Dead Man’s Island
Malene Mederios
We are in our seventh year of monitoring. We created five methods of defense to repair and stop the erosion on Phase 4 of the project where the isthmus has breached through and caused havoc on theexisting living shorelines and threatened our juncus saltmarsh. We completed our planting in phase 3 of moving over 20,000 cubic yards of sand to rebuild point and repair the breached isthmus. Weplanted over 20,000 plants! We started our fourth pilot project on restoring our dunes which are getting destroyed by recreational users walking and sliding down the dunes. Please help uspreserve this unique coastal area inside Pensacola Bay.
We are doing great things early in 2017 thanks to the ACOE Estuary Habitat Restoration Program! We have moved over 16,000 cubic yards of beneficial use of dredged material to createour living shorelines projects and will be planting over 50,000 shoreline stabilization plants!
Heather Reed, Marine Biologist and Restoration Project Manager with Ecological Consulting Services Inc.(www.ecoconsutlingservices.com), for the City of Gulf Breeze Deadman's Island Restoration Project, of Gulf Breeze Florida. Please write in our guestbook or Like us at www.facebook.com/deadmansisland
The purpose of the new Ecosystems reefs from past studies show if the reef has no oyster settlement or has a die- off from an environmental stressor,the reefs are still structurally sound and will continue to recruit oysters once the oyster population is established in the bay.
Interestingly, 2015 was the first year the entire ecosystem has shown excellent growth and ecological balance. In 2015, there hasbeen 80% more settlement in oyster spat in all reefs than any previous year. The new Ecosystems reefs obtained 90% settlement within the first three months of placement. The majority ofmonitoring data from this report does not reflect the new breakwaters placed in August 2015. The 2015 summer monitoring reflects the Ecosystems placed in 2011.
The Deep Water Horizon oil spill (BP Oil Spill) deeply affected the restoration project and the years of hard work by the community. Our fish completely died off and the oysters, whichformed and cemented the reef, completely died off in 2011. As shown on the slide above, our rebar oyster reefs have a 70% loss of wave attenuation since the oil spill of 2010.
The pre-2010 oyster reef died off about six months after the spill, and the entire reef, decimated in 2011. The new design of a reef continued the project's breakwater footprint. These reefsare called Ecosystems.
It took two years to get a good population of beneficial reef fish and settlement of small oysters on the new Ecosystems reefs. The 2014 monitoring, shows oyster growth on the post oil spillreefs but are not market-sized oysters. There are still no oysters on the pre-2010 reefs. The reef is completely useless with a 70% loss of breakwater. Since there were no live oysters tobond the shells within the bags, the shells tumbled and fell through the bags, lessening the wave attenuation for the breakwater. This loss has caused our newly placed 16,000 cubic yards oftransported sand, to shift and wash away from the ongoing wave action. Thousands of plants were washed away, and once again we are losing our shoreline to erosion. Years of community restoration andvery rare grant funding of 1.2 million is lost due to the oil spill. The City of Gulf Breeze has applied for the early restoration funding and RESTORE funding. This project IS the ONLYenvironmental restoration project in Pensacola Bay affected by the oil spill and the proof shows in the pictures. There was much documentation of oil in Pensacola Bay.
Catholic high students once again joined together to clean up, map and stabilize the shoreline at Deadman's Island. Students were education about the oyster's ability to settle and grow onthe reef system and begin to create an flourishing ecosystem by attracting fish, crabs and other marine organisms to create an established nursery and habit- all while protecting the shoreline ofDeadman's Island. Students learned the value of shoreline stabilization and had to opportunity to map from reference point the shoreline change. These are valuable educational hands onexperiences which help our future generations create more efficient and better ways to save our coastal shoreline and protect our environment.
