Biscayne Bay Watershed Management - Oct 02, 2026

Okay, good morning. We're going to start on time, so I'm going to call the roll, please. Commissioner Mickey Steinberg. Mayor Vince Lago. Commissioner Milian Orbis. Commissioner Alex Fernandez. Mayor Tim Mirbott. Rachel Streitfeld. Mayor Rachel Streitfeld. Dr. Jed Redwine. Sarah Hopson. Dr. John Stieglitz. Sam Acursio. Yannick Sederberg. Spencer Crowley. Kevin Kniff. Dave Dobler. Julissa Kepner. Gerald McGinley. Jerry Menendez. Jim Murley. And Roberto Torres. Okay, yes, we have quorum, Madam Chair. Excellent. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board Meeting, October 2nd. Before we begin, I want to welcome all of you, but I also want to quickly just take a moment, because we have a couple members who, well, I'm sure Mayor Mirbott will be on his way shortly, but Roberto Torres, I know this is your last meeting, and we want to thank you for all of your participation over the years, and we know we'll still continue working closely. Yes, please. First, thank you for allowing me to be part of this. This has been a real honor and privilege to take part in these meetings, and I also want to thank all the members of the board, all the supporting staff, and all the members of the public who participate in these meetings for your dedication to protect and preserve our precious bay. As someone who grew up on the bay and oftentimes in it, I can really appreciate the work that all you guys are doing, so thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, your love for the bay definitely shines through. I'm just looking for the speaker cards. I have one. I know two others were given to me, but I don't know where they were placed. I'll call with the one I have in front of me. Laura Reynolds, please come up. You have two minutes as we begin the reasonable opportunity to be heard. I'm here last, so I figured I wouldn't be first. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. Laura Reynolds representing the Hold the Line Coalition. So a couple of things. First is it has been a year since the reorganization of DERM, and in that process there was a resolution that stated that there would be an administrative order to follow to come out to correct some of those concerns and issues about permitting. That still hasn't happened, and so I would ask this board to try to elevate that issue and resolve it so that it's clear, you know, the role of DERM and how they're participating in permitting. It's been a full year since that has occurred. Two, I wanted to thank you, Commissioner Steinberg, for passing the wetlands study. Of course, it was unfortunate that the Kelly Tractor application passed. We lost hundreds of acres of wetlands, and this board, of course, recommended to the Board of County Commissioners to take several actions on wetlands protection, strengthening those protections that still have not been realized, so I would ask you to consider sending that again and trying to put a package forward that, in addition to a study, takes on more. The other thing I would recommend is that in this legislative session that we work to find funding specifically to buy land that is needed for restoration. As we go into this new rapid protocol that the Army Corps of Engineers has set forward, if there's an obstacle in the way for Everglades restoration, it just won't get done. It will sit on a shelf. So if we don't own the land, if we don't make it easy, we will not see restoration activities happening here in Dade County. So it is imperative that in our next legislative session that we try to find funding for that. Thank you. All right, our next speaker, DJ, I apologize ahead of time, but Milo Dozenek. I always feel bad when you'll have to try and say that last name. So good morning, Commissioner Steinberg, members of the board. My name is DJ Modozenek. I'm here today on behalf of Tropical Audubon Society, and I am here to talk about mangrove island. So as many of you are familiar, Tropical Audubon Society for over two years now has been monitoring mangrove island to document the bird species that utilize the island both as a roost and as a nesting rookery. We've documented 18 species so far that utilize the island, and it is not uncommon to have thousands of individual birds present in a single survey. We've also found that at least three state-threatened species utilize the island. We routinely see multiple state-threatened little blue and tricolored herons on the island. Now, in exciting news, we actually altered our survey strategy, which has allowed us to have better visibility of the interior of the island. As a result, we've been able to document the nesting more efficiently. We've documented up to seven species of birds that utilize the island for nesting, indicating that this is not just an important roost, but it's a critically important urban rookery. Perhaps most excitingly, we've discovered the nesting of a state-threatened tricolored heron on the island, with at least one living chick in the nest. All this being said, we still document disturbances on the island. We see boats and jet skis whizzing by the area, despite it being within a slow-speed manatee protection zone. We also regularly find birds deceased, tangled and dead in fishing line on the island. This is a grim reminder that Mangrove Island and its ecological splendor need additional protections. So while there is a lot more work that needs to be done, I wanted to end today on a positive note. And for that, I need to thank Griffin Alexander and the staff at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve for deploying eight educational buoys around the perimeter of the island. We hope that these buoys will raise awareness, engage the community, and educate recreationalists on the importance of Mangrove Island. Thank you for your time. Thank you, and our next speaker is Valeria Donets. I'm much shorter. Good morning, Chair Steinberg and members of the board. My name is Valeria Donets, and I'm speaking today on behalf of Friends of Biscayne Bay. I want to raise a few issues that I believe should be brought before this board in the future, because their approvals and potential impact affect watershed and the cumulative pressure facing Biscayne Bay. It may be too late for Kelly Tractor, but this board could request that all future items related to watershed come to this board first. For example, this board should be recommending actions to the board of county commissioners on complicated projects that impact the watershed, such as the Kelly Tractor application or the Sequarium application. Why not schedule a meeting prior to any final action on this aquarium and have presentations from the county staff working on this item, and the applicant allowing for a public discussion on this important issue. One thing that could be discussed is boating size and capacity as we face continuous pressures to include more and larger vessels in the bay. We need guidance on this. We have recently seen approvals for expansion of marina facilities in Unfauling Bay, along with the Venetian marina expansion. Well, three additional major proposals are being considered on Virginia Key right now. These decisions are occurring individually, but their impact on Biscayne Bay are cumulative. Before we continue adding substantial new vessel capacity, we should understand what the bay and its individual basins can sustainably accommodate, while protecting water quality, seagrass, and other benthic resources, wildlife navigation, and existing recreational uses. We ask that this board make a motion to require that all watershed-related applications and decisions come before this board for recommendations, and consider recommending a boat carrying capacity study, and ensure that the recent wetland study that Commissioner Steinberg championed at the last BCC meeting gets funded and off the ground as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Reasonable opportunity. Do we have any other speakers before we close? All right, please come up. It's fine. Come up, state your name. Thank you. Good morning, all. Steven Leidner, 1131, O2 Street, Bay Harbor Islands. Just a couple points. My understanding is that agriculture is not under the purview of the Reasonable Assurance Plan. I haven't heard it discussed by this board in terms of its impacts on our bay, in terms of nutrients, pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals that are used in agriculture that are toxic to our bay. So there are cost share programs and best management practices that you guys can oversee and hopefully get farmers to cooperate with. Is this breaking up? It's not me. So looking at agriculture and its impacts on our bay, we know they're significant. The other point I'd like to bring up is our tree canopy. We know that our trees are critical infrastructure in terms of filtering our stormwater and mitigating the stormwater that goes into the bay. There are municipalities that are having a negative impact on our tree canopy. The county has not moved forward with its canopy protection plan because of Senate Bill 180, but there are mechanisms for greater enforcement to protect our canopy. And again, I'd ask that this committee look at protecting our canopy, understanding its impacts on our bay. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachel Silverstein. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Rachel Silverstein. My address is exempt. I am the CEO and water keeper of Miami Waterkeeper. I wanted to quickly chat about two things today. One is that we are rapidly coming up on the one year anniversary of the reorganization of Durham and RER and pulling permitting out of the environmental regulatory management division and giving it over to the building department. And we still don't have an administrative order that is explaining to the public or to the county internally either how this should be organized. And so this is something that we have been working with the mayor and her team on. But I just wanted to flag because I know that this board had also wanted a report on that reorganization that it has been almost a year as of, I think, next week. The other thing that I'd like to speak about today is the environmentally endangered lands program. And we are very pleased that the 20 million funding request was fulfilled in the budget this year. Thank you, commissioner. However, next year, that program, which is critically important for the future of the county, it protects some of our most special places. It protects open land for resiliency purposes or drinking water and really is forward looking because there's so much pressure on a lot of these open places to get developed. We are concerned that next year it is currently zeroed out in the budget. So it would be interesting to have this board take a deep dive into potential funding sources for EEL, how to make that program more sustainable into the future. In 1990, a referendum was passed that funded it with a two-year ad valorem tax that raised $90 million. They've purchased land with that money, over 28,000 acres, and now they need to manage all of that property and acquire new property. And so we really need to speed that process along with additional funding sources. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. At this point, anybody else wish to speak? Seeing none, reasonable opportunity is now closed. And we're going to move into the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion? Thank you. Do I have a second? All right. Seeing a motion, a second. All in favor? Show it. All right. Next, we have our first item, and we have our wonderful county attorney with us, Jess McCarty, who is going to be presenting a legislative session and 2027 upcoming session. I guess update discussion. The floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk about a brief recap of last session and then a preview of the 2027 session. I would just start by saying, obviously, we're going to see a reset. We're going to have a new governor, a new Senate president, a new House speaker. Those elections, as we all know, are next month. In the Senate, we're likely to have Jim Boyd from over in Bradenton as the new Senate president. And in the House, we're going to have Sam Garrison from Fleming Island up towards Jacksonville as our new House speaker. I would anticipate the county commission approving our legislative package for the county soon so that we're ready to ramp up even before we get to the November elections in terms of pursuing the priorities, some of which, obviously, some of the speakers have already talked about. I want to do just a very brief recap of where we sort of are as of 2026. Obviously, we had an early regular session this year that ended without a budget. The legislature came back the last two weeks, I believe, in May in a special session, adopted a budget and related bills. And then, of course, there was the two day special session on property taxes right after that. Frankly, our biggest, in my opinion, win this session was the Biscayne Bay funding program at the state level. It had initially been folded in with some other regions of the state in the governor's budget. It did not initially, and this was 20 million, as you all I'm sure know well, that's 20 million that that has been in place now for a number of years. It was not by itself in the governor's budget. It was not in the initial Senate Senate budget. It was in the House budget. That was one of our major battles, so to speak, during the budget conference process to ensure that that funding stayed in place. And I just want to thank a number of people I see here that I know were in Tallahassee. Madam Chair, you leading the charge on that, among others, that that we were able to secure that 20 million for the fiscal state fiscal year we're currently in. That is obviously a priority as we move into the 2027 session. And we're already starting our efforts in Tallahassee to ensure that whoever the new governor is, that will appear the full 20 million. We'd love to have more than 20 million, obviously. It certainly warrants it, and other areas of the state are getting more money than the 20 million. But at the very least, we want to ensure the 20 million is in there. But keeping that, given that it was only in one of the three budget proposals, Governor, Senate, House, keeping that in place was one of, if not our most significant win this session. I also want to move to SB 180 briefly. I know some of the speakers brought this up as well. And I know a number of you also were on that issue during the session. We anticipate. Well, let me back up and talk just briefly about about last session there. The Senate passed the bill to sort of correct some of the issues with SB 180. The House did not. There were a number of efforts up to and including floor amendments in the House. Unfortunately, that didn't get through. We're going to prioritize that again. I would anticipate in our board's legislative package for 2027. There's an interesting the fact that we haven't had storms and hopefully we don't anytime soon. But one of the provisions of SB 180 expires on October 1st of next year. And then it would re trigger on a on a on a future storm for 180 days. So, ironically, that we've already heard feedback that that that may be a challenge to actually fixing it, because this 2027 session, we're going to have to educate people that, you know, it's not expiring, that it could go into effect when we have a storm. And we all know that we're probably going to have a storm at some point. So that's going to be something we focus on. We also had on on Biscayne Bay funding. There was two million approved in the budget to do some review of of wastewater and stormwater runoff. That was funded. I believe that funding goes to FGCU over on the southwest coast to do some study on that issue. There was funding for coral reefs for for reef protection and tire abatement. Resilient Florida grant program this past session was funded at 100 million. But the planning money was vetoed. That was 10 million. We also had some derelict vessel funding at 4 million that went through. I want to then move to Florida forever, which I know was also brought up by one of the speakers that was not funded. I think the Senate had proposed funding. The House had not in conference that ended up not being funded in our special session back in May. And I think it reflects a I want to say philosophical shift on the part of the current legislature in that they are focusing more on easements, agricultural easements. They funded a rural and family lands protection program of easements at at 420 million. I would just note two things about that. One is it's not the state or local government owning the property. It would be an easement. It would be an easement. And number two, just by the nature of the way the program is set up in terms of it being focused on ag, it tends to not be preferential to sort of our region of the state. Other areas of the state seem to benefit more from that, at least in its current form than we do. So that that may be a philosophical approach that we would want to work on sort of shifting back or at least balancing a little bit in terms of the land ownership so that this region of the state can can participate more in that funding. So with that, that's a that's a brief overview both looking backward and forward and I'm happy to answer any questions. Madam chair. Okay, I will open it up to the board. Anybody have any questions? Yes, Spencer. Thank you, Jess. I just want to mention since we're talking about budget allocations and funding that the and I know I'm here representing the builders, but I also am on the board of the Florida Inland Navigation District and we recently approved our budget last two weeks ago and we awarded 12 million dollars in projects here to Miami-Dade County. So those are going to get funded in the next year. It the 12 million is our cost share. So that that is being leveraged to fund 38 million dollars with the projects for the county specifically. We have a couple that I'll just run through real quick. We have three different grants for Pelican Harbor. Those are combined over two million dollars. We have one grant for haul over one grant for Black Point. It's about 1.5 million for floating docks at the at the boat ramp. And then we're funding a fire rescue boat lift and a waterway cleanup vessel for for Durham. So a lot of good projects that they got funded this year for Miami-Dade County and Biscayne Bay. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody have any other questions? Yes, Dave. Hi, Jess. Good morning. We were we heard about the need for eel money and we haven't received any Florida forever money in I think forever. Is there a way that we can champion specific projects? Are we is eel and specific land requests going into the into the ask? We could pursue I can think of two different paths as to how we could pursue eel funding just sort of building on what you're saying. One would be that we pursue having the state sort of make this, you know, away from this philosophical shift to the rural agricultural easements and back towards, you know, actually purchasing property for preservation. That that that I think is a heavier lift because we're, you know, we know that where the legislature is trending now on that issue. And unfortunately, it's away from owning land. And and, you know, it's more of the eel format. The other approach. So that would be one approach. The other approach would be individual projects, individual parcels where we would go up and ask our our members to file. To file just as they file a lot of individual member projects, water projects, you know, we could approach that. Now, the challenge with that approach is that those member projects, you know, you can ask for five hundred thousand, a million, one point five, maybe two million. But but as you start to get north of two million in a member project, it increasingly becomes difficult to secure. So those are sort of the two paths. I realize there are there are pros and cons to each path. And that's not to say we couldn't pursue both paths at the same time. But obviously, those are some of the challenges that that would be present on on either or both paths. Matt. Yeah. I think whatever, whatever, however the state wants to do it, you know, we should kind of lean in on it because we do need to, you know, there's there's the first aspect, which is acquiring lands for restoration. But then there's also to just basically prevent lands from being developed and paved over with concrete where they serve no benefit at all. You know, these ag lands in our case are really good buffer zones. And so keeping them as ag lands is is is probably really beneficial. The second question I have is on your agenda. Are is the county preparing to support legislation that would reduce marine debris and to focus on how we how we keep our waters clean? We have had that in the package, as you as you know, well, in the past, I know you and I've worked on some issues together up in Tallahassee on that issue. The package has not yet come to the county commission. We obviously in Tallahassee pursue whatever the board directs us to pursue. And so that that, you know, is certain there's certainly an opportunity there to ensure that that is in the package for the 2027 session. I know we have some members of our delegation that are interested in helping on that issue. And, yeah, I mean, we were we'll pursue whatever the board tells us to do. And in the past they've asked us to work on that. But I, you know, I don't want to speak ahead of the board passing the package. So that has. So there's nothing in there as of yet today. And the package is still in in a draft form. It hasn't yet gone to the county commission. I would have to go back and in drafts I've seen I'd have to I'd have to look at whether it's in there. I honestly I don't remember offhand. I think it is. But I don't want to double check that before I say for sure. But again, it whatever the board passes is what we pursue in Tallahassee. And this is something that's of interest to the county commission. We will obviously do our very best to pursue. Is that something that that that we could make motion and encourage for something for marine debris to be included in the package? Sure. That shouldn't be a problem. And we can always put it forward. And the way it works, too, is that sometimes we all get depending on how it's done every year, it's changed. But a lot of times they pick about 10 to 12 priorities that they that we have an entire big book of a legislative priority and then we rank them. And so it's a very interesting process. But the last time I believe we just said here, take the whole package and go for it. So hopefully we continue doing that. Yeah, I don't have an issue with that. OK, I'd like to make motion asking for, you know, support of legislative support for. You'd like it to be included in the in the in the agenda package. Yes, please. OK. Seconded. All in favor. All right. So that passed. Any other questions? Yes, I saw your hand, James. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Jess, for all you do for the county up there. You were recollecting on how the land acquisition process has changed over the years and I couldn't agree with you more. We used to have kind of experts evaluate a list and then the list would be funded. And we moved so far. I'm remembering like a year or two ago, there was that project in Destin that I think that was way beyond a member project. It was like 80 million. And it was line item, didn't it? Is that just I know things happen up there, but was that a function of any process other than? No. OK. Yeah. All right. Yes. Doctor. Thanks for your presentation. I was wondering, is it possible that we could see the draft contents of the legislative package? So I hear you, I hear you describing a range of different activities, which, you know, as I process them, I think, oh, these are going to have various degrees of effect. And it's, you know, I'm not a political person. I vote, you know, to the extent that I vote, I'm political, I guess. But what I often see is in the framing and labeling of actions for a political purpose, it's easy for us to lose sight of the relative value and importance of each of these items. And so I'd like to see the contents of the proposed package and specifically be able to provide feedback on, you know, which of these actions clearly arises to the level of high importance of urgency from a scientific and physical perspective. And just, you know, highlight those and, you know, share my perspectives with those of us who do work in the political system who, you know, need to make it work and need to survive that entire process. Yes. So I think we can, in general, what I'm seeing in the county and in state and federal government right now is, you know, I think we have an opportunity not to slow down, but to be more circumspect with respect to our actions. We're able, we're clearly generating long lists of actions that are exciting for one or another group. For me, it's important that our actions are meaningfully moving us towards our shared goals. And, uh, not all actions are labeled the same and they don't certainly, they certainly don't mean the same things. So happy to provide, uh, to, to the board, the cop, to this panel, the copies of the, of the package. Uh, it will come to the board. It'll be a public document. Um, happy to provide that, uh, at the appropriate time. Um, and I would just say, uh, just to sort of respond to some of your comments, I will tell you that we have a team in Tallahassee. We pursue everything in that package, uh, that, uh, and, and those of you who've spent time up there know some things are more viable candidly than others. We, we have, you know, we, we pursue everything. Um, some things very early on, we sort of hit a dead end because philosophically it's just not where the legislature is. Um, but I, I want you to know that, that when the board, when the county commission approves the package, we aggressively pursue everything that's in there. Um, while also evaluating, some things are going to be aligning more with what legislators in Tallahassee are willing to pass or even willing to hear at a committee. Um, but, but we pursue everything. I'll, I'll use the SB 180 this past session as an example. Um, we continued even after it seemed like that was not going to pass to file floor amendments, uh, to, to try to still get that through. We, we, we always play till the final buzzer up there and, and whatever the board puts in the package for us to pursue, we, we aggressively pursue, if that helps. And I, and I definitely want to thank you and your whole team because you do an incredible job. It's not an easy one. Just so you know, he literally moves up to Tallahassee for like three months of his life and, and just is up there constantly on our behalf along with everybody. And I also encourage everybody in their individual capacity to go up and, and lobby and advocate and do what you can. I mean, I have seen a number of you up there when I've gone up. I'm, Dave's always there and I've seen Mayor, um, Streitfeld up there on various issues. And so I think it's important. And I know that a lot of the organizations, especially those of you who are sitting here in the audience, I know you go up as well. Um, and so I think it's important also that we all, you know, if there's an issue that we care about, that we also individually try to find a way to go up there and, and educate and articulate our positions as best as possible. Sometimes it falls on deaf ears, but sometimes, just sometimes we actually get things going. So great. Yes, Mayor. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize for being a few moments late. I also echo her sentiments in regards to all the hard work that you're doing. And thank you to the board. You mentioned something that, that I want to take advantage of, and I never thought of, I usually go to Tallahassee at a minimum once a year, potentially twice a year, uh, during sessions. What I would like to have is for your team and the county. So we're in unison. So I don't want to be stepping out of line. Uh, I want to make sure that you can provide us with detailed guidance in regards to how we can properly advocate and take advantage of the opportunity. We're already spending the money to go up there to advocate on behalf of the city of Coral Gables. Why not advocate for this amazing organization? And for what we're doing here and what the county's efforts are. So just, I just want to be lockstep and make sure that I don't step out of line and that I take advantage of, of the opportunities that were there already. We're all going to be basically lobbying for a better word, advocating, uh, on behalf of our respective cities. And what I'd like to do is just make sure that I'm on the same page with everyone here and take advantage of that also. Yes. Excellent. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mayor. I agree with you and I just wanted to get on record because we've, we've requested that in years past and it's been very effective. So if we could continue that practice of making sure that this board is distributed with talking points and a summary of the legislative agenda and also to prioritize connecting with you in Tallahassee because you always have the most up-to-date information as to where things are trending and where the winds are blowing. So thanks for all the great work you do, Jess. Yes. Um, anybody else have any questions? Well, we're looking, yes, please, please, Madam Chair, Madam Chair, if I may, another point to that is we have our list of priorities, just like the mayor just mentioned. We have our list of priorities and we follow through on those priorities as we advocate in Tallahassee and in Washington. What I would like to do is, if it's possible, is also add the board's priorities to the city's priorities because at the end of the day, we're, we see, we see eye to eye, we understand, we agree with you wholeheartedly. And I want to make sure that if we're sending that out to state legislators, to senators, to the governor, again, it's another opportunity just to say, to reinforce what we're all trying to advocate on behalf of. So it's not only just talking points, but I think it would be great if we could add the board's priorities to the city's priorities. Yes, I think that's a great idea. We welcome that opportunity. Yeah, we welcome that opportunity. And to some extent, we do work closely with your lobbyists daily in Tallahassee, and we certainly welcome further collaboration, coordination, because I do think that's the most effective way for this, for this, you know, county and the cities and all of Miami-Dade to work together up there. Yes. I mean, we really try to be very proactive. Sometimes we end up having to be reactive to some of the things that have been filed, but we try to keep our strategy and the tasks at hand focused on. Quick question for you, Jess, for those of us who don't know or for the public who may be interested, can you just quickly, before we conclude your item, let us know when do committee weeks start and when does session actually start this year so they can understand as the calendar moves forward? Of course, Madam Chair. The first committee week, well, let me back up and say, so we had an early session this year. We'll have a later session in 2027. The first committee week is the week after Thanksgiving. There'll be an organizational session in mid-November, and then the first committee week is the week after Thanksgiving, and then there'll be a break until after the first of the year, and then it will be six or seven committee weeks in January and February. And then the regular session, 60 days, although, as we all know, that 60 days has extended, or we've had special sessions frequently, but the 60-day session will run March and April. Thank you. All right. Any other comments or questions? Jess, thank you again. Appreciate your time. And keep us informed. All right. Item six is our state lands management plan. This one I know we're going to take some time in discussing, and I'd like to welcome Griffin Alexander from Florida Department of Environmental Protection at the state, and Alicia Shatters, is she here, with FDEP as well. First of all, I want to thank you all. You guys are great partners. We've done a lot of great work together, and so we're looking forward to this presentation. Awesome. Thank you, board members. Do you have a slide deck? Perfect. Awesome. All right. Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Griffin Alexander. I manage Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve for Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the Office of Coastal Protection and Resilience. Next slide, please. Or do I use the clicker? That works. All right. So for some of you who may not know what Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve is, we manage roughly 64,000 acres of state-managed submerged aquatic land within Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County. So our charter is essentially everything that's not Biscayne National Park, as you can see on the map here. So all of the urbanized bay, everything from Olita River down to the National Park, and then we also manage Card Sound in the south of the bay. We serve roughly, you know, Miami-Dade County, roughly 3 million people, the largest estuary in Florida, and we have nearly 16 million visitors every year, not including cruise ship passengers. So the most heavily visited aquatic preserve around the state of the 43, and we don't even include the cruise ship passengers. So it's a really big, incredible aquatic preserve that we have that so many people get to see. So next slide, please. So how are we managed? I want to make sure that we separate our rules and statutes from our state management from the management plan that I'm going to talk about for the rest of the presentation here. So as you can see here are both our Florida Administrative Code and Florida statutes that created Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve in 1974, a year before the rest of the aquatic preserve statutes. So we are unique amongst the aquatic preserves. We do have our own rule and statute that is particularly a little stricter and more protective for Biscayne Bay, understanding the different and urbanized challenges that we have for some of the other aquatic preserves in the state. So, again, we were created for the purpose of preserving and enhancing Biscayne Bay and naturally waterways in its natural conditions, essentially, for the enjoyment of future generations. So some unique provisions that are unique to 18-18, which is our code versus the other codes for the aquatic preserves. One of the particular ones is that all projects requiring sale, use, or transfer of state lands in particular require to meet extreme hardship, public interest, and consistency with the Biscayne Bay Management Plan, which you're going to hear about in a moment. Our projects also must analyze cumulative impacts of the project and all other similar actions within the aquatic preserve. And then, lastly, the Bay is expressly excluded from other aquatic preserve rules. As I said, the other aquatic preserves have different rulings. Next slide, please. So we're going to dive into our Management Plan process now. So real quick to step back. So those rules that I just talked about are enforced through our permitting agency, the Southeast District, which is located in West Palm Beach. They enforce codes and regulations. You apply to projects and stuff like that. They have a group that will come down and make sure that all those codes are followed correctly. That is not what we do on the day-to-day. So we don't, although I review permits, I don't approve permits. I don't come down and do compliance. I work with that team, but we don't have enforcement capability, nor do we directly enforce 18-18 and our rule and statute. What we do and implement is our Management Plan that we had the privilege and opportunity to update last year, just about a year ago, on October 10th, when we got approved. So this was our timeline from our last Management Plan. We had a lot of public meetings and input and great advisory board meetings from a lot of you that I saw there. So great to see your friendly faces again. So here's our timeline. And, again, on October 10th of last year, we got our new Management Plan approved. Next slide, please. So here's the structure of our Management Plan. It's really big, so I'm not going to go through it all with you. But we have six chapters, and they kind of go through the history of the Bay, what we do every day, and our facilities and administrative plan. Next chapter, please. So Chapter 4 is the bulk of the plan. It goes through our five issues that are divided into goals, objectives, strategies, and performance measures on how the public wants us to manage the Bay day in and day out. And what we think are the best priorities and how we're going to achieve those. Next slide, please. So Issue 1 is water quality and quantity. We have two goals under there. And for those of you that may not know, we have a very robust water quality monitoring system within the Aquatic Reserve run by my incredible staff, some of which came here today with me. So we have a system of eight data sondes. You can see one of them here. Data sondes are out every single day collecting data every 15 minutes in the Bay. And they send that data back to us live, and we can actually see it live, and we can publish it for individuals to be able to see on the website, too. So that data tells us all kinds of incredible trends. We'll be able to see data overnight when we're not out there. And it gives us an incredible data set that we're able to analyze throughout the years and over the months. Our other part of our water quality monitoring program, similar to Derm's Bay Run, is we go out and do individual water quality bottle grabs and send those to our NELAC certified lab in Tallahassee. This lab has the highest standards, and it gets entered in the regulatory data portal. And we do 40 different parameters, so from E. coli to nutrients, as well as loads of pharmaceuticals as well. So that together, those programs really allow us to keep an eye on our data water quality and fulfill this Issue 1. Next slide, please. So Issue 2 is natural and cultural resource protection. We, again, have two goals under it. A big component of these natural and cultural resources is both our submerged aquatic vegetation monitoring program, where we'll go out and monitor 30 different seagrass sites throughout the Bay twice a year. And we also manage nine of the different islands within the Bay. Next slide, please. Last is habitat loss. As, you know, many of you guys know, urbanization is not the friendliest to our beautiful natural resources. So we work with urbanization and with our partners in cities to look at how habitat is changing in this urban landscape and to keep an eye on it. And we have different priorities on managing that area. Next slide, please. Issue 4 is public awareness, access, and use. We don't want to overlove the Bay. We love that people are getting out there. We love that 16 million people are seeing it a year. But we want to make sure that it's not getting overloved, that there's not marine debris everywhere, that there's not trash building up on our islands. So this goal really goes after management of that. Next slide. And then last is sustainable use. We don't want to tell the public to do all these things without doing them ourselves. So we also focused and made an issue on Biscayne Bay, our staff, and our actions and our state actions being more sustainable, using less single-use syringes when we can for our water quality monitoring. It's incredible how many zip ties and latex gloves you have to go through to make sure your water is sterile for your water quality. So we try to make sure we're doing the best we can possible on our end, too. Next slide. So that's a thank you from me. I did want to add one or two things because I heard you guys mentioning it. For those Biscayne Bay water quality grants, the $20 million, the process is moving on that. We did review those grant applications, and, again, I see a number of you that had applied to those. So our very low-end internal group reviewed those, I believe, last week, and we've sent them up to leadership for review as well. So those should be coming out soon. Hopefully you guys have some smiling faces and leadership gets those grants out to you as the process goes. So we're really happy about that. And, again, hopefully we get those into the future. They do a lot of great work. Thank you. That's a great presentation. I guess let's focus on this topic, and then we'll call your colleague up after to discuss. So does anybody have any questions specifically as it relates to, I guess, the aquatic preserve management plan? I do, Madam Chair. Please. Okay. Hi, Griffin. Great presentation. I appreciated the reduction in latex, glove, and zip-chai use comment. I have two questions. One is about the consent decree and water quality issues as it relates to permitting and building moratoria and whether your office has any interchange with the county as they enforce various building moratoria around the county in both incorporated areas and unincorporated areas. And then my second question is, what is the interplay between the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve management plan and our progress in the reasonable assurance plan? Is there communication and coordination? So those are my two questions. Awesome. Yeah, so for the first one, although I might get consulted or, you know, work with, people will give me a call, most of that kind of stuff goes through our permitting and compliance department more. So we're really more in the day-to-day, like I said, monitoring the seagrass and that kind of stuff. And then for the second half of it, the management plan, I think, you know, Pamela and I talk a lot about the RAP. And I'm sure they might go through and review some of our strategies in their management plan to inform different projects for the RAP. But potentially and primarily that is, you know, the county's deal and they do their own work with that and they consult with, you know, our different state agencies. And I'm sure they might go through our management plan, but it's not pushing or enforcing any of the RAP's goals. Are we going to be using your data to inform our progress on the RAP? Or is it completely separate? We're, yeah. Are we going to be using state data to inform our progress on the RAP is the question. Our data is really great, so I hope they do. But I know Durham collects really amazing data as well, so I'm sure they will be using a lot of their own, too. And Pamela might be able to speak on that more. Okay. Thank you. Do you have any other questions here? I would just love for staff to follow up with a concrete answer in terms of the data sharing. Yeah, the county, so all of our data is public, and so it goes into a number of different public repositories. The Watershed Information Network is one of them, as well as the Florida AP Water Quality Data Portal. And I can follow up with Nancy to get you guys the links for those. But, again, all that data that we collect is public and accessible through whoever wants to see it. So if the county wants to use it, they're more than welcome. Thank you. Yes. Yeah, Dr. Redfein. Hey, Griffin. Thank you for your presentation today. You know, one of the things that stands out as particularly important to me from what you presented is your role in observing habitat loss. And I was wondering, when you observe habitat losses, do you identify the causes of those losses? And if so, how do we address those causes through your process or through cooperation with other processes? Yeah, absolutely. I hesitate to identify specific causes. That's not to call out any groups. But we did have, you know, in about 2019, we had a large seagrass die-off in the bay through a number of different reasons and issues, one of them primarily being water quality. So we did start our seagrass monitoring program from that. We've seen about a 16% increase in seagrass grow back from that at our specific sites. But other ways that we'll go about habitat loss, for example, we have some erosion on our islands. We'll work to plant mangroves as FWC or something like that. But as a state agency, we do try to avoid, like, pointing fingers or anything like that. We'll just kind of combat the problems as we start to see them. All right. Thank you. Spencer. Thank you. Thank you, Griffin. Can you let everyone know if you guys have a place where we or the public can go and look at all of the different grants that have been provided and funded, you know, since this state funding kind of took hold, which I think was about five years ago? Because I think there's, you know, maybe, I don't know, 80 or 100 million dollars of funding that has come here from the state to fund projects. And I think it exists, but I just want you to explain it. And if and I want people to be able to go there and say, OK, 80 million dollars has got us, you know, these 25 or 30 projects. And here's how much it was that, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I think we're at five years of $20 million, so right around $100 million now. And you guys can access that through the Protecting Florida Together website. They have a great dashboard, Protecting Florida Together. All of the grant applications are in there in case anybody's interested in looking for future grants. And they have a nice dashboard that will pop up and show all the grants from that program. There's another program, again, called Resilient Florida. Resilient Florida has their website. They also have a dashboard. And Resilient Florida has also funded projects, more infrastructure-based within Miami-Dade County, too. So get a lot of incredible state funding down here, both specifically to protect the bay and to improve infrastructure that will protect the bay as well. Thank you. Anybody else on this side? Anybody on this? Oh, Dave. James? Madam Chair. Nancy, I have a question for Nancy. And then for Griffin. Is that right? OK. Yeah, and I also have Laura on standby because she was going to give some context if we had additional questions. Nancy, is a member of the task of the advisory board the superintendent of Biscayne Bay National Park? Yeah. In a way, my questions may be more relevant to when she's here, Madam Chair, and maybe she could give a presentation. But when I look at the map, Griffin, I see you guys north and south of this big area that says Biscayne National Park. So I'm trying to remember that they had a requirement to do a management plan, but there was some disagreement at some level in state government, maybe fisheries, about some part of that. From your perspective, and we can ask our board member later from her perspective, are there any ongoing issues between the management of the national park and the aquatic reserve? Not really. We work really well with them. They have a great water quality monitoring network as well. I think two weeks ago we were actually out pulling crab traps out of the bay with them and their staff. So I have not run into any management issues with them. We have different management goals and constraints. Like they're a national park. They have a lot more protections than we can and do for obvious reasons. But, yeah, we haven't run into any issues with them. Do you remember anything about the fisheries issue that jumped out during their plan? Am I – is there any – I – not to my knowledge. I do know that FWC continues management of fisheries within the national park. That's right. And I think they maintain management throughout the state. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Dave, did you say? Yeah. Hi, Griffin. You guys do great work. I really appreciate everything you guys are working on. My feedback on the management plan was there is a whole lot of monitoring and not as much management as I would like to see, you know, in such a highly urbanized environment. My question is, we have gone back and forth about the licensing and regulation of commercial activities on Biscayne Bay. And I kind of get a ping-pong about who is responsible for oversight and, you know, whether there should be any licensing for these commercial activities. Is this the role of the county or is this the role of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve and the state? Ooh, that's tough. You might have to ask the county attorney that. Thank you. So we manage state-submerged land. So anything that gets driven into the ground that affects the bottom, the state manages. And we manage activities that preempt the use of that state-submerged land for the public trust. Where we start to get into minutiae is if an activity, if it's a small vessel, you know, perhaps renting jet skis, preempts the use of state land to the fact that the state would manage it. Or if that's a more county code thing because they regulate the area, tidal waters in on or under Biscayne Bay. I know I ping-ponged. I'll involved you again. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I don't know if – I think we also have a presentation from your colleague, Alicia. Yes, ma'am. Yes. So I think we're – thank you so much for your presentation. We really appreciate it. And we're going to have Alicia come up and discuss about the coral aquatic preserve management. Awesome. Sweet. And whoever's doing the slides, I had some extras in there, so just skip through to Alice. Hi. Good morning. Can everyone hear me? Good morning. Hi. My name is Alicia Shatters. I manage the Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve. And I've wanted to just come and give a little bit of supplemental presentation to Griffins about how our management plan – kind of the connections there. I think if you could maybe skip forward a few slides, you'll see a title slide. Okay. And then next one. One more, please. Thank you. Okay. I just wanted to start out with a quick map just to orient everyone. So the Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve is Florida's 43rd and newest aquatic preserve. So we're excited about it. It is actually made up of two aquatic preserves. So in the map, the larger red box is the Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve. And the smaller blue polygon towards the southern end is Cape Florida Aquatic Preserve. So I will be referring to them collectively today as Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve, or KJCAP. And they are also referred to as such in our management plan. KJCAP runs from mean high water out to three nautical miles. So it includes the state waters offshore of Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. And it was established in July of 2024. And then in June of this year, our management plan was fully approved and adopted. Next slide, please. So at Sam's Griffin, I wanted to really just focus on Chapter 4 of our management plan. That is the area of the plan that details the issues, goals, objectives, and strategies that will guide conservation of the region for the next 10 years. It is also the portion of the plan where the majority of the stakeholder feedback we received was focused and really incorporated. It's broken into five different issues, the first of which is water quality impacts. And this issue really focuses on improving the quality and quantity of water, both within KJCAP and from the waters that enter into the aquatic preserve as well. So including things like stormwater and wastewater. The second issue is sustainable economic and recreational uses. And this issue really focuses on finding the balance between resource use as well as resource protection. The third issue is ecosystem disturbance, response, and recovery. And this issue really focuses on protecting the habitats within KJCAP from direct impacts and disturbance events. So looking at things like coastal construction impacts, marine debris, ship anchorings, and groundings. The fourth issue is community education, engagement, and access. And this issue really focuses on promoting awareness of KJCAP, fostering public stewardship of the resources, as well as creating equity of access to the resources in the aquatic preserve. The last issue is building ecosystem resilience. And this issue focuses on creating resilience ecosystems that can resist and recover from disturbance events. Next slide, please. So today I kind of wanted to also just highlight some of the actions that are called out within those issues in our management plan that would have a more direct impact on the Biscayne Bay region. And first of all, I just want to say that the aquatic preserve designation does, in a way, make it easier for our program to coordinate with other agencies and other programs in the region. We work closely with the county. We work closely with Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves on different projects and, you know, things like water quality and just finding those connections between adjacent ecosystems. I kind of have these in three different categories here. The first is watershed management. So one of the, I think, actions that's supported by our management plan that I wanted to call out is implementing the government cut in the contributing area watershed management plan. That plan is written and completed. However, we do meet regularly with some of the Miami-Dade County staff to maintain a table of different milestones and actions that have been completed. towards implementation of this plan until we meet regularly to, to update each other on those. Our management plan also supports performing outreach and education of best management practices. So actions to reduce sources of land-based pollution that make their way into the waters. It supports septic to sewer conversions as well as finding and implementing innovative solutions to storing, treating, and reusing stormwater and wastewater. Water quality monitoring is another one of those big connections. I think the main action here is really making sure that we are, KGCAP is coordinating with the adjacent ecosystems, the different agencies that are also doing sampling to make sure that we're really highlighting those connections. So, you know, we're doing things where, like, where appropriate, standardizing collection and data analysis methods, looking at coordinating our sampling locations. So that could mean, do we want to co-locate sampling at a single location so we're able to increase the frequency? Or would it be better to, you know, work together to spread that sampling out, for example, to be able to look at the flow of nutrients from an upland ecosystem through the bay and then out into the offshore ecosystem? Also taking the data from KGCAP, but also from the adjacent ecosystem, so the bay, you know, we work with, like I said, we work with Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves, we work with the county that does a lot of sampling, we also work with other entities like NOAA AOML, who also coordinate some of their sampling with us, and really taking that data and being able to synthesize it so we can better understand things like nutrient baselines, biological thresholds, and making sure we're just integrating those monitoring programs so we can also understand the flow, like I said, from upstream through the different environments all the way to the offshore environments. And the last kind of category I have here is habitat restoration. So our management plan really supports evaluating and implementing proven but also novel ecosystem restoration techniques and interventions, so looking at what has worked in our region, what's worked in similar regions, how we can apply them, and move those forward. It also includes supporting restoration planning and site selection for ongoing efforts, and that includes some of the tiered coral reef restoration planning that's happening in Miami-Dade County in support of the FCR3 initiative. I know that, and I do know that the commission supported that, so thank you for the support for coral reef restoration in the aquatic preserve, as well as along the larger Florida's coral reef. And also supporting providing guidance on proposed installations within the aquatic preserve. So for example, proposals for things like hybrid reef structures that are specifically engineered to perform a very specific ecological function. Next slide. So yeah, again, thank you for the chance to present today. It was a very brief and high-level overview, but I am happy to answer any questions. Thank you for that great presentation as well. I'm going to open it up now. I know we have people who are very interested in coral here on the board. Who would like to go first with any questions or comments? Yes, please. Mr. Torres. Okay, being my last meeting, I want to make this one tough. This is a question for both presenters. In the several years I've been on this meeting, I've seen so much focus on monitoring water quality and habitat. I've heard almost nothing on monitoring other species, like fish and other organisms that use our waters. Is any of this being monitored? Are fish species increasing, decreasing, staying the same? As someone who started fishing here in 1972, I've seen almost everything decrease except maybe for spiny lobster because we've heavily regulated that one from the very beginning. We did not regulate other species when we should have, so that's a different issue. But is there any monitoring going on now on what's happening with our, especially fish and other organisms? Do you want to go first, sir? Yeah, sure. I know. Is this one on, too? Oh, cool. Wow, that's fancy. I know, wow. Yeah, so you heard a lot about monitoring the habitats from us, because that's what DEP does. So our jurisdiction is monitoring habitats, while FWC monitors fish and species and things that move around. They do a lot of fish monitoring. I know they do a lot of great work, primarily through catch data. And just anecdotally from fishermen in the northern bay, I have heard that things are coming back. We've actually seen a lot of flats boats out in, like, the Julia Total Basin fishing out there lately. And mangrove snapper are back. We've been seeing them in hordes lately. And I know it's never going to be, or hopefully someday it'll be the beautiful permit, like, that everybody used to talk about, tailing through the bay. But right now, we've seen a lot of mangrove snapper. But FWC is monitoring it heavily. Yeah, and I would second that. We do. It is actually called out in our management plan, as well, to help support, where we can, some of the FWC fisheries monitoring programs. Some of them are actually kind of done in conjunction with some of the benthic coral monitoring, as well. So a lot of times we'll be going out on the same boat, and my team will be doing the benthic, looking at the coral. We're stuck at the bottom, and then we've got other people there doing the fish surveys. So there's monitoring being done. Thank you. I'll finish one last comment. I have noticed that there is more of the fish biomass in the northern part of the bay, the degraded part, than in the southern part. So that's something just to be aware of. A lot more bait fish, a lot more just things swimming around up there. So obviously something's doing a good job up there. They like nutrients. There's a lot of that. There you go. All right. Anybody else on this side? Yes, please. Red wine. So thank you, Alicia, for your presentation and for Griffin. This really question is for both of you. In your management plans, do you forecast the anticipated condition of the coral and the bay into the future? And as a follow-up, do you identify how your actions or the consequences of the policies adopted by your agency will affect those outcomes in the near to medium-term future, like, say, five to ten years? That's a good question. I will say the management plan, and I don't want to speak for Griffin, but, you know, I think it's similar. The management plans are written to be adaptive, and that's one of the things that I'm actually really excited about, because while the Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve itself is relatively new, the area as a managed area and the coral reef conservation program that I manage is not new. And previously, we've – the way the area has been managed is by creating these sort of static lists of projects that say we have 100 of them, and we have to get them done in five years. And then we have things that, like you said, they don't really predict for future emerging issues or changing conditions in the reefs or the ecosystem. And it – sometimes, like, when we had stony coral tissue loss disease come up, that is a larger issue, a lot of those static projects have to be put aside because they weren't able to take the – that kind of future prediction into account. But I am really excited about this – the ability to have this management plan, because it is allowing us to have more of an adaptive management strategy. And the – kind of the lowest level that we have are – you know, we have our issues, goals, objectives, and strategies, and those strategies are meant to be a little bit more overarching, adaptive, not quite at the project level. So we will be able to pull in different issues or changing conditions and things that come along. Does that answer your question? It does to some degree. It's not quite as direct of an answer as I would prefer. You know, for me, the key thing that I'm trying to get in here is, you know, it's our goal, and this is to the, you know, to the elected leaders who sit on this board. I want to make sure that this is, you know, clearly stated. In order to improve the quality of the bay, we have to live in harmony with it. In order to live in harmony with it, we have to understand the specific things that make it healthy, and we have to address them. If we can't do that, we won't achieve our goal. Forecasting and understanding, you know, having projects that actually do improve the bay have to take into account the likely outcomes for the near future, and we have to address the things that aren't in our control. That's one of the challenges of harmony. Harmony, I have this experience every day with my wife. You know, harmony doesn't mean that everything goes as I think it should. Harmony means that I'm present, and I'm able to recognize and respond to the things that I don't expect. And I have a reasonable understanding of how things are likely to go. And to me, that is a minimum critical framework. That's a minimally critical requirement for successful management plans, is that they be reasonably focused on the system that we have to manage. And we are quite familiar with that system. That familiarity needs to come through in the management plan. And one of the ways it comes through the best is, one of the ways you get a credible process going is saying, hey, I think this is where we're headed, and this is what we can do to make where we're headed better. And what I've seen is near-term forecasting is extremely important for identifying credibility. If you can say, this is likely to occur, and then it occurs, and you do that 100 times a year, people are likely to believe you. And if we don't face the challenges that are in front of us, and we have process-heavy discussions, and then things go wrong, who do people turn to for leadership to try to make things better? Another process isn't going to fix Biscayne Bay, unless that process actually addresses the challenges that it faces. And the challenges, we know where the challenges come from. They come from us. And that means, you know, instead of worried about pointing fingers and assigning blame, we have to worry about what's happening and what's causing the challenge, so we can deal with it. So thank you, and I look forward to increasingly precise, focused, and aggressive approaches to enhancing the quality of life in Biscayne Bay and in Miami in general. I think we all deserve that. Yeah, and I think I can touch on, from our plan, and we do have some specific strategies to look forward, see what things are going to look like in the future, and then create adaptive strategies and habitats and restoration for those future conditions, one of which is a project I'm really proud of, is our novel sponge restoration nursery in Biscayne Bay. So, you know, we have a lot of water quality filtration and a lot of different species that do that, but we identified sponges as one of the more hardy species that can filter a tremendous amount of water and can deal with a lot of different changing conditions. So we had a sponge nursery EPA grant a few years ago. We established that sponges could be fragmented and outplanted and grown in Biscayne Bay, in northern Biscayne Bay, and now we have a new EPA grant to outplant roughly 2,000 sponges filtering roughly 75 million gallons of water a year throughout Biscayne Bay. So that's one of those more adaptive, you know, not looking at traditional things that might not be as healthy or hardy. Sponges are very hardy and can deal with changing conditions, and so we're putting them out there to see how they'll help us in the Bay as well. Thank you. Yes, please, Dr. Strindon. Great presentations. I had a question about some of the – we hear a lot about these management plans and new management plans and lots of goals and objectives. Can you speak to how these tie into existing sort of regulations and the way things are currently managed? And from an enforcement standpoint, I know you – this sort of tees off of Dave's comment asking about sort of how some of these different things, whether it's a jet ski rental or, you know, derelict vessels, that sort of thing. And where do these aquatic preserve management plans fit into that? Yeah, so Griffin spoke a little bit about the Lake Florida Administrative Code 1818, which is specific for Biscayne Bay, and ours is similarly managed, but it's under 1820, which is just the one for all other aquatic preserves, and it's not quite as stringent as what Griffin had described. And I will also second, Griffin, a lot of the actual enforcement comes from the different agencies within DEP or within, you know, FWC still manages the fisheries. And with DEP, we do – as aquatic preserve managers, we are able to help review things like permits for the different projects that are in the aquatic preserves, so we're able to look at – for me, we do a lot of looking at coral relocation plans, things like that when the permits come through. However, enforcement a lot of times does fall to the different agencies – or the different, sorry, departments within – within DEP and with the other agencies that we work with. But it is a lot of – there is a lot of support for it, I believe, probably in both front management plans, where I think on one side you have enforcement, but the way to help enforcement is outreach and education as well. So it's promoting, you know, making sure there's awareness of this is the resource, it's out there. It's amazing how many people have been in Florida for years and don't realize there's coral reefs north of the Keys. So making sure, hey, these things are out there, these are the rules that govern them, this is how you can follow those rules, this is how you can protect this resource, and even promoting, you know, voluntary things. So even if you're saying, hey, this may go a little bit above and beyond what the actual rule or, you know, what is able to be enforced, but if you really want to protect our resources, there are other things you can do in your home and your day-to-day life as well. So I don't know if you want to add. Yeah, and to add on to that, the specific enforceable rules and statutes might not change very frequently. We