The Harmony of Discord between Nature and the Supernatural

Image by Andres Ramos

 

Remember this: To get through a night that felt to long, to steady hands that wouldn't stop shaking, to remember which direction was home when they'd lost their way.

Have you ever read an argument on Nature and the Supernatural? No? Yes? Maybe?

Do I have someone you need to meet. He is deader than a doornail but he lives on in his words. The author uses Christianity as his deferment but lets not get that twisted and think you can not substitute your own version of religion or philosophy and see what you come out with. It might be interesting. Let us suspend disbelief and belief for a moment and see what we get out of this.

Get a snack and a beverage. I hope you like reading. 

Here is a passage:

"From the first moment or birth-time of modern science, if we could fix the moment, it has been clear that Christianity must ultimately come into a grand issue of life and death with it, or with the tendencies embodied in its progress. Not that Christianity has any conflict with the facts of science, or they with it. On the contrary, since both is and Nature have their common root and harmony in God, Christianity is the natural foster-mother of science, and science the certain handmaid of Christianity. And both together, when rightly conceived, must constitute one complete system of knowledge. But the difficulty is here; that we see things only in a partial manner, and that the two great modes of thought, or intellectual methods, that of Christianity in the supernatural department of God's plan, and that of science in the natural, are so different that a collision is inevitable and a struggle necessary to the final liquidation of the account between them; or, what is the same, necessary to a proper settlement of the conditions of harmony.

Thus, from the time of Galileo's and Newton's discoveries, down to the present moment of discovery and research in geological science, we have seen the Christian teachers stickling for the letter of the Christian documents and alarmed for their safety, and fighting, inch by inch and with solemn pertinacity, the plainest, most indisputable or even demonstrable facts. On the other side, the side of science, multitudes, especially of the mere dilettanti, have been boasting, almost every month, some discovery that was to make a fatal breach upon revealed religion.

And a much greater danger to religion is to be apprehended from science than this, viz., the danger that comes from what may be called a bondage under the method of science,--as if nothing could be true, save as it is proved by the scientific method. Whereas, the method of all the higher truths of religion is different, being the method of faith; a verification by the heart, and not by the notions of the head.

Busied in nature, and profoundly engrossed with her phenomena, confident of the uniformity of her laws, charmed with the opening wonders revealed in her process, armed with manifold powers contributed to the advancement of commerce and the arts by the discovery of her secrets, and pressing onward still in the inquest, with an eagerness stimulated by rivalry and the expectation of greater wonders yet to be revealed,--occupied in this manner, not only does the mind of scientific men but of the age itself become fastened to, and glued down upon, nature; conceiving that nature as a frame of physical order, is itself the system of God; unable to imagine any thing higher and more general to which it is subordinate. Imprisoned, in this manner, by the terms and the method of nature, the tendency is to find the whole system of God included under its laws; and then it is only a part of the same assumption that we are incredulous in regard to any modification, or seeming interruption of their activity, from causes included in the supernatural agency of person, or in those agencies of God himself that complete the unity and true system of his reign. And so it comes to pass that, while the physical order called nature is perhaps only a single and very subordinate term of that universal divine system, a mere pebble chafing in the ocean-bed of its eternity we refuse to believe that this pebble can be acted on at all from without, requiring all events and changes in it to take place under the laws of acting it has inwardly in itself. There is no incarnation therefore, no miracle, no redemptive grace, or experience; for God's system is nature, and it is incredible that the laws of nature should be interrupted; all which is certainly true, if there be no higher, more inclusive system under which it may take place systematically, as a result even of system itself. 

And exactly this must be the understanding of mankind, at some future time, when the account between Christianity and Nature shall have been fully liquidated. When that point is reached, it will be seen that the real system of God included two parts, a natural and a supernatural, and it will no more be incredible that one should act upon the other, than that one planet of particle in the department of Nature should act upon and modify the action of another. But we are not yet ready for a discovery so difficult to be made. 

