Snakehead Fish located in Georgia

By: Ashley Jones, Bethany-Grace Bowers, Megan Leben, Elijah Jackson, Savannah King

What you Need to Know about Algal Blooms

By: Joiya Reid, Justin Bowles, Kamala Groomes, Ryan Kostensky, and Akaria Stewart 

Algal blooms are increasing across the United States. According to a study done by the Environmental Working Group, between 2010 and March 2019, there have been over 520 blooms reported in bodies of water across 47 states.

Those results also reported that in 2018, there were 255 toxic algal blooms reported compared to only three that were reported in 2010. Excessive algae blooms can have a harmful impact on the environment’s marine life causing fish die-offs and the unbalancing of the aquatic ecosystem.

Dr. Barry Rosen, professor at Florida Gulf Coast University in the water school, believes the larger number of blooms is partially due to the increasing warmth of the climate.

“As we see warming of water bodies, as we see ice melting earlier, they’re staying warmer longer, the blooms get to keep growing and growing. They have more opportunity,” said Rosen.

 Due to the increasing amount of these algal blooms, there are some things you should know about them.

What is an algal bloom:

Ryan Evans, a University of Georgia  extension agent, said in simple terms, an algal bloom is the rapid growth of algae or cyanobacteria on the water’s surface. Algae is known to typically grow in a body of water that is in dry and warmer conditions where there is a lot of nutrients.

Dr. Loren Mathews, a lecturer in the biology department, said there are typically two common forms of algae when it comes to algal blooms. There is phytoplankton, which are very small microorganisms that have plant-like behaviors such as photosynthesizing and macro algae that are usually more visible to the human eye. Mathews said collectively, these two types of algae are labeled as things that cause blooms.

What makes an algal bloom toxic:

To consider an algal bloom toxic largely depends on the kind of algae and toxins it produces. According to Frontiers, Microcystis aeruginosa is a cyanobacteria that produces a potent toxin typically found in most harmful algal blooms.

When it comes to toxicity of algae blooms, Evans said it can usually be recognized by a certain color.

“Typically, what you’re looking for are color changes from green, maybe they’re blue-green, which is a cyanobacteria presence, or reddish-brown which is kind of what looks like a paint over the water’s surface,” said Evans.

According to Landcare Research, cyanobacteria also often has a musky smell to it that resembles one of fish tanks. The site also notes that even though something may look to be cyanobacteria, it doesn't mean there’s a toxicity problem.

Precautions:

 Not all blooms are toxic, but it is safe to take precautions when there are signs of a harmful algae bloom.

Gary Burtle, University of Georgia water quality and fisheries expert, told The Golden Sun that humans and animals should not be able to swim in or drink water that is affected by an algal bloom. Toxin-producing algae can be extremely harmful to animals and if digested in a large enough quantity, liver damage to humans.

An example of this potential danger would be the family who lost their dog in August due to it ingesting a certain amount of water from Allatoona Lake that is believed to have been experiencing a toxic algae bloom.

There was also a study conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reported 61 people in Ohio, New York and Washington became ill because of exposure to blooms in freshwater lakes in 2009 and 2010.

If someone should come into contact with water in their local area that resembles these identifiers, they should contact their local health department to have the water tested.

Discovering the What, How and Why of Algal Blooms

By: Justin Bowles, Kamala Groomes, Ryan Kostensky, Akaria Stewart and Joiya Reid

How Georgia’s drought is impacting plant life

By Jorden Allen, Blakeley Bartee, Anthony Belinfante, Cabri Gordon, Michaela O'Larry and Kristen Siciliano

Statesboro-Georgia’s drought conditions have improved for the first time in weeks due to rain from Tropical Storm Nestor, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting—but the hot, dry weather can impact crops and other plant life in the state.

As of Oct. 25, 100% of the state is at least under abnormally dry conditions, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. Bulloch County has been under moderate to severe drought conditions for the last month.