did just have a statute change a little bit, but they change a lot slower than our management plans that we do every 10 years. And 1818, as I pointed out, said that all projects within the Bay have to be consistent with our management plans. And so, whereas our management plan isn't setting out rules and guidance and regulations for, say, building a dock, we still have to make sure those docks are consistent to those management plans that we update every 10 years and that are adaptive based on what the public wants us to put in them. And I will say, when I created the – well, I didn't create, sorry. When I helped to – in the process to create the Christian Jacobs Coral Quarter Preserve Management Plan, we did work very closely with FWC, with, in my case, the four counties, to make sure that the language in there was able to – it did go against and was able to support. So it is something that could be leveraged in cases when, you know, people are trying to enforce a rule. So looking at things like going back to, like, the artificial installations, making sure there's a buffer zone between what's being put down and hard bottom, you know, natural resources, making sure the language in our plan was in parallel to what is already out there, what the counties are using, what's in, you know, Army Corps permits, things like that, and just making sure that our plan is something, like Irvin said, that could be, you know, could be leveraged and referred to and say this is consistent with the management plan in this area. Yes, thank you. Yes, of course. It's your last meeting. You can speak as many times as you'd like. Really? No, you don't want to speak. This is actually a question for Jed. Were you referring to proactive versus reactive management? Yes. Okay, yeah, that's, I want to second that because that has always been my big issue with especially fisheries where you have a new fishery that just gets started or is a new action and then it's not until somebody says, hey, this is a problem, then you study it, form a commission, take public comment, then say, oh, yeah, we do have a problem, then let's take an action on the most form a committee to come up with an action, and by the time you do something, it's 10 years later where the problem is 10 times worse. So a perfect example was swordfish, discovered in 1976. Everybody jumped on it. I'll mention this. In April 1976, my dad called me from Key West. He said, hey, we just got 79 swordfish and four nights of fishing, and my heart sank. I said, gee, Dad, do you think we should catch less because we don't know enough about the species in these waters, and we might wipe them out. By 1983, we wiped them out. So there's no more longliners here. In fact, they quit fishing long before they banned longlines. So that would have been a great opportunity for reactive management versus proactive. And I'm sure it works the same with habitat and water quality development, whatever it is. Don't wait until somebody says, oh, we've studied that this was a problem 10 years ago. Maybe incorporate future management, red flags. Well, this might be a problem. Let's look into it now. Just want to second that. Thank you. Great point. Anybody else on the side? Because I know we have people here on this side who would like to speak as well. So, okay, can I get back to you after? Let's get someone who hasn't spoken yet. So, Dave, Dave, Dave, I'm calling on you. Go. Thank you. He keeps deferring to James. I'm like, go. You know. I was excited to learn about the new Kristen Jacobs Preserve here. I don't know. I haven't studied a lot about corals historically, but I've gotten to know a lot more about them with some recent exciting things that have been happening down in Miami Beach and South Beach. Um, so I have, uh, one comment just to let everybody understand where we are in corals. Um, Florida has lost roughly 90% of its corals since 1970s. Um, and there was a really exciting program called the, uh, Florida Coral Reef Restoration Recovery Initiative, uh, which was, which is no longer being funded. Um, and that was really to get new outplantings out there and collaborate with universities. And so, uh, I don't have a question around that, but just, you know, highlighting that it is not only about being proactive versus reactive, but also developing the plan and then funding it properly. Um, and that's always a challenge because we have this great plan that, you know, these great plans that we can't execute on and implement because, um, we're not, we're not receiving funding for it. Um, my question though, very specifically is around the exciting, uh, actions that are happening in South Beach and Miami Beach. Um, around, um, people are calling it various things. Um, I, I, I made up a term, the, uh, the, the, the secret, not secret reef, uh, on, on Sixth Street. And then we've got reef line. Um, but we have, I went swimming out there snorkeling. It was wonderful. Um, but we're facing a challenge that poses significant, uh, risk to swimmers out there. And that is that these reefs, uh, while they are swimmable, uh, are outside of the swim buoy line. And I know that there has been a lot of, um, discussion and permits and requests, uh, for, um, putting in mooring field, uh, sorry, mooring buoys so that boats can come up, access the area, tie off, and then swim into the swim zone area, uh, safely. So everybody can share this space. Um, but we've been seeing a lot of jet skis and boats tying up to actually to the reef line, uh, buoys. Where are we in the process of moving the swim buoy, uh, or creating a, an, uh, a means where everybody can share this space, whether they are paddling out there, swimming out there, boating out there, jet skiing up to the area and not dropping anchor onto the corals or running over swimmers. I had to madly flag somebody down as I was paddle boarding, uh, because they were, they were buzzing the swim line and, and we had swimmers in the water. So how do we get this very simple, uh, challenge, uh, solved? Where are we with this? Yeah, that's a good question. And I can say that I have, I am aware of, you know, all the different, uh, efforts that you're talking about and I have been tangentially involved in the conversations. Um, the placement of the swim buoys themselves, um, does not fall under the purview of the management plan. However, we are interested in, you know, being part of those conversations and ensuring, again, we, there, we're finding that balance between access to the resource. So being able to use the resource, um, and also resource protection. Um, so just making sure, and I, that's also a conversation that, um, really needs to bring a lot of different people to the table. Uh, FWC needs to be at the table, you know, they do part of the, the permitting for the buoys as well as, um, some of the access for the fisheries and things like that, um, as well as, um, you know, different agencies. So I am, nothing has been brought directly to me, um, or sorry, the Aquatic Preserve, uh, yet, but I have, you know, been, uh, like I said, tangentially in some of those conversations and we would be interested to continue to be in those conversations. Yes. So I think this is really part of the struggle with who is responsible for various activities. I see in chapter four of your management issues, sustainable economic and recreational uses. Yes. And community education, engagement, and access, uh, and we can't even get mooring buoys out there so that boaters can safely tie off and swim lines. And so who, who makes the decision and how do we get this done? Because we have community advocates who are going out there and really trying to, uh, fight for the safety of the hundreds of swimmers who go out there every weekend and, you know, boaters, uh, who should be able to access the, the area. And I just, I, there's not a clear path for any of this stuff, which is just what is so incredibly frustrating when we're trying to, um, balance these things. It is. And I understand this. I understand the safety concern I've been out there myself and had, you know, had some very close calls. So I, I do agree. It's, it's an issue. And like I said, we are very interested in continuing to be part of these conversations. Um, we do to speak to what you just called out in our management plan. We do support, um, mooring buoy programs throughout the four counties, um, on a rotating basis every year. However, our, our, uh, can the Christian Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve is not in charge of maintaining or even installing those buoys. Um, and the, like, like I said, the permitting for that does not fall under the aquatic preserve either. However, you know, I have been in some conversations about, uh, the issues with the safety. Um, and again, the same thing is making sure we are maintaining that access as well as the resource protection. Um, so it's really, I think, making sure that we have, we're able to bring all those different agencies together and that's how we find the clear path for it. If we can get everyone at the, at the same table, um, that way we can figure out, you know, what, what the next steps would be. Yeah, no, great point. I think we always have those conversations in terms of who's regulatory, which regulatory agency, which body, which enforcement body and all of that. I mean, we go through that too. We'll, we'll, we'll take on something and then we'll be told by our county attorneys. Well, actually that's not us. That's this department or this agency or this, um, but also I'm sure the city, uh, the city of Miami beach, I'm sure would be running lead and working with whatever agency. So I'm happy to follow up as well. Um, commissioner Natalie. Thank you, madam chair. Yeah. Just along those lines. And I don't think it's necessarily for your organization, but, um, you know, I have several waterways in my district and we do get a lot of complaints. We have a lot of canals that connect the neighborhoods. You know, we have a neighborhood called the waterways. Um, and I come to find recently that there's no way to enforce a speed limit in the waterways. There is no speed limit, you know, Florida fish and wildlife is apparently over that. And there is no way to, you know, there's a way to petition them, but I was basically told, uh, it's not going to be successful because there's no manatees out there. Uh, so, uh, that was very alarming. And I, I would love the support of this board to work on a way to establish safety, you know, speed limits for these, uh, inner, inner canals and waterways, um, because along the lines of the buoys and all that, that does impact the neighbors in those areas. And I do think it is a life safety issue and it is, you know, we don't really know what wildlife is out there, right? You're not there checking it out every day. There are gators out there. There are crocodiles. There are other, um, uh, animal, animals and fishes out there. So, um, I, you know, I, I, at the appropriate time I can put together a motion to see if this board will, um, support it and, and for us to look into the speed limits. Uh, I am going to be talking to Florida fish and wildlife about that as well at my own end. Um, but it is an issue in my district. And I, I think that, you know, maybe years ago, this wasn't an issue, but now we have a lot of people with boats and, uh, jet skis going up and down these canals and it is very disruptive and it's unfortunate that we can't enforce the speed limit there or at least tell them to, you know, please, please be respectful of our canals and of the people that live around them. So thank you, Madam Chair. No, thank you. And I'm so glad you, well, it's not necessarily germane to this. It is, you know, it is adjacent, right? Um, and I appreciate you. I will support that because I have actually brought this item for predates you. I brought this item forward as a resolution at the county to have FWC really look at the entire map and, and the speeding and because it's, it's all over the place. Sometimes of the year, you're, you're one speed other times of the year, you're another speed and you have managed. It is absolutely something that needs to be readdressed. So I'm, I'm, I'm yes. The answer is yes. Um, but moving on, um, James. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Alicia, in your very first bullet, you, you mentioned a plan that I hadn't forgot about. It's called the Government Cut Inlet Watershed Management Plant. Last time I had any contact with that, it was a plan being done by National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. So is there, is that now part of the Aquatic Preserve? No, this was a plan that was, uh, recently completed. Sorry, it was funded through, through NOAA. Um, and it, it was completed last year. Who, whose plan is it at this point? Um, so at this point, uh, there's a, uh, actually a whole group, suite of people that are, are kind of stepping up to be involved in employment. Not to drag this out, but could you or whoever at the, at the county level get back to me on that? Because the, the title kind of is misleading because you'd think Government Cut is the focus. It's actually the watershed, right, that flows down the Miami River. Yes. In the government cut. And that's the, you know, like I said, it was two years ago. It was the last time, or more, that I ever heard about this thing, uh, this plan, excuse me. So if you could just follow up with, oh, you or for the, somebody from the county, uh, Nancy, that could help me understand where this new plan is in the status. Thank you. Certainly. Thank you. I did not forget, Dr. Redwine. I know you wanted to speak. I'm going back now for seconds. Thank you. I kind of wanted to, I wanted to build on, um, what Roberto said about, you know, this recognition of what we've had in the past and, you know, understanding how little of the natural resources that we had in the past still exist, are still here with us. And, and, you know, the level of abundance of these resources relative to what we saw in the past. And it's, you know, it's far lower than what we've seen. And, you know, the flip side of this is the opportunity that we have here is, you know, through bringing everyone together, right, to have these, to address these challenging issues that affect everybody and they require everybody's participation to find a solution. It's essential that that process lead us to a set of minimum critical standards, um, that we can all adhere to so that we can all be, you know, proud of our behavior and we can all move into a future that's a better future for us and for our kids. And, you know, we definitely need to have development. You know, we need to live our best lives. We need to live in houses. You know, we need to be able to travel to and from work and have economically productive lives. Um, the economy of this, of this region really rests upon the natural systems of the region. The natural systems were the entire economy when, when we arrived and they are the foundation of the economy that exists still, even though there's a lot more other stuff going on, the foundation of the economy is still the same. It's the natural systems. Um, and so that's, you know, when we look about the dichotomy of proactive versus reactive, or, you know, we, we, we look at trying to find a framing mechanism for understanding, uh, how to bring us all together. Maybe the discussion of safety is a great framing mechanism. I've seen a lot of different framing mechanisms tried, right? Um, you know, just so you guys are aware, you know, I'm, I grew up in Oklahoma. I'm, you know, my grandfather was in college during the Dust Bowl. He studied soil science in the Dust Bowl. He watched 30% of the state move from the state, including half of his family, both of my, all of my grandparents, half their family left Oklahoma because they were starving, right? They were starving because there was a decade of overuse of land that led to wind driven erosion during a drought. The solutions that they identified and implemented are the same solutions that they're using today, right? They work. That's what I'm talking about. That's a minimum critical threshold of standard. People are still, they're still farmers in Oklahoma. You know, there's still a lot of farming going on. That farming that's occurring is not no longer devastating to the soil profile and the landscape. It's sustainable. And a sustainable process is what we're looking for here. You know, something that we can all survive and thrive. And, you know, I'd be very interested. My last question is, you know, if sponges are, if the sponges that we plant are going to filter 75 million gallons per day, what fraction of the total gallons of the Skane Bay is that? And how much filtering would we need to have a healthy bay? You know, to me, those, I hear a lot of, you know, things are doing better. We have this much. Well, how much is it relative to our goal? You know, where are we relative to the solution? That's what matters. That's what we