WATERSHEDPart 5: Solutions
By Ellen Bausback
Twelve years after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, bottlenose dolphins continue to face heart and lung conditions, low reproductive success and other devastating health impacts. But the disaster also led to unprecedented innovations and insights in dolphin science. Researchers say that investing in science before the next emergency will better prepare us for inevitable future pollution threats to dolphins — and ourselves.
By Katie Delk
Florida’s estuaries once teemed with clams, oysters and other bivalves that helped keep waters clean and seagrasses healthy. By the mid-20th century, only a fraction of the state’s vast shellfish beds and reefs remained. Now, citizens, fishers and scientists are working across the coasts to restore nature’s best pollution filters. Can a small clam make a big difference in serious water pollution hotspots like the Indian River Lagoon?