The St. Johns River Water Management District is one of five Florida water management districts responsible for managing groundwater and surface water resources in an 18-county region in northeast and east-central Florida. The District covers 12,283 square miles, or 23 percent of Florida. District offices are located in Palatka (headquarters), Jacksonville, Apopka and Palm Bay. Established in 1972 by Florida law as independent special districts, the districts were empowered by the electorate in 1976 to assess ad valorem taxes to fund the management of the state's water resources and related land resources to benefit people and the environment. The District's work focuses on its core missions - water supply, water quality, natural systems, and flood protection. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has general supervisory authority over the water management districts.
Everyone is complaining that they are killing Lake Apopka again by spraying. And the first thing that happens is that they reward the person who is responsible for the spraying. I died laughing.
Question: Wouldn't using the harvested shad as crab and crayfish bait return the nutrients to the water? Is there a strategy or regulation making sure the use of harvested shad as bait is restricted to low-nutrient waters, including the waters from which shad were harvested?
The vast majority of the rough fish harvested from Lake Apopka and Lake George are shipped to Louisiana for crayfish food, and only a very small percentage are used in Florida for crab bait. The crayfish and crabs consume the entire rough fish using the fish bodies for nutrition to grow, so very little of the nutrients in the fish bodies are released into the water.
Great video. It's my neck of the woods as I routinly fish the St Johns between Lake Beresford and Lake Harney. A lot have happened since this was filmed though...
Thank you for your interest in Water's Journey: The River Returns. The sinkholes and springs shown in the video can be found in central Florida (Orlando area). Scenes of the St. Johns River were photographed along the entire length of the river, from its headwaters in Indian River and Brevard counties, Florida, to its mouth at Mayport.
