Tide's Conquest: The Health of Our Waterways

 

Photo:Engage   a photography blog you want to follow



“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” - Ansel Adams


    The arrival of hot weather signals the start of the crowded tourist season at the Delaware beaches. For many, it's a Faustian bargain between the money the vacationers freely spend at the local restaurants and shops and the hard-to-find parking in-town and the traffic jams out on Coastal Highway. For the fish who spawn and live in the inland bays, streams, and canals, the high temperatures make any poor water quality issues worse by rapidly consuming dissolved oxygen levels. Fish kills of hundreds of thousands of mostly juvenile fish are often the the unfortunate consequence.

    Another contributing problem is the algae blooms that feed on excess fertilizer in the water, consuming even more oxygen and blocking sunlight from reaching as deep as it should. Runoff from commercial and residential properties are a major part of the problem and probably the most easily fixed if only we personally take action and eliminate our own runoff. Chemical runoff from roofs and paved areas also make water quality worse. With increased development, it's vital we all advocate for riparian buffers to filter any uncontrolled runoff before it enters our waterways. And even though I specifically mention the inland bays in lower Delaware, this issue is sadly prevalent everywhere. We all need to help make the wild work well. As I wrote in my surprisingly controversial post on June 19, 2021...

    Keeping our beautiful inland bays healthy is a priority for many of us. Unfortunately, there have been signs that the estuaries are a little sick. The recent fish kills are warnings that the bays need our help. What can we do to keep our bays looking as lovely as they did the evening I captured ‘Tide’s Conquest?’

    The good folks at the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays suggest we should reduce or eliminate the use of fertilizers on our properties. Excess fertilizer runoff is a main cause of algae bloom which consumes vital oxygen in the water which then kills the fish. No matter where we live, we can all do our part to keep our little bit of the natural world healthy.

Clicking on the image will open it in full screen


Location: Dewey Beach, DE 19971, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interconnection: The Way Things Fit Together

Image
  “ If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. ”  - Jim Richardson     Sometimes, the interesting stuff I'm looking for is an evening beach, a ship out at sea, an interesting cloud, and a glowing moon, all working in unison to inspire me to think about how everything works together. The moon influence the tides, affecting the ship, and also the weather, which influences the cloud, which all worked to produce this interesting composition for me to capture and share. I love the color and the light, but most especially, I love the way all the elements work together. What harmony we have when our connections are clear and valued. As I wrote in my post on March 19, 2022...      When I was much younger, there was a BBC television show called Connections starring the Sherlock Holmes of Science, Mr. James Burke, who had a way of making each episode exploring some aspect of science into a spellbinding detective story. It was fantastic how he traced th
Read more

Gatherer: A Perfect Partnership

Image
  “ I often wished I could capture and share the sudden moments of beauty that I would see around me."   - Caroline Mueller     It's been put many ways but we don't help our spouses as a nice-to-do, occasional thing. A marriage, or relationship, is best built as a complete partnership where both people, or birds in this case, work together selflessly for the good of the relationship or family. Nobody is doing a favor as both parties act without ego to help further the goals of the unit. As I wrote in my post on May 13, 2023...      Welcome back to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge where the graceful great white egrets roost and rule. Both male and female egrets help with nest building. This elegant bird posed perfectly for me with a small stick in their beak as they prepared to fly back towards the rookery. I watched the whole congregation for a long time work on their nests together and care for their hatchlings. What a magnificent display and a prime example of wh
Read more

Cow Branch Bend: Part 2 of 3 at Carolina Sandhills NWR

Image
“ Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. ”  - Matt Hardy     You probably know that President Theodore Roosevelt directed the creation of our amazing National Parks, but did you know he also founded the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903? On March 14 of that year, he established Pelican Island NWR along Florida's Atlantic Ocean coast.      Since then,  more than 560 wildlife refuges are in place across this country, and they're all managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Each NWR unit can be a wildlife refuge, a conservation area, a marine national monument, or a waterfowl production area. The different units help with conserving native species that depend on that land or water to thrive by using scientific management  methods. And I think they're another of our many national treasures.     As I wrote in my post on April 29, 2023...      Back in Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife R
Read more