDC budget)
Current Year Portion:
Budgeted: Yes.
Source of Funds: TDC
CPI: No
Indirect Costs: N/A
Estimated Ongoing Costs Not Included in above dollar amounts:
Revenue Producing: No If yes, amount:
Grant: No
County Match:
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E.1
Insurance Required: No Agreement has been finalized. County Attorney and Risk will review
consultant's agreement to ensure appropriate legal and insurance requirements are included
Additional Details:
To be Determined.
REVIEWED BY:
Maxine Pacini Completed 08/30/2019 9:48 AM
Christine Limbert Completed 08/30/2019 5:21 PM
Budget and Finance Completed 09/03/2019 9:03 AM
Maria Slavik Completed 09/03/2019 1:02 PM
Kathy Peters Completed 09/03/2019 1:49 PM
Board of County Commissioners Pending 09/18/2019 9:00 AM
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8/29/2019 Studying the surging seaweed that is sargassum
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Studying the surging seaweed that
is sargassum
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Sargassum seaweed covers a beach in Mexico earlier this summer.Photo:Victor RuWAssociated Press CD
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With beaches from Mexico to northern Florida overrun by smelly sargassum, University of
Miami researchers are investigating everything from the seaweed's movement to its
chemical composition.
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8/29/2019 Studying the surging seaweed that is sargassum
The field samples of sargassum seaweed come from waters throughout the Caribbean,arriving by boat direct to the
dock at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science,where researchers Peter
Swart and Amanda Oehlert quickly scoop them up.
Back at Swart's lab,they analyze and compare the chemical composition of the samples,trying to determine,for 0
example, if sargassum collected from the waters off Florida has a different carbon-to-nitrogen ratio than a sample of
the seaweed collected off the coast of the Cayman Islands.
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Such analysis will help establish a "fingerprint"for the seaweed, giving the scientific community a better idea of where
the stuff is coming from.
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From studies on the ocean currents that drive it to the nutrients that feed it,Swart is one of a handful of UM
researchers who are currently studying the brown macroalgae,which continues to invade beaches from Mexico to
Martinique,covering shorelines with massive,thick brown matts that can block light from reaching corals, seagrasses
and other organisms.
"There's still a lot that we don't know about sargassum, like the fundamental elements of its biology,"said Swart,a
professor of marine geosciences at the Rosenstiel School,who has obtained samples of seaweed from waters
throughout the Caribbean, off the coast of Mexico,and from Florida beaches.
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Oehlert,an assistant professor of marine geosciences who only recently joined the Rosenstiel School, is analyzing
sargassum samples for the presence of heavy metals to determine if the seaweed could be a potential source of
ground contamination.
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Beaches in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean have been under siege by sargassum for the past few years,with the
source of the mass teachings becoming a keen area of research.One study, using satellite data and ocean and wind
models, has suggested the beaching events are the result of sargassum accumulation in the equatorial Atlantic,while 505
other research has shown them to originate in the Sargasso Sea.
But whatever the source, it is Josefina Olascoaga's goal to determine how much of a role ocean currents and wind E
play in moving the seaweed across the ocean.A professor of ocean sciences at the Rosenstiel School, Olascoaga is
using GPS-equipped ocean drifters to accomplish that task. U)
"Water is still the most important factor for moving seaweed,"she said,"but we're trying to figure out what percentage U)
wind contributes-1 percent, less than 1 percent,3 percent.We just don't know yet."
The drifters,which simulate the flow of seaweed and transmit their data to satellites,will help find the answer. Last
year, Olascoaga served as the co-principal investigator of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study
that deployed nearly 60 of those drifters in the North Atlantic, producing data that the UM researcher is still analyzing. 1W
She and her team are planning more drifter experiments related to sargassum in the near future.
Kathleen Sullivan Sealey,an associate professor of biology in UM's College of Arts and Sciences, is in the second year U)
of a two-year Florida Keys Nearshore Water Quality Monitoring Project funded by Monroe County in partnership with
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.She and her team are monitoring some 65 sites from Key Largo
to Key West,documenting changes in water quality after recent county upgrades such as improved storm-water
management and the conversion from residential septic to central wastewater treatment. Her study will also take into
account the role sargassum seaweed has played in the water quality of the region.