Thus far the tendency if visible, on every side, to believe in nature simply, and in Christianity only so far as it conforms to Nature and finds shelter under its laws. And the mind of the Christian world is becoming, every day, more and more saturated with this propensity to naturalism; gravitating, as it were, by some fixed law, through imperceptibly or unconsciously, toward a virtual and real unbelief in Christianity itself; for the Christianity that is become a part only of nature, or is classified under Nature, is Christianity extinct. " (Bushnell 7-9)

How did that make you feel? Do you need to lay down on a couch, or pull up a chair? These young whippersnappers' heads are spinning.

That is gonna be one hell of a campfire talk.

And no, I haven't forgotten about the long lost and uncontrived Jungian post that is eluding me. 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Source Cited:

Bushnell, Horace. "Nature and the Supernatural". Charles Scribner's Sons, (1907), p, 7-9

Just like Heaven: A Supernatural Accord

 Remember this: Past life memories transition into a supernatural accord.

Not to long ago, I am having a conversation with my partner-in-crime. This conversation is based around ruminations I am having that he is listening to. It is more like a conversation with myself and he is just present to hear. Out of nowhere he says to me, "I know why you love Nature so much."

I ask him, "What do you mean?"

He responds, "It reminds you of Heaven. Somehow you remember heaven, but you don't realize that is what it is."

I thought about it and decided maybe he is right. I sat with this thought. I am still sitting with this thought; then to realize you are aggressively protective of Nature, but simultaneously spiritual.

This is a can of worms.

This supernatural accord that comes from possible past life memories are exhibited when an individual's recollection of a previous existence links to a binding metaphysical pact, spiritual contract, or cosmic law that bridges past and present realities.

At this point, we could argue that over the years from simple cell to human, as DNA kind of falls off, some of us are left with those fragments of DNA that remember to protect and nurture, and there are those that don't.

The supporting argument is the running thought about this supernatural accord that is past down verbally, sacred text parabling the concept, entrenched in governmental considerations for its people, and undoubtedly an individualistic spark in the human soul. I am sure there are other ways this has trickled down through the centuries. 

Trauma is a great re-enforcement. The sandcastle theory is a good place to start. You have a child out on a beach. The child builds a beautiful sandcastle. On one hand the ocean waves come and over time keep beating down this child's effort. The other option is another individual comes along and out of spite, kicks it down. 

Its the ability to feel the intention from the acts and motives of the individual that makes all the difference. The ocean is the ocean. We accept what it will do.

Image by Md Habib

The kicking of the sandcastle is those select few humans that decide and carry through with the destruction of all things great and good that we were entrusted with to do stewardship towards; everything in our reality. 

This idea of stewardship should be one of cultivation and not exploitation of the Natural world.

Where is this indicated? The Bible, the Quran, Indigenous belief, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. 

You can't escape the supernatural accord. With that being said, you will not escape the consequences for not doing that one job the supernatural gave you. Stares.

Atheists even follow this supernatural accord and they worship no god.

These are some passages from Horace Bushnell you can talk about over the campfire with your buddies out in the bush.

"Instead of regarding the supernatural as that which acts on the chain of cause and effect in nature from without the chain, and adhering to that sense of the term, we use it, very commonly, in a kind of ghostly, marveling sense, as if relating to some apparition, or visional wonder, or it may be to some desultory, unsystematizable action, whether of angels or of God. Such uses of the word are permissible enough by dictionary laws, but they make the word an offense to all who are any way inclined to the rationalizing habit. On the other hand, there are many who claim to be acknowledged as adherents of a supernatural faith, with as little definite understanding. Believing in a God superior to nature, acting from behind and through her laws, they suppose that they are of course, to be classed as believers in a supernatural being and religion.(Bushnell 29-30)

"It is no longer necessary to go hunting after marvels, apparitions, suspensions of the laws of nature, to find the supernatural; it meets us in what is least transcendent and most familiar, even in ourselves. In ourselves we discover a tier of existences that are above nature and in all their most ordinary actions, are doing their will upon it. The very idea of our personality is that a being not under the law of cause and effect, a being supernatural." (Bushnell 31)

