"If We Don't Have Seagrass, We Don't Have a Bay."

Austin King
If We Don't Have Seagrass, We Don't Have a Bay.

Over the last century, we’ve seen seagrass populations in Florida’s Tampa Bay undergo dramatic changes due to habitat degradation, dirty water influx, and pollution. Thankfully, organizations like Tampa Bay Waterkeeper have dedicated their life to protecting and restoring seagrass in Florida’s largest open-water estuary. Continue reading to find out how Tsunami Fishing is supporting our sister brand, Toadfish, in their mission to clean coastal waters, and how you can support our collective efforts.


Seagrass: What Does It Do? Why Is It Important?

Seagrass is an ecological all-star and an important keystone species (a plant or animal that produces a major impact on its ecosystem and is considered essential to maintaining optimum ecosystem function or structure) in Tampa Bay. Serving as the foundation for the entire Tampa Bay ecosystem, seagrass provides essential habitat for countless marine species, filters water by trapping particulate matter, oxygenates the water and air, serves as a food source for marine species such as turtles, manatees, and some fishes, and much more. So what’s going on? If it is so important, why and how is it at risk?


Learning About Tampa Bay with Captain Dustin Pack

In early July, a few team members from our sister brand Toadfish had the privilege of traveling down to Tampa, FL, and spending a day with Capt. Dustin Pack, a Fly Fishing Guide in the Bay and member of the Board of Directors for Tampa Bay Waterkeeper. Capt. Dustin has lived in the Bay Area his whole life and has seen the tremendous changes, both positive and negative, that Tampa Bay has endured over the last 40 years. Unfortunately, the bay is still under attack today, and Capt. Dustin is on the front lines of the fight for its health. 


The Toadfish team and Capt. Dustin headed out of Davis Island Boat Ramp around daybreak to take a tour of the Bay and learn more about its past, present, and future. While cruising around on Capt. Dustin’s 18 ft Hell's Bay Marquesa, he provided some insight into how the Tampa Bay we know today came to be. “Historically," Capt. Dustin shared, "Tampa Bay was actually a dead estuary. In 1950, Tampa Bay had almost 50,000 acres of seagrass, but over the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we had such bad water quality issues that we lost half of that.” Capt. Dustin explained that some of the key legislation passed to combat the decline, such as The Clean Water Act of 1972, was integral in changing the trajectory for the bay. He emphasized how advocacy groups like the Tampa Bay Estuary Foundation (Tampa Bay Waterkeeper did not exist at the time) were essential when it came to educating Bay Area residents on clean water and helping them understand how they played a role in the bay’s health.


Current Issues Facing Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay's health steadily improved through the mid-2010s, but today, the bay is once again facing significant challenges. Capt. Dustin shared with the Toadfish team that the largest issue facing the bay was, “things like Piney Point… three years ago, in 2021, we had the largest fish kill we’ve had in 70 years.”

“The state of Florida is rich in Phosphate,” explained Capt. Dustin, “from dinosaurs and other animals that died millions of years ago, back when Florida was underwater. To excavate these fossil bones and convert them into things like fertilizer, mining companies use a high-pressure water system. This process creates a nutrient-rich wastewater byproduct called Phosphogypsum."


"The state stores billions of gallons of phosphogypsum in “stacks” along Florida’s coastline - they haven't decided what to do with it yet.” Capt. Dustin continued to share that Piney Point housed a long-standing, semi-abandoned phosphogypsum stack, containing an Olympic swimming pool's worth of nutrient-rich wastewater. After years of inadequate maintenance, the liner at the bottom of this ~500 million-gallon stack began to leak, and the wall began to show signs of collapse. To relieve pressure from the liner, with the approval of the state, roughly 215 million gallons of nitrogen-rich, toxic wastewater were discharged into Tampa Bay, serving as a catalyst for one of the worst ecological catastrophes in its recent history.


The Bottom Line: Clean Water Isn't Up for Debate

Miraculously, Capt. Dustin shared that the bay recovered quicker than anyone anticipated. Capt. Dustin reminded us, however, that, at some point Mother Earth will reach her breaking point. If we, as humans, continue to take our ecosystems for granted, Mother Earth's surrender will become inevitable; we will have left her no choice but to concede. As Capt. Dustin said,  “Fortunately, mother nature is resilient, but mother nature is only resilient if we keep our foot off her throat.”


Both Tsunami Fishing and Toadfish are united by a commitment to protecting two crucial aspects of our lives: our health and our ecosystems. By partnering with Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, our three sister brands Bimini Bay Outfitters, Toadfish, and Tsunami Fishing, are driving meaningful change in the waters we call home. The Toadfish team’s main takeaway from the time they spent with Capt. Dustin Pack was this (and it isn’t rocket science): water is the basis for all life in the bay, so clean water is not a maybe, it's a must. Strengthening regulations around wastewater management is the key. Advocacy and education are the key. With Bimini Bay Outfitters safeguarding us from harmful UV rays, Toadfish working to clean our coastal waters, and Tsunami Fishing equipping you for every on-the-water adventure, we’re ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy the great outdoors in the same ways that we do today.


A Hopeful Future for Tampa Bay that Starts with You and Me

“So the bay is not dead anymore,” says Capt. Dustin, “it's hopeful. The end goal is to purify this waterway like it was 100, 120 years ago, and that can happen. We have to keep educating, keep everybody informed with the water quality testing that we have, [continue] the youth education that we do; everything revolves around this bay and education, and once people hear about it, the more people know about it; the more people know how to help, the better it can be.”

 

A Joint Effort for a Brighter Future

Following the trip with Capt. Dustin Pack, Tsunami Fishing and Toadfish were ecstatic to present a check of $10,000 to Tampa Bay Waterkeeper in support of their ongoing efforts to ensure cleaner water and a brighter future for the Bay. It was incredible to have members of Toadfish spend the day with Capt. Dustin and learn more about the state of Tampa Bay. We greatly appreciate his passion for conservation, stewardship, and the waters he calls home.

Our sister company, Toadfish, has teamed up with Tampa Bay Waterkeeper to create TBW-themed Can Coolers that you can pick up today. 100% of proceeds from these Can Coolers will go to Tampa Bay Waterkeeper as they continue their fight for the future of Tampa Bay.