It’s the first time since 2017 that Georgia has experienced such significant dryness, according to CNN, and the conditions can heavily impact crop plants.

How droughts affect crops

Marylou Machingura, an assistant professor of biology at Georgia Southern University, has studied drought tolerance in crop plants. She said water stress often comes with high temperatures. 

Because plants need water to cool themselves, they’re more susceptible to damage during droughts. Machingura said irrigation can help with crops, but predicting droughts is difficult.

“It’s kind of difficult to prepare, because you don’t know when the drought is going to hit,” Machingura said.

Caitlyn Grunert, graduate assistant for the GS Center for Sustainability, is studying public health with an emphasis in environmental science. She said farmers are experiencing smaller yields and shorter harvesting times due to the weather staying hot for a longer period of time.

“How farmers are trying to compete with this drought is by chemically adding nutrients, but this just leads to those plants to be resistant to diseases,” Grunert said.

Grunert said spontaneous rainfall doesn’t fix the drought problem. The dry, depleted soil can’t absorb the rain effectively, and the rain cause flash flooding, which isn’t good for sustainable farming.

Local impact

One Georgia farmer told GPB that his farm was only able to harvest 10 to 15 bushels of soybeans this year, despite normally yielding 60 bushels. Another Georgia farmer told WJBF News Channel 6 that he and other farmers have had to destroy some of their crops.

For Brooklet honey company owner Ed DiNello, the drought has not ruined an otherwise good season of beekeeping at The Bees’ Knees Beehives.

“More recent droughts haven't affected my hive because beekeepers are done pulling honey by late August. However, if we were still in the spring or summer, it would have absolutely affected us,” DiNello said.

Because bees need pollen and nectar to survive, they need blooming vegetation. DiNello said wild bees can die if heat and drought kills the plants.

DiNello’s bees, however, can survive droughts if they’re fed a solution of sugar water.

“As a beekeeper, I have the advantage of being able to feed my bees if I have to, but wild bee hives don't have a beekeeper to feed them during a drought,” DiNello said.

Georgia is experiencing other effects of the drought beyond agriculture as well. According to CNN, tree leaves are prematurely changing color, and the Georgia Forestry Department has received 270% more fire calls than the seasonal average.

Soon, the drought is likely to spread throughout the Southeast, according to the United States Drought Monitor.

https://soundcloud.com/anthony-belinfante/drought-audio

How the Snakehead Fish Snuck its Way Into Georgia

By: Ashley Jones, Bethany-Grace Bowers, Megan Leben, Elijah Jackson, Savannah King
The snakehead fish which is native to parts of Africa and Asia are currently being discovered all over the United States. One location they are being found is particularly close to home for Georgia residents, as they have now been discovered in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
The Snakehead has been labeled as an invasive species since they can cause ecological or economic harm to an environment where it is not native. 
According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, this is the first known appearance of the fish in Georgia. Snakeheads have been reported in 14 states in the United States in the past 15 years and in 6 states in 2019, despite the United States banning the import of the fish in 2002.
So, how did this non-native, invasive species end up in Georgia? “There are various reasons,” explained, Associate Professor at Georgia Southern University, Jamie Roberts. Even though the Snakehead is illegal to import, “ they’re a delicacy in Asia so people find ways to bring them over to eat, or they will keep them as pets and once they start growing they decide they no longer want them and release them,” Robert said.
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1BZYM3QMuNWweN084RY_gqTNgJIr29_m-" width="640" height="480"></iframe> 
This is a map of all the sightings of the snakehead fish in the United States in 2019 through October 26.
“It was something that I never expected to see in Georgia, ever,” the fisherman who caught the snakehead told 11Alive News. 
The impact the fish can have on wildlife in Georgia is relatively unknown, but they have created undesirable conditions in other states by invading habitats and competing for food with native species.
The biggest concern Roberts says right now that he knows of with them being in Georgia and a top predator is the Snakehead spreading into new watersheds which would put endangered fish species at risk for extinction.
“They are a predator that eats mostly other fish, but also amphibians, small animals, frogs, lizards,” Robinson said. “It will compete with our native species for food and habitat.”
The snakehead is a long, thin fish that can get up to three feet in length. It has a long dorsal fin that runs along their entire back. The fish also has a dark brown blotchy appearance and can breathe air while surviving in low oxygenated areas.
According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, it is “‘unlawful to import, transport, sell, transfer or possess any species of snakehead fish without a valid wild animal license.”
Some local fishermen are worried that people will catch a snakehead and release it back into the water, not knowing the damage that could do to the ecosystem.
“Even casual fishers need to be educated on what this fish looks like,” Corey New of Milledgeville said. “It could be destructive to the environment so everyone needs to know what the fish looks like and the proper procedures if they do catch one.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources also says that if someone believes that they’ve caught a snakehead fish they need to follow these guidelines:

