Letters to the Editor

Loved the Summer 2011 issue of Bay Soundings, particularly the section "The Truth about Night Lights" (a pet peeve). It mentions "studies now suggest that light pollution around lakes and shores prevent zooplankton from eating surface algae, potentially boosting the algal blooms that kill off fish and lower water quality." I'd love to read the studies. Are they available?

Mary Judge,
Barnegat Bay Partnership, Ocean County College, NJ

---

Dear Ms. Tidmore,

Your article entitled "Unintended Consequences" struck a responsive note with me especially "the truth about night lights."

I am a beef cattle rancher (retired) living in Sarasota County for over 60 years. I have lived and worked with nature while producing cattle and timber.

Since the advent of I-75 there has not been a dark or quiet night in East Sarasota County. The interchange at Toledo Blade is six plus miles from our headquarters. The cluster of very tall night lights at the interchange illuminates the entire area (many thousand acres of mostly undisturbed native lands) and the noise is constant.

I have often wondered what the long-term consequences of this situation would be on the fauna which resides here. Any existing scientific studies on the subject would be appreciated.

I can offer no solution to the problem, however it would be very helpful if the DOT could somehow limit the lighted to the designated area and require more stringent muffling of vehicles.

Thank you for your contributions to a better and more sustainable Florida.

B.T. "Buster" Longino

We respond:

Thanks so much for asking! We're planning a follow-up story on light pollution for 2012.

Marianne V. Moore, Stephanie M. Pierce, Hannah M. Walsh, Siri K. Kvalvik and Julie D. Lim (2000). "Urban
light pollution alters the diel vertical migration of Daphnia" (PDF). The International Society of Limnology online
at http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/Faculty/Mmoore/Content/Moore_2000.pdf

Much more can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution#cite_note-51 specifically the section on the disruption of ecosystems.

Dear editor,

I read your article on "Unintended Consequences" and that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I had been experiencing the same feeling every time I see a new cell phone tower.

I do not know if it is my imagination or not but cell phone towers are appearing in the horizon where they have never been before and at an alarming increase in numbers. They seem to appear overnight (as I have never experienced one going up). My friends tell me that I must not have noticed them before, or we need them so there will not be any dead spots in phone reception...

I am a person who likes to look at nature, at the sky and I am always taking pictures. The places where I have been seeing the new towers are places I go often and would notice a giant tower right in my view of the sky, no matter how they try to disguise them. I am beginning to notice the disconnect others really are having with Mother Nature.

Keep writing the Bay Soundings as it may inspire and spark more people to be aware, and eventually more connected to Mother Nature.

Joyce Maxwell, Tampa