"Thus, nature, for example, never made a pistol, or gunpowder, or pulled a trigger; all which being done, or procured to be done, by the criminal, in his act of murder, his is hung for what is rightly called his unnatural deed. So of things not criminal; nature never built a house, or modeled a ship, or fitted a coat, or invented a steam-engine, or wrote a book, or framed a constitution.  These are all events that spring out of human liberty, acting in and upon the realm of cause and effect, to produce results and combinations, which mere cause and effect could not; and at some point of the process in each, we shall be found coming down upon nature, by an act of sovereignty just as peremptory and mysterious as that which is discovered in a miracle, only that a miracle is a similar coming down upon it from another, and higher being, and not from ourselves. (Bushnell 31-32)

When I reflect back on past lives, being reported a form of Heaven in church or elsewhere, and how Nature is considered science-based when it looks more and more like the human existence is way past supernatural, I wonder how humans have a problem just standing in this and appreciating it for what it is. Others would tell you we don't exist based on a scientific idea, but here we are; the scratch on the record of the universe.

Is it a past life?

Was my young mind implanted with an idea of Heaven?

Am I real?

Are you real?

Is this real?

Based off of the thought, which I question how is a thought happening, not a supernatural event that is dressed up in the cause and effect of a concept that we named science, is any of this real and happening?

Or are we galactic ghosts? A version of a whisper of a whisper, what was but might be once again? In a place, far far away?

Image by Oleg Gapeenko

I guess we have a supernatural accord then.....

Sources cited:

Bushnell, Horace. Nature and the Supernatural.New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. (1907), p. 29-32.

The Law of the Jungle

 

Image by Mohamad Afiq Haikal Zaihan

Remember this: The night is for hunting.

Now this is the Law of the Jungle--

as old and as true as the sky;

And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, 

but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk

the Law runneth forward and back--

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,

and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Wash daily from nose-tip to tail-tip;

drink deeply, but never to deep;

And remember the night is for hunting,

and forget not the day is for sleep.

The Jackal may follow the Tiger,

but, Cub, when their whiskers are grown,

Remember the Wolf is a Hunter--

go forth and get food of thine own.

Keep peace withe Lords of the Jungle--

the tiger, the panther, and bear.

And trouble not Hathi the Silent,

and mock not the Boar in his lair.

When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle,

and neither will go from the trail,

Lie down till the leaders have spoken--

it may be fair words shall prevail.

Image by Theerapong khaotong

When ye fight with a Wolf of the Pack,

ye must fight him alone and afar,

Lest others take part in the quarrel,

and the Pack be diminished by war.

The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge,

and where he has made him his home,

Not even the Head Wolf may enter,

not even the Council may come.

The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge,

but where he has digged it too plain,

The Council shall send him a message,

and so he shall change it again.

If ye kill before midnight, be silent,

and wake not the woods with your bays,

Lest ye frighten the deer from the crop,

and your brothers go empty away.

Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates,

and your cubs as they need and ye can;

But kill not for pleasure of killing,

and seven times never kill Man!

If ye plunder his Kill from a weaker,

devour not all in thy pride;

Pack-Right is the right of the meanest;

so leave him the head and the hide.

The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack.

Ye must eat where it lies;

And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair;

or he dies.

Image by Pornphan Suriyakhamwong

The Kill of the Wolf is the meat of the Wolf. 

He may do what he will;

But, till he has given permission,

the pack may not eat of that kill.

Cub-Right is the right of the Yearling.

From all of his Pack he may claim

Full-gorge when the killer has eater;

and none may refuse him the same.

Lair-Right is the right of the Mother.

From all of her year she may claim

One haunch of each kill for her litter,

and none may deny her the same.

Cave-Right is the right of the Father--

to hunt by himself for his own;

He is freed of all calls to the Pack;

he is judeged by the Council alone.