• Make sure you don’t release it.
• Kill it immediately and freeze it.
• Take pictures of the fish up close if possible, the pictures should include close-ups of its mouth, fins, and tail.
• Keep track of where the fish was caught.
• And finally, report it to your regional Georgia DNR wildlife resources division fisheries office.

Using these guidelines can make sure that this invasive species doesn’t cause any harm to anyone or the environment around them.

For more information of the Snakehead FishClick Here

OPINION: Amazon fires were NO coincidence

By: Justin Bowles

The Waorani people of Pastaza are an indigenous tribe from the Ecuadorian Amazon and have lived in the Amazon Rainforest for generations. Though the fires were burning in Paraguay, miles away from Ecuador, there is a theory that the fires that left many parts of the Amazon desolate didn’t start on its own. 

The Waorani people were in a lawsuit concerning the selling of sacred Amazonian lands to oil companies. The lands were originally auctioned off and approved to do so by the Ecuadorian government. The lawsuit highlighted the gap between the government’s desire for oil revenues and the indigenous peoples’ internationally recognized rights to informed consent. 

The Court ultimately ruled that the tribe had not been properly consulted before the lands were sold off. 

This was huge victory for the tribe as it was seen not only a win for the tribe but also for the Amazon. The Ecuadorian government of course appealed the decision, but the original decision was still upheld. The decision made in July saw half a million acres of ancestral land protected from being mined for oil drilling by oil corporations. 

Coincidentally after this monumental victory, news began to break about the widespread fires in the Amazon.  To me, it raised obvious red flags.  The government fought tooth and nail to acquire the lands so for the verdict not to be in their favor, they were not happy.

 We have seen repeatedly in history where the government can find different loop holes or certain “coincidences” will happen that favors the government’s side. There are other reports and explanations for the start of the fires, but nothing effects a government more than its bottom-line. The government has lost millions in revenue that I’m sure doesn’t sit well with them.

VIDEO: Meet the People Trying to Stop the Tegu Lizard Invasion in Georgia

By: Ryan Kostensky, Kamala Groomes, Justin Bowels, Akaria Stewart and Joiya Reid

OPINION: Why are dogs getting sick from pond water?

I wanted to write my opinion column over a story I read not too long over dogs dying from swimming in toxic algae that was in pond water in North Carolina. The woman had three dogs that died after they went swimming in the pond. They started seizing and their health declined rapidly.

This story really grabbed my attention because I first saw a post about it on Facebook where a woman and her boyfriend took their dog swimming in a pond, and she was telling how her dog was so excited to go swimming. Once the dog got out of the pond, the woman said she started having seizures and throwing up. They took their dog to the vet right after, and the veterinarian told them the dog was already brain dead by the time they got there.

This touched my heart because I have a Chihuahua name LA, and I could not imagine having to go through something like that with him. The woman’s long post went viral of course, and it grabbed a lot of attention from news sites.