Jack Joyner, now an honored Eagle Scout, took on the pioneering of the first kiosks. Jack researched and dedicated many hours learning and experimenting on mold making, resin curing, and takinggreat advantage of the use of unexpected situations in the process. He guided his troop in the tasks of creating, setting up and the underwater deployment of these kiosks. The smallgrants division of the State of Florida Historic Preservation funded $5000 for the first two historic cultural kiosks. We are seeking additional funding for the other six permitted kiosks. As funding becomes available, the kiosk will feature much information of the environmental resources, aquatic marine organisms, the restoration efforts, historic shipwrecks found only atDeadman's Island. If you would like to donate and have your logo placed inside these forever kiosks. Please contact Heather Reed, Deadman's Island restoration project manager or the City ofGulf Breeze. 850-417-7008 or hr...@ecologicalconsultingservices.com
I need a few volunteer boats and boat drivers to pick up the volunteers at 8:45 and I need a boat driver for the pontoon boat around 7:30 to haul plants and any supplies. Please call or text theProject Manager, Heather Reed to confirm if you can assist with the boats.
Another gorgeous day in Gig Harbor. The sun in shining at 73 degrees, I have just been on a boat, and have been hanging out on Cutt's Island. It is a favorite place to go for seafaring folk, and it also proved to be an interesting location for Natural History as well! We set out from Wollochet Bay via boat and drove for approx. 30 minutes before arriving at our destination. The cool breeze whisking past us was the perfect compliment to the warm rays of the sun. When we anchored the boat near the sand bar of Cutt's Island State Park, which faces Northeast. From here, you get a scenic vista of the Olympic Mountain range, and this radiant section of Puget Sound.
Looking into the water from the boat, I saw a 6 inch wide Pacific Rock Crab (Cancer productus) scuttling across some rocks. I jumped out of the boat into the water and waded to shore. The makeup of the spit oriented to the northeast of the island is mainly made up of broken calcium carbonate seashells that have been bleached white by the sun. These shells sit upon a mixture of sand and small rocks. When the tide is low, it is possible to wade along the spit for around 1/4 mile to the shore of Raft Island. I have never done this, but I have seen people attempt it. I have also seen deep-hulled watercraft attempt to drive over the spit unknowingly. If the tide is low, it can be an interesting sight to see, as they literally do not know what is happening to their boats most of the time! There should probably be a warning sign out there now that I think of it.
Cutts island is the shape of an avocado more or less, and southwest of the spit there is a constantly eroding landmass that sits at least 15m above the shore of the island. It is said that with rising sea levels, it will surely erode entirely. Fortunately, that has not happened yet, and Cutt's Island is still home to a variety of different plants and animals.
The plant life is very similar to the surrounding landmasses, with a variety of trees, including Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), Madrone (Arbutus menziesii), Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum), Alder (Alnus), and Douglas Fir (Pseudosuga menziesii). The local legend surrounding the island was that the Native Americans that used to inhabit the surrounding land would hang their dead in the trees of Cutt's Island in order to release their spirits with greater east. Thus, the island is colloquially known as Dead Man's Island. It would be interesting to learn more about the legend from a person that knows the Puget Sound Native history.
In addition to the trees, the island sports an immense amount of Western Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) as a child. It is almost everywhere, so it is a good idea to not stray from the paths atop the island bluff. There are many mosses, grasses, and Sword Ferns (Polystichum munitum) there as well. I was able to identify one variety of liverwort as well, the Tree-Ruffle Liverwort (Porella navicularis) and a variety of Horsetail, the Northern Scouring-Rush (Equisetum hyemale).
Along the beach I saw a man digging for Geoducks (Panopea generosa) using a 50 gallon steel drum with its bottoms cut out. He would lodge the bucket around the Geoduck so an influx of water would not aid it in its attempt at escape as he dug it out. To be honest I am not sure if it is legal to hunt Geoducks or if there is a season, but he said that they are delicious!
Only 40 miles from London, this uninhabited spot, rich in macabre history, is home to human remains from centuries past, a dark testament to its previous use as a burial site for convicts who perished due to infectious diseases aboard 'prison ships' over two centuries ago.
You'll find this eerie mudbank at The Swale's mouth, just off the River Medway, facing Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppy, Kent. However, don't plan a trip anytime soon, as entry to the island is forbidden, though this is down more to it being a breeding and nesting ground for birds.
The island bears no trace of human habitation, except, that is, for the visible skeletal remains and wooden coffins once entombed six feet under but now visible due to coastal erosion. The land is owned by Natural England and occupied by two individual leaseholders, states the BBC.
Scientifically, the island is significant. It is recognised globally under the Ramsar convention and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 2017, a rare opportunity to venture into this forgotten place was extended to the BBC's Inside Out team.
c80f0f1006