Image by Muhammad Saifulloh

Because of his age and his cunning,

because of his gripe and his paw,

In all that the Law leaveth open,

the world of your Head Wolf is Law.

Now these are the Laws of the Jungle,

and many and mighty are they;

But the head and the hoof of the Law

and the haunch and the hump is--Obey!

From the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Sirenians: Manatee's Discerning Pallette

Image by Chokniti Khongchu

Remember this: A manatee can be two things at once. It can hold an ecosystem together and reflect environmental health through its sensitivity to change. 

As we forge ahead with the intrepid manatee, we learn that it is a keystone species and an indicator species. Like everything else, it must live and it must eat. 

For your education going into this, a keystone species is an organism that has an essential impact on its ecosystem relative to its small population size, while the indicator species  is an organism whose health or presence reflects the overall condition and quality of an environment.

The manatee's aura is very interesting. For interest sake, because I was chewing the fat on the eelgrass, what other things does the manatee eat, or has its eating habits changed due to the changing world that some politicians are in denial of while calling scientists fake and liars. 

Let us look at some research. Our topic has been eelgrass or seagrass and manatee habitat-diet. I was reading an article titled, "Nutritional composition of forage resources consumed by Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) vulnerable to seagrass decline in the Indian River Lagoon" printed in Aquatic botany, May 2026.

The dominate food source for a manatee is seagrasses but they are known to consume sixty species of aquatic macrophytes. Macrophytes are large aquatic plants visible to the naked eye that grow in or near water. There are three kinds:

Emergent: Cattails

Submerged: Eelgrass

Floating: water lilies and duckweed

Harmful algal blooms have caused seagrasses to decline. These are some of the algal blooms that threaten Florida Eelgrass:

1. Brown Tide (Aureoumbra Iagunensis)-Indian River Lagoon

2. Picocyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp)-Florida Bay

3. Blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria)-Creates low-oxygen dead zones

4. Nuisance Macroalgae and Phytoplankton aka Super Blooms-Starve vegetation of photons

In this one specific location of the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), studies suggested the manatees populating this area had a dietary shift from seagrass to macroalgae over the past fifty years. 

Would this cause an evolution to the manatee? Darwinism? Or was it there all along as the backup plan?

The concern at this intersection is the consequence of this shift in food selection. This will express itself in nutritional and energetic means that suggestibly will have a variation of data difference based on different time frames for food source availability. 

This study compared macronutrients of Carbon, Nitrogen and phosphorus and proximate composition (acid detergent fiber [ADF], ash, crude fat, crude protein, total digestible nutrients [TDN], and total nonstructural CHO [TNC] ) to ten known forage items consumed by manatees in the IRL. 

The aim was to quantify macronutrient and elemental stoichiometry (C:N:P) of items consumed by manatees, evaluate the proximate composition of forage resources, and investigate the seasonal (wet vs dry) variations in macronutrient and proximate compositions. 

The results from the abstract stated, "a macroalgae-rich diet provides readily digestible energy but contains significantly less fiber, and exhibits altered nutritional balances compared to seagrass. Such a dietary transition may compromise hindgut fermentation efficiency, disrupt symbiotic microbiota, and exacerbate malnutrition risks to manatees in Florida." (Allen et al., May 2026, 

Pretty much, manatees need the grasses in their diet. Its one thing to do a short-term run on the switching of food based on availability but ideally you want them on the grasses. 

When you consider the diet of a manatee, you get informed on the anatomy of this creature. The manatee's large intestine and cecum form a fermentation vat measuring 20-30 meters long, making up to 70% of their total gut mass. Just wow. 

Digestion takes up to 4 to 10 days to pass through their gut allowing microbes time to break down tough plant cellulose. Genetic sequencing has identified 2,000 operational taxonomic units of bacteria in manatee faeces that is responsible for cellulose breakdown from low-nutrient seagrasses and abrasive aquatic plants.

