Environmental experts and advocates on the front lines of water quality, conservation and scientific research gathered Wednesday to deliver a clear message: The Suncoast’s most pressing environmental challenges are often overlooked and deserve more attention.
The panel, organized by Suncoast Searchlight in collaboration with the Science and Environment Council, aimed to highlight the gap between what experts are seeing on the ground and what makes it into the news — and how that gap might be closed.
The event drew nearly 90 attendees Wednesday to the Bayfront Community Center at The Bay Park and coincided with both the Giving Challenge and the launch of EcoBeat, a new tool designed by the Science and Environment Council to help journalists better cover environmental issues. The online, searchable hub offers story ideas, data and access to experts. It’s part of an effort to give reporters the context and resources they often lack as newsroom staffs shrink.
“Journalists don’t need more press releases. They need tools, they need context, they need access,” said Jennifer Shafer, co-executive director of the council. “We’re trying to make environmental reporting faster, better and more connected.”
The discussion — called “Beneath the Surface: The Environmental Stories Shaping our Community” — was part of Suncoast Searchlight’s ongoing community engagement series, sponsored by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
What emerged was a portrait of a region facing mounting, interconnected pressures — the growing presence of microplastics in marine life, water resources stretched thin, ecosystems fragmented over time and growth patterns that continue to alter the landscape in ways that are not always fully understood.
A warning beneath the surface
One example is what’s happening in Sarasota Bay.
Researchers have found microplastics in 100% of breath samples collected from local dolphins, along with widespread presence in their digestive systems. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles formed as larger materials break down. They can accumulate in living organisms and carry chemicals that may pose risks to both wildlife and human health.
Because dolphins share the same environment and food sources as humans, they are often seen as a warning sign of broader public health risks.
Microplastics “are solidly in the dolphins; they’re probably solidly in us as well,” said Randy Wells, director of the Dolphin Research Program, a nonprofit organization focused on dolphin research, conservation and the health of marine environments.
It’s not just microplastics infiltrating the environment. Panelists also pointed to PFAS — a group of man-made chemicals used in everything from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam — that have been detected in water supplies across the country and are known for their persistence in the environment and the human body.
Jonathan Thaxton, a longtime environmental advocate and director of policy and advocacy at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, said the full scope of the problem may not yet be visible. Many PFAS compounds take years or even decades to break down and make their way into water systems, meaning current levels may reflect past use — not what’s still to come.
At the same time, he noted, global plastic production has surged from about 80 million metric tons in 1960 to more than 300 million today, raising concerns about how much more contamination could enter the environment in the years ahead.
“The amount of these PFAS in the water today is nothing compared to what it’s going to be,” Thaxton said.
Water under strain
But contamination is only part of the picture. The region’s water supply itself is under increasing strain, the result of long-term growth, rising demand and limited freshwater resources.
That pressure is becoming more visible now.
Just last month, the Southwest Florida Water Management District declared a Modified Phase III “Extreme” water shortage that remains in effect, restricting outdoor watering to once a week for all residents — including those using private wells — and limiting it to late-night and early-morning hours.
Abbey Tyrna, executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper, said many residents are either unaware the region is in a water shortage or don’t fully grasp its severity — not just in terms of the rules, but what those conditions actually reflect.
“We’re in extreme drought,” she said, noting the region is more than a foot behind in rainfall and that water tables are low.
She pointed to the region’s ponds and roadside ditches as a visible indicator of the problem.
“If you don’t see water in those ponds and ditches, that’s our water level,” she said.
At the same time, she said some residents continue to water outside the limits, and there is little active enforcement to ensure compliance.
“There’s no water cop,” she said.
Change that adds up
The disconnect between what’s happening in the environment and what people understand about it is part of a larger, interconnected problem, panelists said. That’s because most of the region’s biggest environmental challenges are not driven by a single decision, but by the cumulative effect of many — small changes that, over time, can weaken entire systems.
Shafer, of the Science and Environment Council, pointed to what she described as the “fragmentation” of natural landscapes — the gradual breaking apart of once-connected systems into smaller, isolated pieces.
That kind of change can be difficult to capture in daily news coverage, which tends to focus on individual events rather than long-term trends, she noted.
Shafer said journalists can play a key role by helping the public see those connections — placing individual decisions in the broader context of the region’s environmental systems.
“Every story really,” she said, “needs to have the context of the ecological system that’s all around us.”
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