The blue algae that was in the water CNN said was common during the hot months because the bacteria can live in the warm freshwater. Algae are sometimes mixed in with the water and some of the plants that are in the water contaminating it. Once the dogs jumped in to go swimming, they ingested it and the bacteria was killing them quickly. CNN also reported that poisoning would only take about 15 minutes to kill dogs.

One thing that stands out for me is the woman who posted on Facebook said that she and her boyfriend went swimming along with their dog. What I’m not understanding is how did the dog get sick and not them? I’m guessing that maybe the bacteria were too much for the dog and not the people.

Something else that crossed my mind was I wonder how long the pond water was contaminated for. I also wonder how many dogs or other animals were poisoned by the pond water. It was reported that the water gets tested regularly, but I’m not sure I believe that.

Also, if someone did know the pond water was contaminated, why did they not post any kind of warning? I saw what the water looks like, and it looked displeasing. The water was cloudy, and it looked like it smelled bad.

My opinion about this story is honestly I would not take my dog swimming in water that I could not see my feet in. I know it was a hot day and there is nothing better than going swimming in cool water, but the thing is with water like that, a person doesn’t know anything about it or what is in it. Reading about this story, and then hearing about flesh-eating bacteria in Destin, Florida makes me want to just stick to bathwater.

I feel sad for the pet owners that lost their sweet fur babies to something like this. Having to see their animals suffering the way that they were and feel so helpless is a horrible feeling. In the meantime, I do hope that there is an advisory about the water so that other people can be aware of it, and not go through the same thing.

OPINION: Bringing Our Foods From Farms to Tables

Bringing Our Food From Farms to Tables

By: Amber Houston

After experiencing unfortunate events that have taken a toll on our environment, many of us find ourselves wondering exactly how we can personally contribute to helping the environment in our day-to-day lives. How can we as both a community and as individuals, reduce our carbon footprint? Let’s first break down what this is. Simply put, a carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted because of the consumption of fossil fuels by either individuals and/or groups.

Georgia restaurants, particularly in the Savannah area have just the answer we need. Farm-to-table restaurants has been popular in Savannah since 2007 and continues to be a popular bandwagon joined by many today. Some of the restaurants associated include Local11ten located on 1110 Bull Street and The Fat Radish which can be found on the corner of MLK Jr Blvd. Farm-to-table restaurants has made it their mission to largely reduce their carbon footprints by cutting out chunks of travel time that it normally takes to get the food we eat to grocery stores, then to restaurants to cook it. 

Isera Gray, a Bulloch County native and former farmer shared why he believes in the system so strongly.

“This strategy is allowing people to get fresh produce rather than going to the grocery store and buying out of season foods that have been shipped from places that are sometimes outside of the U.S. It’s quicker and safer food.”

According to www.gogreen.org some of the most important key benefits the farm-to-table program offers to our environment is reduction of food miles, more accessibility, fresher produce, protection of local land and wildlife and support of the local workforce. This program is of special importance not only because of these key points, but we can also point out that by getting fresh foods at a lower mileage rate, we are also avoiding the chronic wasting of food that happens often in grocery stores. Produce does not have a long shelf life so it gets thrown away when not purchased within a certain allotted time frame.

Farms-to-tables is great because it has been helping each of us reduce our carbon footprints for over 10 years now while at the same time providing safer food and even providing work for local food businesses.

VIDEO: Downtown Statesboro Holds 7th Annual Greenfest

OPINION: Trump’s environmental rollbacks are shortsighted and harmful

By Blakeley Bartee

The Trump Administration added yet another environmental regulation rollback to their collection in early September: a reversal of energy-efficiency standards for lightbulbs. These standards would have gone into effect in 2020 and gradually phased out incandescent and halogen bulbs in favor of LEDs.

This reversal is hardly surprising, considering the administration has rolled back some 85 environmental rules since 2016, according to The New York Times.

The rollbacks are broad — they include standards for air pollution, emissions, drilling, infrastructure, habitat protections, toxic substances and water pollution. Republicans claimed many of the policies affected by the rollbacks were bad for business.