When devising a plan to improve the diet of a manatee, you have to keep in mind that it is like gardening. You have to have good soil and nutrients to gain a payout of a harvest that is high quality and boost availability. 

Scientific studies point out overwintering in Florida indicate seasonal temperature drops and dietary shifts, or fasting alter their gut flora and elevate stress indicators like fecal cortisol metabolites. This is in the arena of Cold Stress Syndrome.

Just because I want you to learn this term, in vitro, it is Latin for "in glass". It describes biological or medical experiments, tests, and procedures conducted outside a living organism in a controlled artificial environment such as a test tube or a petri dish. You are welcome. 

Image by Qbert Studio

Did you know manatees are called Sirenians?

Manatees can eat 4-9 % of their body weight of aquatic vegetation each day. Because of foraging and diet, manatees can influence plant biomass, productivity, and community composition, while indirectly influencing invertebrate community and nutrient dynamics, including carbon sequestration. 

Manatees possess extensive digestive systems that efficiently digest plant material such as cellulose via hindgut fermentation and absorb water from the plants they consume. Manatees consume foods high in fiber but low in protein and caloric value. They maximize extraction of nutrient through a slow gut passage time and demonstrate high digestive efficiency compared to other mammalian herbivores. 

This is where the science paper reiterates the increasing anthropogenic impact due to changing environmental conditions since 2013, manatees along the Atlantic coast of Florida have experienced two consecutive unusual mortality events. 

Between December 2020 and April 2022, a total of 1392 cases were documented that included 1255 manatee mortalities and 137 field interventions to assist live individuals exhibiting signs of starvation. The necropsies showed signs of malnutrition. The prevalence of emaciated manatees were high in the IRL where a regime shift from seagrass to phytoplankton based primary production has occurred since 2011 following a major decline in seagrass areal cover in the estuary. 

A study investigating the UME (unusual mortality events) that occurred between 2012-2019 linked mortalities to clostridiosis (toxic effects of bacteria clostridium spp) and hypothesized that a diet low in fiber may have cause GI lesions providing a route for clostridial infection. 

Image by K Fuadi

This reenforces the reasoning that federal and state agencies along with help from the public to set up manatee report and rescue routes, restoration of aquatic habitat for long and short-term habitat, and ensuring these endeavors have a clear plan on monitoring the efforts to rehabilitate the manatee in its environments.

What we have left after humanity has decided to re-imagine a location that is on an ecosystem or habits is our responsibility to protect. We must do everything humanly possible to make sure that it does not go asunder. It depends on the good human and what exactly that re-imagining is for, and in what way it can benefit the stewardship of the creatures of the Earth.

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Interesting things to read:

"The In vitro Effects of Simulated Cold Stress Syndrome on the Gut Microflora of the Florida Manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris".

https://www.vin.com/apputil/content/defaultadv1.aspx?pId=11257&catId=32327&id=3865006&ind=487&objTypeID=17

Sources citated:

Allen, A.C., Sattleberger, D.C., Campbell, J.E., Kiszka, J.J. (2026, May) "Nutritional composition of forage resources consumed by Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris)". Aquatic Botany, Article 103972, Vol 204. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030437702500107X#section-snippets

 

Snorkeling with Manatees: Chomp, Chomp, Chomp

Image by Qbert Studio

Remember this: Imagine going on a hunt without a weapon. Just a snorkel and mask.

In August, I had a bucket list item. It was more a strong pull towards something. It happened to be a giant sea potato. I am a Celt, Magyar, and Irish among other things. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.

Let me go ahead and get the information that the Manatee is a threatened species under the  U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The manatee is not considered endangered but are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. You are not suppose to touch them. No touchy-touchy!

I do feel like our current Potus is trying to destroy all things good in life with whoever these poison Wormwood advisors are. Lets move on.

Conservation groups are trying to return them to endangered status. When you watch videos of boaters not paying attention, that run the manatees over, and how the water substrate manatees live in is being polluted up, it makes one wonder what is going on in people's heads. 