need to talk about more frequently. Yeah, absolutely. I'll touch on the sponges. So 75 million gallons a year. Unfortunately, they're not awesome enough for a day. But they're awesome. And I'd have to do the math on how many billions of gallons of water are in the 64,000 acres of Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. But substantial. And we're going to put them in high-risk areas. So we're going to try to target river mouths and outfalls and stuff like that to get them to filter the worst water. And they're not, like, unfortunately, the sponges aren't this, you know, magical water polishing thing that, like, you might expect a reverse osmosis system. You know, you run water through the sponge and all of a sudden it's beautiful and magical and looks gorgeous. They're natural ecosystems and they're not going to do everything perfectly. But they're doing something and we're interested in doing that. So I could get back to you on the specific number of how many million sponges we'd need to put out to filter the whole bay annually. And I know there's a, I think there's a reading for Chesapeake Bay on how many oysters they needed to filter that, you know, every day or something. So we could look into that in the sponge-wise. On the proactive management side, I think, you know, where we, in the past, the legislators who put in 18-18 in the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve were looking forward into that proactive management in 1974. They were seeing so much development come in. They were seeing islands built throughout the bay. And that was their answer to say, like, we want to make this very strict. We want to make sure Biscayne Bay is protected proactively for the future generations. We want to make sure that there's minimal dredging and filling within this bay so that we don't see islands everywhere or something like that. So in 74, they were proactive. And I think we have the right to all you guys and our childrens to work on being proactive again right now. Thank you. I look forward to you solving the math problem and telling us what the answer is. I'm going to have my water boy specialist, Tristan, on that. Although my little ears, I think Gerald may have solved it already. I don't know. I heard him under his breath. I heard him say a number. A lot of water. It's close. Exactly. And that's a lot. And that's, I mean, for me, all I'm trying to get at is we need to be concise, direct, and think whole thoughts, right? And whole thoughts is a problem-solution coupling. Absolutely. Right. And so even in, you know, it's never a bad day to do the right thing, right? And if we're suggesting that people need to come together to find solutions and through that coming together process, set the floor of what's, you know, what's essential in order to have solutions, that's what I want to do here today, right? The essential minimum for us talking about the bay is what's our challenge? How big is it? How do we solve it, right? Anything short of all three of those components, we're not quite there. So I'll continue to be vigilant and hope that we get there. And we're there all the time, thinking whole thoughts and making a better future. So thank you. Yeah. And the sponges, you know, we're not going to force them to do all the work. That's why we have the $20 million a year to help subject to sewer conversion and infrastructure projects. And, you know, we're not going to keep throwing awful water at them. And not that the water's awful, but we don't want to throw awful water at them and expect them to do all the work. We're going to, we're making sure we get the work done on our side, too. Thank you. Mayor Straitfeld. Thank you. Griffin, I have a follow-up question about, again, more interplay between state agencies and projects. FDOT is in its, I think, 60% planned stage for the reconstruction of State Road 934. The bridges, the flat bridges, not the bascule bridges. Has your office been involved at all in reviewing those plans? Were you involved in the PD&E phase of the project? And do you think that there's an opportunity when we break ground, when they break ground on that bridge project for sponges or other restoration-related projects that you're working on to be coordinated with FDOT so that we can maximize the co-efficiencies for that project? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I went to, you know, a lot of those original PD&E meetings. They've come to us as they can. We have a really cool department up in Tallahassee that coordinates all the projects and kind of oversees everything. I think they're called the Clearing House. So they see all those projects. And we do work with FDOT. But what's actually really cool right now, the bridges that are already here are some of the hot spots that we will pull donor sponges from. So sponges love bridges already, which is really cool. And we're more than happy to work with them to replant those bridges as they put them in and any other ideas they might have. So, for example, I know they're working on a few years out, but the Bay Harbor Bridge up north, I think it's 96 Causeway. They're going to take it out and put a new one in. And they've already contacted us about, you know, if there's anything we'd like and we want to go up there and get all the sponges off of it before they take it down. So what's unique is Bay Harbor Islands owns their bridge. FDOT owns the 79th Street Bridge. So what would you recommend from, you know, we're like not involved in direct decision making. All we can do is request. So can we make sure to follow up about what is going on and what is available as far as projects going forward? And is now, I mean, it's three years from now, is now the right time to be having that conversation? I would think yes, right? Yeah, I think as early as possible. So yeah, we'd love to follow up. And I encourage them to build the safest bridge possible and then we'll do what we can with environment on the after that. Thank you. No problem. Thank you, Mayor. Anybody else? Well, I want to, yes. Yes. Okay, listen, like I said, no, listen. But you'll be coming and attending as a participating member of our audience at times, I hope. I hope so. Okay. I'm not sure if boater safety would fall under the purview of this board, but someone mentioned speed limits in certain waterways, I would recommend as boats get bigger and faster and we still don't have anything requiring people to learn how to run a boat before they drive it, that we consider speed limits throughout all this game bay. Someone texted me the other day they were on a boat cruising at 70 miles an hour. No. So definitely has something to be considered. If I may, Madam Chair, that was my point. But the thing is that we're not the enforcing entity. No, I know, but at least recommend. Absolutely. I'm with you on that. And to your point, I was saying that we need to figure out how we can urge the entities that can apply the speed limits in these waterways to do so. Because people are not being cautious drivers of boats anymore. They're not going on a leisurely stroller speeding on by and it's causing danger to marine life and also people around. So 100% I agree with you and I'll be working to bring a motion from this body. As I mentioned in a previous meeting, I came like within two feet close of being ran by a boat going at least 50. It's completely the wild, wild, which you'll be happy to know that we had a boater safety task force that was created, unfortunately, in light of terrible tragedies. And that with the support of Natalie and my entire commission, we now have it as a reinstated permanent actual board that's going to be following through on all the recommendations that were made and making sure that they are on top with the lens of just looking at safety on the waterways. So hopefully that will help bridge the gap on some of these issues. But we are on it. So thank you for bringing it forward. And thank you, too, Commissioner. So with that, again, thank you so much. Wonderful partners. We appreciate all the work you do. And we look forward to future updates. Thank you, guys. Thank you. You know, before we go to our future items, I do want to quickly mention that we did have to postpone the septic to sewer project update, I know requested by Mayor Streitfeld, as it relates to stormwater innovation projects and other things until the December meeting. So that will be on the December meeting. We did have members of the audience bring up a few topics. And I would love to ask for a moment for our DERM director, Lauren, to please come up and maybe touch on some things that were mentioned as it relates to the new umbrella as to where DERM is under. And also, I know we had the motion and someone brought up the wetland study. Maybe you can touch on those two things really quickly. And we'll go into future agenda items. Madam Chair, can I request a third update from the DERM director? It's about a bill that has been moving through the county commission on limitation of vessel anchoring. I believe commissioner Lopez was proposing to basically mimic the state law here at the county. And so I just wonder if we could get an update on the status of that ordinance. Well, yes, that's fine. Yes, of course. Good morning through the chair. Good morning, everyone. Thank you again for being here. Uh, Lauren Parra, director of DERM and the chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County. Um, let me take wetland study first. So, uh, thanks to our Madam Chair, uh, the commission, uh, saw an item which essentially asked the commission to approve the administration, uh, creating a scope essentially to bring back to the commission, which would outline the main purposes of our wetland study. Um, the directive essentially instructs the admin to, uh, move on a comprehensive countywide wetland study that assesses the extent, the value, and the performance of wetland systems in providing ecosystem services like aquifer recharge, flood mitigation, and water supply. And so if there's any feedback that this board would like to offer, uh, again, we're in the middle of working through what that final scope will look like, and we'll bring it back to the full commission. Um, so again, if there's any feedback that you all would like to provide, uh, we're still working actively through putting together that scope. That's great. So, do you know when it will be in front of us approximately? Um, I'm certainly hopeful before the end of the year. Thank you. And then the second question or topic that was brought up was as it relates to the DERM department? Yes. Um, so a lot of our public speakers are absolutely right. We're coming up on a full year of DERM being an independent standalone department. Um, and I definitely want to acknowledge the, um, the public comment around their interest in seeing that final AO, um, we are, I would say basically at the finish line, and I will say from my perspective, we have the benefit of actually having lived through an entire year to, you know, have the lived experience of what did work and what didn't work. I'm frankly really happy to report we haven't had any big issues up until now. Um, RER continues to be an exceptional permitting agency. Durham continues to do a lot of the exceptional environmental work that we have always done. And to date, we haven't had any real conflicts in doing the work that we have to do together. But that is purely anecdotal, and I appreciate the value in the formal AO. And, um, I, I, I don't want to speak for the administration formally, but I think that that will probably be released in the coming weeks. We'll take a look at that and then maybe revisit that in the, in one of our upcoming, um, and then finally, I think Commissioner Streitfeld had a question as it relates to an item. That's right. Um, uh, Mayor Streitfeld, that item was most recently at committee, um, Commissioner Regalato asked for some research from the Durham team around active, um, vessels that are used as a primary residence on the water. And so we're doing our best to try and come up with those numbers, but those are really, really hard to calculate and to bring back as a formal figure. But we're doing our best, uh, also working with other agencies like FWC and some of the municipal marine patrols to see if we can come up with a formal number for the commissioner. But, um, from our last conversations with Commissioner Lopez, it seems like we will all meet in the middle to bring forth a more complete item to the full board. Is it going to be scheduled in October or do you not have an estimated commission meeting for the item? I don't have an estimate. If I had to guess, I don't think we'll be ready for October, but I would defer to the, um, to Commissioner Lopez. It's her item. And so if she would like for us to be ready for October, we will make sure that we're ready for October. Okay. Yeah. I thought that they discussed at committee when it was supposed to come back. So I think that was the main question is what's the upstate on that. So I'll reach out to Commissioner Lopez. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, so before, so do we have ideas for future agenda items so that we can make sure that we have a great robust meeting in December? I have one Madam Chair. Um, and we are going to add the item that didn't make it onto the subject to sewer project update. I'm looking forward to that. Um, so thank you, Nancy, um, and Lauren for the support and staff for, for putting together a really great meeting. I should have requested this at our last meeting, but I think it's still worthwhile for us to do in December. We have a new 26, 27 County budget, um, and the County approved its capital projects plan. I would love if staff could put together a report for this board on the 26, 27 budget as it relates to Biscayne Bay priorities for, for this board, for our priority priorities. And that would include, I think, Marine patrol funding, because we do get the updates on boater safety, um, commissioner Natalie's request on more enforcement on our waterways. I know many of us have been really interested in enforcement on the waterways. So Marine patrol budget and staffing, um, the County's environmental monitoring and enforcement programs on the Bay. I mean, all of the tools that we have across the County budget that touch the quality of the water and the environment in Biscayne Bay, that's what should be in the report so that we have a clear understanding of where we are today in this fiscal year so that this board can maybe spend 20, 27 making explicit recommendations to the County commission and the administration for, for, for funding for, for directing funding. And then we can also make recommendations to the Biscayne Bay commission at the state, um, for support from the state, right? So I want us to get back a little bit to our core mandate, which is project and priority funding and direction based on, um, the Biscayne Bay. What's the big plan, the, the, how we move forward plan, whatever it's called so many plans. Yes. All right. So noted. Um, I also actually, we might want to invite FWC at a future meeting. I know they came a couple of years ago, um, to speak and maybe that would be interesting to hear from them. We can have both from the science side, the marine biology side to discuss some of these issues. And then also maybe on the enforcement side, that could be interesting. Maybe you can reach out. Yes. Madam, Madam chair, I just, through you, can we direct staff to prepare a report? In advance of the December meeting so that we can all review it and then have discussion or ask questions of staff on the budget in December. I don't see, I don't see why not. I think we can absolutely do that. So show it done by acclamation. Great. Thanks. I'm hoping we could have an update and maybe it ties in with some of these other initiatives that have been discussed on. I know we had the derelict vessel, uh, gentleman that was here, uh, presenting a few meetings ago, but sort of clarification on the process by which there, there are a number of vessels out there all throughout Biscayne Bay that they're there. And it's a, it's a safety issue, right? If you're boating at night, you have a mast from a sailboat sticking up and it'll sit there for weeks, even months at some point. So I don't know whose responsibility it is to put a marker on that, to remove it, that sort of thing. But it ties into all of these topics that we're discussing. So it ties, it's a boater safety issue, right? It's a, I've heard the anchorages, you know, it's an issue with that. And then it's an environmental issue, right? And so there's one that's right by the Rickenbacker toll booth that the sailboat's been there. It's all covered in graffiti now and it just gets dragged back and forth across the seagrass. That's nice seagrass there. And so who's, who's responsible for that? I have no idea, but it would be great to have an update on that and sort of, is there anything that this group can do to advance