In 2018, the administration changed the way the Endangered Species Act is applied. The law had previously saved the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly black bear from the edge of extinction, but Republicans said the act was cumbersome and restricted economic development, according to The New York Times.

When the Trump administration repealed clean water protections for streams and wetlands, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said the repeal would mean “farmers, property owners and businesses will spend less time and money determining whether they need a federal permit and more time building infrastructure,” according to the New York Times.

Clearly, environmental health is not a priority in the Trump administration, but the rollbacks reveal a larger issue: the Trump administration and the Republican Party are actively against protecting the environment, especially when it does not benefit business.

Perhaps the regulations were cumbersome — just like how cumbersome life will be for everyone when we suffer the inevitable consequences of actively damaging the environment for the sake of business growth and personal comfort.

Climate change is here. The oceans are getting hotter, high-tide floods are increasing along with the sea level, and the temperature is rising too fast for animal evolution to keep up.

The Trump administration’s actions against environmental protections are foolish and shortsighted. When human lives are hurt by climate change, the businesses will go down with them.

OPINION: Democratic Candidate Elizabeth Warren Proposes Environmental Plan

By Michaela O'Larry 

Amidst the presidential election, candidate Elizabeth Warren has created environmental policies during her campaign to appeal to future voters that are calling for awareness.

With multiple candidates talking about the environment, the question is why is Warren making waves right now. According to the Guardian, which was the first to receive the plans, stated, “it references a number of predominantly minority communities suffering from severe pollution.” 

With the highly extensive policies, the candidate tackles the environmental injustice that has been seen in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey, promising $3 trillion to go towards the green shift. The bold expense is meet with plans of requiring companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emission or community pollution and more stable jobs in renewable energy.

Warren understands that there is an injustice that has gone back decades that must be remedy with decisions to go after heavily protected companies that are creating harm. Seeing that the public awareness is not enough, the politician is creating policies with the people voices in mind to be in the forefront of the campaign.

In the plan, she also includes President Donald Trump’s usual demographic of voters of coal miners and oil rig workers the promise of investing in their future of training to work in renewable energy jobs. 

“Improving transparency about corporate fossil fuel dependence, would accelerate the transition to clean energy”, said Warren.

Striving to have an inclusive conversation will give the workers that are questioning their vote during this election the ability to remember that they are not forgotten. The promise of a job the next day will give individuals the ease that they are wanting.

It’s commendable to see Warren is trying to go between the parties and include voters in a political climate that is so divisive. It will set her apart from democratic candidates that just want to care for one demographic even though the world needs saving with everyone’s help. 

OPINION: Save Our Marine Life

by: Cabri Gordon

Imagine someone coming into your home uninvited and leaving behind their dirty trash and filth. How would this make you feel?

For the majority of us, we’d be offended, annoyed and above all else, just plain angry.

Why would an uninvited house guest feel the need to leave trash in someone else’s home?

This is a question I ask myself every time I witness someone litter.

According to Litter, It Costs You, 9 billion tons of litter ends up in the ocean every year. To put this number into perspective, the entire world population is only 7.7 billion. Crazy, right?

The amount of litter accumulating over time is more than the amount of trash produced per year.This is because people have a tendency to throw things anywhere they please instead of in trash cans.

All too often people fail to take into consideration where their litter may end up. This is one of the main reasons why populations of marine life are decreasing each year.

According to the EPA, “it is estimated that about 80% of marine debris originates as land-based trash and the remaining 20% is attributed to at-sea intentional or accidental disposal or loss of goods and waste.”

Nearly one hundred percent of the amount of waste found in the ocean came from trash littered on land. With that being said, whenever we hear about the amount of sea life that is dying, let’s take a step back and see how our actions may be causing the problem.

However, with organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency and Keep America Beautiful, more action is being done to help prevent littering.

