Miami-Dade Mayor Levine Cava statement on fish kill

Following this weekend's fish kill around the area of the 79th Street Basin, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava released the following statement:

"This incident is another reminder that the health of our beloved Bay is in jeopardy, which is why Miami-Dade County is committed to taking all possible action to turn around the crisis facing our waters. We are working to aggressively accelerate investments in replacing or repairing critical water infrastructure and septic to sewer conversion. Earlier this year, the County Commission passed and we began implementing a ban on fertilizer use during the rainy season (May 15 - October 31), when nutrients are more likely to be carried in water flowing off the urban landscape. And in this year's proposed budget, we plan to invest millions of dollars to tackle fish kills and flooding, handle seaweed collection and removal, and preserve and protect Biscayne Bay."

We all play a part in protecting the Bay and Miami-Dade County urges the community to get involved. Residents can report a fish kill 24/7 online at http://tinyurl.com/baywatch305, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 305-372-6955. You can also learn more about the rainy season fertilizer ban and why it's so important to protect the health of the Bay here: miamidade.gov/fertilizer. Reducing the use of plastic and polystyrene and picking up trash and dog waste are also important steps to prevent pollution in the Bay.

The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, Division of Environmental Resources Management (RER-DERM) serves as the lead agency in the event of an environmental crisis, such as a fish kill or algae bloom event, and will be conducting additional inspections and water quality sampling over the next several days to analyze water quality in the impacted area. DERM has been collaborating with FIU and the DEP Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves (BBAP) on data and information sharing and will continue to partner in the response to this incident. The County will also be working with the City of Miami Beach to support urgent action to remove and properly dispose of the fish biomass from the affected areas.