Steve Shimp
President, Owens Ames Kimball
Commercial developer

Normally after Steve Shimp's boat sits in the water for six weeks, he has to scrape off barnacles from the bottom. Now he's scraping off slime. Nothing is growing in the Caloosahatchee River where he lives.

"The grass beds are gone all the way down to Sanibel Harbour Resort," he says. “There's nothing there. It's just frightening."

In the last year, Steve has seen multiple algae blooms of bright green floating on top of the river at times of high water discharge from Lake Okeechobee. It’s the first time he's seen that in Southwest Florida. It’s impacted the marine life. Normally, he sees the porpoises chase the mullet; but he hasn't seen a porpoise, and he hasn’t seen a mullet. They aren’t there. His son, an avid fisherman, has stopped fishing. Yet, when he’s boating, Steve sees areas out of the river flow as normal. The difference to him is blatant.

He should know. Steve has lived on the water for the past 10 years and has boated on the Caloosahatchee River for the last 15. He sees many alarming changes, one of which is the manatees. The loss of grasses is forcing them to travel farther for food, and he predicts they're going to get hit by boats. Simply put, the manatees are unable to stay in their normal zones where there’s less boating traffic, because they can’t eat there.

This is just one example of the trickle-down effect he sees taking shape. And every little piece hurts. Everyone knows people who are being impacted by the changes. The whole backwater charter fishing business is really being kicked because they have less area in which to work. This, in turn, impacts hotels that typically house fishermen. Crabbers have moved on too.

Yet, despite the dire consequences he sees all around him, Steve believes there’s an answer. He knows it will take teamwork, persistence and dedication to make environmentally sound changes.

"We have a shot, no doubt. Mother nature is very forgiving."