some sort of initiative to, uh, tighten that up so that they don't sit there for weeks and months? Because if it's a funding issue in the derelict vessel presentation, uh, months ago, it sounded like it was kind of a one-man operation going out there and doing it. So that's, is there something we can do where we say, okay, we're going to fund a team to tackle this, right? Because it's, it's not fair to that one person. So I will say John is superhuman. Okay. Yeah. Through the chair. Uh, thank you, uh, member. Yes. Uh, that staff member's name is John Rickasack. He is a one-man show in that he is irreplaceable and really no one could do what he does. And so absolutely, uh, that to be said, one of the recommendations that came out of the voter safety task force was actually to build a stronger, uh, more resourced marine enforcement group. And our plan here at the county is actually to build that underneath John. Uh, we've recently had some changes at the state level that actually allows for local municipalities and counties and local code enforcement officers to actually enforce on some of the state level, uh, rules that up until now we weren't able to enforce on. And so that is our plan. Um, I know that, uh, the chair is working actively to bring some of those items from the task force to the full board and that's at the top of the list. And so I'm certainly hopeful by the next meeting we can absolutely bring John back to give a presentation and I'm hopeful that we'll have good news on building a team underneath him. Because you're right, the, the, the, the derelict vessel program is truly a public safety issue. Thank you. And as part of that, aside from just having a larger team, it sounded as though his hands were tied in many cases, where even if he had the capacity to deal with a vessel that he couldn't. So is that part of what you're mentioning that there've been some changes to address that? Um, not necessarily, what, what, partially, uh, but there are several challenges to the derelict vessel removal. Oftentimes it's as simple as space because these are privately owned vessels. Oftentimes you need to go through a legal due process before you can either remove the boat or dispose of it. And so even if we have the opportunity to remove the vessel from the water, we need to keep it somewhere. We need to place it temporarily on a hold to give the owner said 30 days. I don't know what the, the, the time, the timeframe is, but we have to give them that due process. And so oftentimes it's a physical capacity issue that we could take 10 boats out with FWC support, you know, over the course of a weekend. We don't have anywhere to put them. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I think that would be very informative again, to give us an update, especially in light of last session's amendment to the bill that now allows code enforcement to also tag and, and, and have that authority that it'd be interesting to see how that's working. Um, yes. A couple of things. First of all, um, you know, the comments about John are, uh, appropriate. Uh, and I do want to highlight that John is, has been with the County for a number of decades. Uh, and so he is, uh, you know, we have, we, we, we always have a problem when there's a, uh, what is it? The key man role, right? The one person who knows everything that, uh, is so critical that should they not be here anymore? Um, you know, John's coming into the period where he could be retiring. So I think his love of, of the work is what keeps him going. And so we need to be, uh, considerate that, that, uh, you know, um, we need more than one human being, uh, in, in charge of this. Uh, I would love to get an update on the Marine Debris Reduction Plan, uh, because I believe that, uh, a lot of the ideas that were generated, uh, during our workshops, uh, address derelict vessels, uh, stormwater, et cetera. So I would love to get an update on that, uh, because that was a key recommendation of the Biscayne Bay task force report, which is my guiding document. And it really should be our guiding document. Yeah. Um, and the second that I would love to get an update on is, um, progress on our 2022 motion to improve stormwater design, uh, and stormwater maintenance, as well as integrating storm, all of our stormwater assets under a stormwater asset management system, um, under our existing, uh, sewer, uh, Yes, actually, I'm glad you brought stormwater up. I actually requested an item to be placed at this upcoming commission agenda to discuss our stormwater plan. But I think we do need to have an update, um, at this board because now I know there's also been a change to the departments and the, um, right now stormwater is under public works. And so we really need to get an updated update on where we're at with that. I mean, look, I know everybody's been experiencing king tides lately, and that's a whole other conversation we could be having. Um, but I think it's very important that we have all of those conversations. And we did pass an item at commission a couple of years ago as well to make sure we maintain and update the cleaning of our storm drain more frequently. But I know that's an issue we all care about deeply. So absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. That would be great. We're going to have a very, just bring your, you know, bring your lunch, bring, and we're going to have a great meeting. Um, thank, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess one other stormwater item that would be good to hear an update on is the MS4 permitting process. And I know for a while that was like a big issue and, uh, we talked a lot about it and then it kind of fell off. And that for everyone who's watching is the way the County regulates their stormwater system and regulates all of the different municipalities. Um, so for marine debris, for nutrient loading, like that really is the critical item that has to be improved. If any of these issues are going to be improved, um, so I, I think that would be helpful. And with respect to some of the comments about derelict vessels and, uh, speed zones, um, are the, the agency that I work with find is very involved with, uh, funding derelict vessel removal. And, and also, um, we have, uh, a role, uh, in some instances in, in, uh, you know, designating slow speed zone. So I'm happy to talk to either one of you guys about that or talk to the board, uh, cause it's something that we're very familiar with. We work in that space all the time. Um, so thank you. Yeah, that would be great when they come to present, you can give your perspective on that and be a part of that. I would love to talk one-on-one. And there would have to be a sunshine, so that becomes a different role. Madam Chair, I think that I also had previously just requested a public works update. I mean, we're talking about stormwater, but the wastewater, uh, project as well. I mean, so it's public works on wastewater and stormwater, and then separately it's the subject to sewer conversion, right? No, no, no. No? So public works, stormwater, water, WASDE, is wastewater. Right. So it's, it's, it's, so you'd have to bring two different departments, which we can do. No, I think at the last meeting I asked for an update from public works on how it was managing stormwater improvements in its roadway plans. Great. So that's, that's what we had asked for at the previous, what I had asked for at the previous meeting, in addition to the subject to sewer conversion item. Right. And I had that down as well. Um, I think it makes more sense, especially now with the other add-ons. We'll just do that all in December. And yeah, the subject to sewer, um, projects, those were going to be presented, but we had an issue beyond our control. So, um, yeah, I mean, this, yeah, there's a lot to discuss. So December can be infrastructure month. I think that, I think we can close out the year really diving into, no pun intended, the infrastructure, um, discussion. And that's going to be very, I think, prudent. And, and also have FWC here, I think would be great to kind of tackle this before we go into the new year. And I think that will help with the derelict vessel questions too, right? FWC has something to say about that. Them, yes, they're definitely a big part of the equation. Yes. Um, Madam Chair, could I just, um, address two things that were brought up to clarify for, um, Jim and the group around the government cut, um, watershed plan? I, we did print out for y'all the, the final action plan. Um, and, um, that was from January, 2025, uh, just so you could see what the recommendations were. So, yeah, so that's it. And then Laura Eldridge from our DERM team, she and her team are following up on those items, um, together, I think, with the FDP folks. So that's why we brought that into the mix, um, just so you guys could see, uh, some of the recommendations that were made from that NOAA-sponsored, uh, plan. And it really focused on the C7 basin, on the Little River Basin. But, um, that was just to clarify your question, Jim. Well, they ended up, because of, I think, timing and funding, they ended up using the Little River Basin as, like, a proxy for the whole government cut watershed. Because there were too many, it's too big of an area. So that's how it turned out to be. Um, and then, if, if, if it would be okay with you, because Lauren made the offer of getting feedback. Could we do that offline? If I sent an email, get email input from our board members to the scope for your wetlands study, I think it would be great to hear from. Oh, yeah. I absolutely recommend that everybody reach out to Nancy so that she can incorporate any, any of your thoughts or ideas to the wetlands scope when they, so that when they bring it to us, we have. Right. So there's time to get the input before it's finalized. Yeah. Yeah. We'd like to get that sooner rather than later, so I don't want to have to wait till next meeting. Yeah. That was, oh, thank you. Yes. Yeah. And it's along those lines that I want to provide comments is, you know, what I see here, you know, I've been part of the board for about a year and a half now, right? Maybe a little bit over a year. So what I'm seeing is it's kind of like we have a rush to get prepared a couple nights before the meeting. You know, the challenges that we're trying to address through this board are complex and multifaceted, right? You know, for me, like, I've been the head of a water quality program for a sovereign nation. Um, there's no way I can remember everything that's associated with it, you know, even when it's my full-time job all the time. We need a reasonably, it's like we need a translation process. We need, you know, I hear you guys, you know, you speak government, right? Which is, there's all these processes, you have, like, this authority and that authority, and then, you know, but the bottom line is we have inputs to our political process and we need outputs. And we have to know is, is the rhetoric and process that we're trying to set up to solve a problem, how much of the problem is it solving? You know, we need that. We don't need to have a report on which of our 17 processes succeeded or failed. We just need to know, did they in aggregate succeed or fail? If they failed, why? Right? So we can go, because, you know, this intermediating process of our government programs, we can change them. You know, somebody got elected, put them in place. There's another election coming up soon. They can put something else in place. The thing is, we got to keep trying, we got to stay on track, we got to focus on the outcomes until we get there, right? Because the consequences of us not getting there are severe. You know, I was here in 2016 when a trillion dollar real estate market seized because we had poor water quality in Lake Okeechobee for months. You know, I grew up with stories of the Dust Bowl where an economy seized for a decade because our farming process crashed. This is what non-linear dynamics is. This is what ecological systems do. They go along and they do well and they provide supporting processes until the moment comes when they crash and they no longer do. And, you know, the way my granddad lectured me on it when I was six is, you know, you can have one day in your life that's either so good or so bad, you never stop thinking about it. And it sets your emotional tone for the rest of your life. That's what a non-linear process is. That's what the bay is, right? It's either healthy and on a track to be sustained or it's not. I think we all know the bay is not on track to be sustained. We're 15 years into water quality challenges. You know, we're decades into fisheries management challenges. You know, this is a human process that's playing out all over the world. Some places manage it well. Some places are really challenged with how they manage it. I'm determined that we're going to that that us together and our community, we're going to be one of those places that manages it well. We can. So I really appreciate the motions that I see, you know, that for today discussion for futures meetings and the, you know, the review of infrastructure. What I would add is I really, I really think it's important that we check in reasonably and concisely with the outputs. Like, you know, I was trying to work with the, with DERM to get like, you know, every 30 days, what's the condition of our water quality? You know, that's a report I produced in the past. Man, it helped. It tuned my thought processes and helped me localize exactly where the challenges are and, you know, where I should be looking, where can I ignore? Because there's too much information to keep track of it all. So I'd still like to see a regular frequent reporting on water quality condition. We sample it frequently. There's no reason why we can't talk about it frequently. And I'd like this board to receive those reports. So by acclimation, that's a motion. Second, by acclimation, I think you're right. We should receive regularly updates on the water quality reports. Thank you. All right. All right. Yes. I had a question. I don't know if this is going to lead to more discussion. It's okay. We, we're going to get a septic to sewer update, projects update. I know that the mayor brought this, right? This was your topic. What exactly is the update containing? What's the scope of that report that we're getting back? What is it about? Through the chair. And I'm looking back at staff to make sure that I'm saying this properly. The update would be provided by WASDE, because they're the managers of the septic to sewer program. I think that they would basically give us an update on the number of transitions that they've completed since the last time they reported here to this board. And I would request that they would also include any additional funding that they've received since the last time that they presented to this board. But if there's anything, additional specifics that you'd like for us to request of them, we can, of course, request of them. And, again, I'm saying this without actually knowing what she had planned in her presentation. Understood. It's not you. So it's all of the septic to sewer projects that are pending in the county or going to happen. Do you have anticipated ones that you can include as well? Like, I have, like, a couple sections of my district that are undergoing septic to sewer, but they're not necessarily shovel-ready right now. So if we can have those updates for every area, I would say. And I would also say that adding funding sources that are available for us to offer our residents to be able to apply for assistance as they're undergoing that process, that would be very helpful. We get that question a lot. You know, how can we pay for this? They're kind of forced to do this once the main is passed through their neighborhood. So it would be great if we had a list or an understanding of the funding sources that we can apply for as a county to offer our residents relief. Thank you for that because, actually, there is a program for the private harmonization portion, for the private adaptation portion, that we do have a loan program specifically for septic to sewer. And so maybe you want to recirculate that information so that we can – she can definitely make sure her district is aware, but all of us can disseminate that information and remind people. Because while we're working on the public infrastructure side, she's correct. They have to then tie in, and there's no incentive to do so, especially if it's costly. And so that's why we came up with that. So she's – yeah, I think that's great. That should definitely be on there. Mayor, anything you wanted to add to that because that was your initial request? No, I think we're completely aligned in terms of what we're looking for. Thanks, Commissioner. And also ask the presenter, since they're going to be coming to us with – I know they couldn't be here today. Also, what challenges they're seeing so that we can try to – we have great minds up here that might be able to help give some out-of-the-box recommendations. Thank you. Future item? Sorry, Dave? No. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. So with that, yes. Yes, please. Good morning, all. I have one question regarding – does this board will advise or have been asked to advise the commission on the Tupor Marina proposals on Virginia Key? We speak of proactiveness instead of reactiveness. Now we have a – basically could be a cumulative – catastrophic cumulative event with the dredging and the creating of those marinas in environmentally sensitive areas. So do we offer an advice? Do they come to us? Is there an objection? What's the procedure? Through the chair, I might actually ask our county attorneys to share, if that's the pleasure of the board, what the process would be for an application to travel like that. Which project exactly? The Marine Stadium idea? So generally this board's task is to provide recommendations to the county commission. Wait, date your name for the record. Christopher Wall, county attorney's office. The ordinance creating this board set this board up to provide advice to the county commission and the county mayor. This board generally does not have the authority to weigh in on applications for development orders, especially those that may be before other jurisdictions. And so, I mean, to the extent the county commission or the county mayor might be involved in that process, you could give advice as to what you think they should do. But generally the board is more policy-oriented than, you know, making decisions on particular permitting applications. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, Dave. Earlier today, I'm going to take off on that one there. This board not providing insight and thoughts on projects that would affect the watershed, I believe, is a flaw in how this committee was created. And I have, Nancy passed out a motion that I had prepared earlier today, which is requiring the advisory board review of development projects that do affect the watershed. If you look at motion number one, I would like to make a motion that the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board recommend to the board of county commissioners that our charge be amended to require that any development project with the potential to affect the Biscayne Bay watershed, including development in wetlands to the west that affect the Everglades and the freshwater flows that reach the bay, be presented to this board for review and comment before final approval consistent with the Biscayne Bay Task Force Recommendation 1-H, 3-K, 4-F, and 4-G, and that the county attorney's office be directed to prepare the necessary amendment. I don't believe that we should have an approval or denial, but we should be seeing these type of projects because we have science, we have community, we have policy, we have it all represented up here. And I think that the insight that we provide on these projects could be incredibly valuable because it seems like we are fighting decisions and changes that are happening outside of this board, and we're trying to make recommendations. So I would like to make that motion. Okay. I would have to ask the county attorney also what that would actually mean because I – you can make – listen, this board can make any recommendation it wants, but I want to also manage expectations because I don't know that the – not all of these things come in front of the Board of County Commissioners to begin with, and secondarily, I'm sure it would have to amend, like, many different codes in order for that to even be a possibility, and I don't know where the will would be of that board, but maybe I can get some clarity. Certainly, Commissioner. The advisory board could recommend that the county commission make such a change. It would require an amendment at a minimum to this board's ordinance, to the ordinances that govern those application processes. We have to look at a number of other legal issues. And so if and when a commissioner wanted to sponsor that legislation, we could, you know, troubleshoot and try to find a path. But as you indicated, Commissioner, Madam Chairwoman, there could be barriers to that. But can I – so I totally disagree with that idea and concept. This board is not a regulatory board. We don't – that's not why it was created. It was created to assist the county with restoration activities and to be a proactive entity that, you know, basically tries to keep track of where certain funding is being used, how successful that is, and to make recommendations about how to do that in the future. It's very different than a board or an entity having regulatory authority. I think trying to get this board to act in a regulatory capacity is going to very much undermine our effectiveness. And I think we've seen over the past five years that this board has enough to do with the limited staff it's provided to try to take on another role like that, which is a way too much in my personal opinion. So I think it's a very bad idea. I obviously would not support it, and I don't think we should be, like, considering a motion right now without any kind of item published on the agenda or, you know, further backup. So that's my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, if I may. I completely agree with my colleague. You know, projects that are being built within the Shoreline Development Review's jurisdiction go before the Shoreline Development Review Board. There are other quasi-judicial items that come before the county commission and community zoning appeals boards, and like Spencer said, we're not a regulatory body. And respectfully, I don't want to spend two hours providing review and comment on a project that, frankly, is just for the benefit of having more opportunities for the public to be heard and to provide review and comment. If it's just a recommendation and it's just advisory and it doesn't have any real regulatory enforcement behind it, that's what I feel to be a waste of my time, actually. So I'm not supportive of the idea. Yes. Would the members of this board be able to, in their own private capacity, comment on these projects? Yeah. Actually, that's a great point. Any one of us in our own capacities or in the capacity of wearing the hat of being, you know, whatever profession or organization you're involved with can absolutely come and speak on any item during public hearing and also email and influence the process. The truth is that, okay, so I don't know if anybody else wants to speak on this particular item. I mean, I would just say, Madam Chair, I believe this advisory, this is an advisory board, and it can speak in its capacity, it can, in its advisory capacity on anything that impacts Biscayne Bay. So perhaps we can get clarification from the county attorneys at the next meeting as far as our scope and, you know, how to take on this request from the board member. That's, you know, that's what I would, that would be my suggestion to, you know, because I think our scope already encompasses something like this if we specifically wanted to speak on an item of this matter. I don't know if you can answer that. Yeah, I think this, for example, if this board wanted to discuss any pending application, whether before the county or other entity, the board could discuss it. But when the board takes action, you know, the board's actions are limited to making recommendations to the county commission or county mayor. And so if the county commission and county mayor had no authority to act upon an application, I'm not sure how effective that would be. I don't know, we might want to think more also about, like, you know, if there are quasi-judicial processes, you know, like, should this board be weighing into it? If it's an application before the county commission, I mean, there are county commissioners on this board, and so, you know, we would need to protect the integrity of that quasi-judicial process. So this would, yeah, this would require a lot of thinking through, exactly. All right. So I didn't see a second to your motion. So, okay, what? Yes, please. And so, you know, this issue of saying, you know, we have a specific founding purpose and process and that we may not have responsibility for, you know, another process which has a material effect on water quality for the Biscayne Bay. To me, you know, the challenges of water quality, it's hard to find a situation where they become more obvious, right? The challenge is nobody's responsible for all of it. And then the bottom line becomes we could do our job perfectly. The county commission could do its job perfectly. We could still not have a successful outcome. That's the problem. So, you know, this is what we need to figure out how to do. It's, you know, we don't have to be the board that ensures a successful outcome. Something has to exist to ensure a successful outcome or we won't reach it. You know, this is a challenge that humans have faced. You know, I've read documents from the 14th century where people are facing these types of challenges. You know, the Druids called it the tragedy of the commons. You know, how do we deal with these common areas? If we have one person that wants to graze all their sheep and they don't care about the quality of the grass, all of the rest of our sheep are going to starve. You know, and that's basically how it plays out. So, you know, I'm not trying to push you guys into doing something you don't want. But, you know, the point is some members of our board want this. I don't think we're asking for regulatory authority. We're not telling people, you know, what they can do and what they can't do. What we're saying is, well, I think what we should be focusing on and where we should try to, you know, our goal, the place where we should arrive in our discussion is, did we do everything we could do to ensure a better quality bay for the future? Yes. Was that enough? If it was, great. If it wasn't, why not? What's the reason why we didn't get the outcome we wanted? Even though those reasons may not be under our specific authority, we have the ability to recognize what they are. You know, somebody has, we have to find some place where we have a responsible body. Water quality is the hardest environmental process to manage. Yeah. So, maybe we need to, you know, maybe we need to review and imagine a new way that we can succeed in this hard task. But the bottom line is, you know, it's hard for me to accept the idea that, you know, we can say, oh, we're here to manage and advise on the watershed, but we can only consider 15% of the actions that are occurring, you know, or whatever. I don't think that's what he was saying. He was saying we can, we can consider all sorts of different things. It's just the type of action that we can take and the type of discussion that we can have. He just needs to research a little bit more because it might put some members who are currently, listen, I hear you. Philosophically, I'm there. It's a question of the reality of how that would work, what that looks like, and what we can and cannot do within the legal framework that we're given. That's what they're saying. Because we are an advisory board that has to deal with kind of the, we look at it in a very holistic kind of way, and we try to drill down on some things. But I do think in this particular situation, I think the county attorney is saying that, I think Commissioner Millian Orbis suggested, like, he may need to have to come back to us and fine-tune what our scope is so we can better understand. Because maybe it's a similar motion we make, just not the way it's written here. So that managing expectations, too, because what's written here will never actually materialize because it does require so many different code amendments that the county commission is likely not to do. I'm not saying me as a person. I'm saying collectively. So it's not just a, I think it's well-intentioned, but I don't know that there, I don't know how else to frame it, how it can be translated into something that is actually tangible for us to do. But, like he said, we can discuss anything. So if there's something that you all want to discuss as a board, that's a discussion that can happen, potentially, assuming that it's not, I guess he has to research the quasi-judicial portion. And, by the way, some of these things don't even come in front of the county. It may be in front of a city or it may be in front of another agency or jurisdiction. I don't know, maybe you can shed some light, and then we'll wrap this up because we have another motion you want to make, and the commissioner has a motion. No, I have to go. Oh, she has to go. I don't want to lose quorum. I can do the motions all going to go. Yeah. Yeah, everything you said, commissioner, reflects what I was thinking. And we can brainstorm and come up with options and, you know, discuss that at the next meeting if that's the will of the board. I'd be happy to, you know, do that. Okay. I appreciate that. And so the second motion you have, Dave, is regarding boater traffic study. Is that separate to what we were discussing earlier? Well, I think that the challenge that we have is we have many projects that have been approved and are being approved, and we don't really have a clear understanding about how many boats or the sizes that Biscayne Bay can really handle. And so, you know, when I ask folks about, you know, how many, you know, when there's a new marine or a new project, the question comes about, well, I feel that there's too many boats on the water, but nobody can really tell me what the actual, you know, quantity of boats and the depths and the size. You know, we're not Fort Lauderdale, and we need to have access for boaters, and we need to have safe passage, but we don't really know how many, you know, what is the carrying capacity, so to speak. You know, the Boater Safety Task Force has recommended, you know, some reports and studies. The commissioner is considering a motion about, you know, speed. And so it really is just a question of understanding, you know, the research and the knowledge that would help us help us and help staff and help the commissioners make good decisions on, you know, how many boats can be there. And so I don't know the best framing for how we get to answers on this, and maybe it is through the motion that the commissioner wants to build for next session. But really, how do we figure out how many, you know, how many boats, what is the capacity, you know, because when we look at projects individually, they look fantastic. When we look in totality of everything, it's like, wow, that's a lot, right? And so I think the challenge is that all of these things are done in silos without – and it's the same thing with the wetlands study. You know, well, we could lose – you know, how much wetlands can we lose? How much do we need? And so I don't know if this is something that you'd like to bake into maybe your motion next time. I see you have a motion here, number two. I don't know if you're going to bring it forward today, but I'm happy to include your concerns as well because I agree with you. I'm happy to include that in what I will work on to bring to our next – I'd like to allow you to, you know, work through that and think through it. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. I appreciate it. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. This motion is very important, but it refers to a lot of things that we haven't talked about, which need to be talked about. And speaking for the Miami River, you know, we're way beyond carrying capacity on boats. But this is inherently part of the Manatee Protection Plan. And if we're ready to talk about the Manatee Protection Plan, Madam Chair, then we can tackle these issues. But I leave it to you and the staff to look at this because this has been stymied for a long time. And if we're going to take it up, we need to take it up because we will never solve the other issues until we're ready to talk about it. Agreed. Thank you. Good point. And Dr. Redwine, just so you know, even when I look at this motion, I think, well, I don't even know which is the regulatory body that she's going to have to flush out into who would even regulate this. It's a lot. Yeah. All right. So I think we have an interesting December meeting. I hope everybody can make it to December because it looks like it's going to be stacked. But I want you to, again, remember, please e-mail the different departments. Nancy, why don't you make sure you reach out to each member individually so that if they have thoughts about the watershed before it comes to us as a body of a commission, that you can incorporate that into the scope of work because I know many of them are very interested in that. And I would love to get the input of this board for that study. Okay. All right. So with that, thank you all for a wonderful meeting. And I'm looking forward to seeing you at our next meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.