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8/29/2019 Studying the surging seaweed that is sargassum
It isn't the first time Sealey has studied at least one aspect of the seaweed. In a 2012 Schmidt Ocean Institute-funded
investigation, she and a team of scientists examined how sargassum circulation patterns and amounts from Bermuda
to the Bahamas have changed over the past 40 years.
For all the negative press it has received as of late, sargassum does have its benefits,Sealey said. 0
"A lot of it is important because it stays out in the open ocean, sinking into the deep sea.And so it's really connected
to very deep-water ecosystems,"she explained.
The only seaweed in the world that doesn't begin life attached to the seafloor, sargassum is also a floating habitat,
supporting an incredible diversity of organisms—the larvae and juveniles of everything from hatchling sea turtles and E
seahorses to crabs and shrimp that find shelter in and feed off the seaweed.
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It is not until the floating macroalgae begins to decompose near shore that it is a problem, creating an unpleasant
odor, preventing turtles from reaching the shorebreak,and impacting local tourism industries.
"I don't think the patch itself is bad,"said Sealey, referring to the largest seaweed bloom in the world,the 5,500-mile-
long patch of sargassum extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the African coast."What's bad is what's been
happening in the Caribbean over the last eight years.The seaweed has come out of the North Atlantic Gyre and
drifted into coastal areas in such a way that it's ending up on beaches. In the Middle Keys, it's made coastal properties U
almost unusable because it's built up so thick,and it's entering canals,where it sinks and rots."
Last year,the seaweed forced resorts in Antigua to temporarily close.This year, Mexico and islands in the Caribbean
have been spending millions of dollars to remove the sargassum.And recently, Miami-Dade County brought in
bulldozers,front-end loaders and dump trucks to remove massive amounts of the seaweed from Miami Beach.
Still,the question remains,what's causing the uncontrollable blooms? Rising levels of nutrients associated with
deforestation and the increased use of fertilizers in Brazil seeping into the Atlantic, perhaps?
Or maybe smoke from massive fires?"It's possible,"said Cassandra Gaston,a Rosenstiel School assistant professor of E
atmospheric sciences.
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An expert in atmospheric chemistry, specifically aerosols,trace gases and their interactions,Gaston is the senior
author of a recent study that found smoke from African fires burning wild or to clear land may be an important U)
source of a key nutrient—phosphorous—that acts as a fertilizer in the Amazon rainforest,tropical Atlantic and southern
oceans.
But while that nutrient,found in atmospheric particles transported by winds and deposited to the ocean and on land,
can stimulate the growth of marine phytoplankton and terrestrial plants and lead to the sequestration of carbon U)
dioxide, it could also be contributing to the growth of sargassum.
"The smoke is certainly contributing nutrients that are readily available once it is deposited into the ocean, so it's
definitely possible that it's playing a role,"said Gaston."And African dust is certainly a potential contributor as well
because it provides other nutrients that the seaweed needs to grow."
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Gaston and her team primarily looked for phosphorous in the aerosol samples of smoke and dust they collected in
the Amazon region last year."But there's also iron in both particle sources that could also be playing a role,"she said.
But she cautioned that there is not enough information to establish a link between sargassum and fires in Africa.
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8/29/2019 Studying the surging seaweed that is sargassum
Inside a UM College of Engineering laboratory, researcher Helena Solo-Gabriele and doctoral student Afeefa Abdool-
Ghany are conducting tests to discover a link of different sort—that sargassum seaweed could be causing elevated
levels of a bacteria called enterococci in local beach waters.
The bacteria normally reside in the gastrointestinal tracts of animals, including humans, entering the environment via 0
feces. High levels of enterococci at the beach indicate fecal pollution from stormwater, pets and human sewage,and if
the bacteria are ingested while swimming, it can cause gastrointestinal disease.Studies have also shown that
enterococci correlate with microbes that cause skin rashes.
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So once a month since last April,Solo-Gabriele and her students have visited a section of beach off Biscayne Bay,
collecting water,sediment and seaweed samples,and then testing their specimens for the presence of enterococci.
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"We're pretty certain that the sargassum is not a source of the enterococci, but as the seaweed decays near the shore,
it is probably causing bacterial levels to spike,"said Solo-Gabriele,a professor of environmental engineering and
associate dean for research.
Abdool-Ghany noted,for example,that a sample of rotting seaweed collected from the shore last July contained over
1,000 CFUs(colony-forming units) of enterococci.
Their study will continue into next year. U)
Photos:Evan Garcia/University of Miami
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