The rate at which hunters and outdoor sport people are radicalizing me is epic.  I am going to make this one about the manatee habitat. 

So we begin this new tale of the underwater meadow in the bay. 

Image by Adam Zubek-Nizol

Would not be an adventure if there wasn't some foreshadowing and a dire warning. Lewis and Clark are up in heaven saying, "Everyone has to die sometime."

My progeny tells me, "Don't go in the Florida water."

I say, "I am going in the Florida water."

My progeny says, "but there are brain eating amoebas."

I took what he said into consideration and decided that adventurers of old probably went into the Florida waters and ate the bear meat, which got them killed. Upward and onward. 

I booked a room right on the Florida water and went about securing a boat out to the center of the location where the year round population of manatees made their home. 

I am going to tell you now that I took a person that is afraid of dogs, horses, and a boulder shaped potato. He couldn't swim either.  The guide was told this because I was gonna need help with him. Difficulty level now went up to a 8.5 on the scale. I wasn't sure if this was going to end well, or with me being embarrassed.  

Weather is important in planning your excursion. You need to know when the tide is, if there is going to be lightning or rain, and what the temperature of the water is. The area we were in is King's Bay in Florida. It is 600-acres at the headwaters of Crystal River. Of course, in the 1950-80s there was a re-imagining of the shoreline around the area that had an impact on its natural attributes at the time. As humans go, there always has to be a re-imagining. UGH! I read there was a substantial agricultural and urban land use conversion that contributed to nitrate entering the springshed and there was mystery invasive aquatic vegetation introduced in the 1960s. That is the lore in short.

The King's Bay, a fresh spring waterway, is a first-magnitude spring system that feeds seventy individual limestone springs and pumps out hundreds of millions of gallons of water daily from a Florida Aquifer. It stays at a constant temperature of 72 degrees year-round. The King's Bay connects to Crystal River. Crystal River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, or is it the Gulf of America. I am not going to learn new land mass names or water routes so for me its the Gulf of Mexico. Adios mio!

This makes the area tidally influenced and slightly brackish in the outer sections. These springs act as the largest natural warm-water refuge for wintering West Indian manatees. 

The first guide we booked rained us out and wasn't trying to work around the weather. The next day, we secured another guide that worked around the weather for a three hour private guided tour. We went down to the meet site and drove over to where the captain is docked. We got aboard and cruised around the waterway. We cruised into the area of Hunter's Spring Park. There is a lot of people in the water and the amount of congestion from the water vehicles and toys looked like chaos. The water was clear and you could see the fish. 

The guide pointed out that the manatees were not in this area due to the amount of people but in one area there is a metal grate that has eelgrass growing in it. She said the manatees loved this grass and eventually used the weight of their bodies to bend and get under it to get to the grass. The submerged grass she mentioned is eelgrass (Vallisneria americana) but it is called tapegrass or wild celery.

We cruise over to the middle of the bay where the captain docked and we started to offload. My friend, who is 5'8" in a scuba suit, gets off and stands in the water. Reality sets in and he realizes that he is up to his chest in water standing with with a pool noodle. He can't see into the water because it has been disturbed so it is not clear. I am coming down the ladder and he decides he wants to go up the ladder. Much like Gandalf, my behind is letting him know he can not pass. I knew he was going to do that. The captain seen him making his move and distracted him to walk off toward the guide by letting him know he is standing in the water and not dying. It was long enough for me to get in. I begin to drive him toward the guide. 

For someone who had never snorkeled before, once he got away from the boat, started using the snorkel and tube then put his face in the water, he was okay. He is one of these people that never got the chance to let his brain grow from worldly interaction. He has come a long way. It is about experiencing life. 

We got out there snorkeling around and my mask wasn't fitting. It is leaking water into my nose area. I had to go back to the boat and get another one before I swallowed the Florida water. I didn't want to accepted the alien amoeba inside of me. I wondered if I was going to get a flesh-eating disease in my lungs. 