This can start with decreasing the amount of trash you produce. The EPA gives tips on what you can do to help decrease your trash footprint.

For example, repairing the items you break or buying longer-lasting products would have a impact on our environment. Even simple tasks such as making sure trash cans are secured properly can make a big difference in litter buildup.

Many people fail to see how their actions can affect change, but it has to start with one person.

Be that first person. Stop littering and keep our marine babies in mind whenever you have the urge to throw something on the ground.

Change can start with you.

OPINION: Honey Bees Are Hogging The Spotlight

By Samuel Rivers

In the past several years, few environmental causes have quite achieved the popularity and staying power as that of the honey bee's endangerment. From art that anthropomorphize bees to make them more relatable to various organizations developing programs to spread awareness about them, the endangerment to the honey bee populations is an incredibly bipartisan that receives nearly constant attention.

This is far from a bad thing, of course. Politicians are much less scared to enact laws for causes that they know everyone supports, and organizations can far more easily find funding for popular issues.

So what is my issue with the honey bee's popularity, then? Well, my main problem lies in the fact that, while honey bees are being seen as this adorable busy-body that the world depends on for pollination (and, to be fair, they are), other species that face similar endangerment see much less popularity and thus less awareness raised for them.

Species such as the gopher tortoise (which I will use as my primary example less popular endangered species for the rest of this article) have a much more difficult time gaining the awareness and popularity that the honey bee does, despite being just as or even more so endangered, and this could be for various reasons, not the least of which being the significance they hold to the environment.

For example, there is a significant difference in the importance that the gopher tortoise and the honey bee have in their ecosystems. Gopher tortoises are considered important largely because they dig burrows that various other animals often end up living in. This is important for those animals, but not so much to humans. Honey bees, however, are extremely important pollinators throughout the world. Losing them would have a significant impact on agriculture everywhere, and thus effect nearly everything.

Please don't mistake me as having some sort of hatred toward the honey bees. I hope they continue to receive the attention and help that they need to save them from endangerment. However, I think the spotlight that the honey bee has can be shared a little with lesser known endangered species. While they may not hold the fate of the entire world in their hands, creatures such as the gopher tortoise would still be quite missed within their ecosystems were they to die out.

OPINION: Is Recycling the Solution or the Problem?

Recycling in Statesboro

By: Ashley Jones 



Statesboro- Recycling has always been known as the most prevalent way to recycling. At 

least to those who don’t know much about the environment and ways to improve it. I know 

because I was once one of those people but after doing my own research I found that 

recycling in my opinion doesn’t help the environment as much as we think it does. What 

actually helps to improve the world around us is reusing the the plastics, paper, and what 

some of us may call waste. I found this out after doing an in depth report on recycling. I 

decided to do an environmental story on recycling because I was always taught in my earlier 

years of life to do recycle. Like most other elementary students, recycling was the first way I 

was taught to help better our environment and like most other students after elementary 

school, I never heard anything else about the topic. I was never taught anything else about 

the topic, until I entered this class. The first assignment we had to do in Dr. Riley’s class was 

a story on something related to helping better the environment, and like most students my 

group decided to focus on recycling. So for our story we spoke to the Center of 

Sustainability program coordinator, Cami Sockow. That’s when I learned about the 

importance of reusing. How many times have you drank a bottle of water or any liquid 

substance and thrown it away without ever thinking about where that empty bottle was 

going. According to Sockow, people could help improve the environment just by using that 

bottle again as a water bottle. It’s that simple, even recycling can be more complicated than 

reusing but doesn’t help the environment as much. When I came to Georgia Southern, I 

noticed a trend of students saving the liquor bottles they bought after consuming what was 

in the bottle and keeping the bottle as trophies to help add a décor to their apartments. I 

myself hopped on liquor trophy trend when I was old enough to purchase alcohol. Many of 

didn’t even know that we were on the first step of helping the environment, now we just 

need to take the extra step and actually reuse those bottles to help finish out a good deed 

for the earth.