I get my mask changed out. The group has moved along following the manatees. I am swimming around. I decided to do as the giant potatoes do; sit still on top of the water.  I am pretty sure I looked like a bloated dead body out there waiting for the next CSI episode to happen. It wasn't long before my ears could hear the chomp, chomp, chomp of the boulder that had now come to rest underneath me. At this point, I was channeling alligator energy. 

We know not to touch them. It was amazing floating over it, watching and listening. One of them had a baby with her.

That chomping sound is like a loud earworm. I am thinking that is me at a Hotpot buffet eating octopus. Chomp, chomp, chomp. 

Image by Ovidiu Timplaru

Let us insert the science. 

I am over a bed of eelgrass, which is long and ribbon like with green leaves and can grow up to six foot long. This area looked like an underwater meadow due to the denseness of the plants. The sediment it grows on is soft and mushy but not completely without solidity. This grass is considered a foundational species. The manatee is considered an indicator and keystone species in the aquatic ecosystem. 

What is a foundational species?

A foundation species is a dominant organism that shapes, defines, and structures the bay by creating habitats and modulating the availability of resources. The role eelgrass plays is in stabilizing the sediment, improving the water clarity, producing oxygen, and sequestering carbon. If you have ever had a fish tank, it provides for food and nursery habitats for waterway creatures.

This eelgrass is actively modifying the environment by acting as an ecosystem engineer by constructing shelter, food, and safety from bad weather and predators. 

If you think about water, there is movement and flow brought on by underwater currents and airflow above that shuttles energy and nutrients around a given area. 

Given this knowledge, one can understand what would happen in the reverse of this situation. One of the problems with a reverse is it can cause the eelgrass to die. This die-off causes the manatee to starve if there is not another food source available. Manatees do migrate but not all. 

Water quality can be poor due to these factors:

• Nutrient pollution
• Eutrophication
• Increased turbidity
• Chemical toxins

These scenarios cause a murky, toxic condition where sunlight is not able to get to the plant and the plant suffocates then dies. 

Poor water quality can bring excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers or sewage. High nutrient levels that trigger microalgae blooms, phytoplankton, and epiphytic algae contribute to poor water quality. This can cause light starvation. The murky water and thick layers of algae on top can block out the sunlight obstructing photosynthesis for plants to grow.  Increased turbidity suspends the sediment and dense algae makes the water cloudy and dark. Heavy metals, pesticides, and oil build up in the local sediment and water can contribute to poor water quality from chemical toxins. These toxins can be absorbed by the eelgrass and make it fragile and prone to disease. 

As the eelgrass dies, it stops trapping sediment. This release of dirt goes back into the water and makes the area even worse for future growth.

What has been going on with the restoration of eelgrass (Vallisneria americana) in the great state of Florida 2026?

There have been several previous locations that have planted large amounts of eelgrass over a substantial acreage of shoreline. These are East Lake Tohopekaliga, Crystal River, Weeki Wachee River, and Indian River Lagoon. Specialized teams clear nuisance algae, plant new eelgrass, and install protective steel mesh cages over plants to revive springs and feed the manatees. The amount ranges around 150 cages per acre. The cages are cleaned monthly to allow sunlight to reach the plant. These cages stay in place for twelve months then they are removed. The process is simple: remove, replant, and maintain.

For 2026 restoration projects, spearheaded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) with conservation partners Conservation Florida and Sea & Shoreline, are restoring these areas:

East Lake Toho

Installation of 250,000 native eelgrass plants across 50 acres of the Northshore, funded by a $2.6 million state legislative appropriation administered through the FWC.

Lake George

41 fenced enclosures overing over 155 acres with an additional 1 million eelgrass plants installed. There is a subsequent St. Johns River eelgrass revegetation solicitation closing in Oct 2026.

Lake Poinsett

This site is used by researchers to test 864 experimental plots to determine the most effective plant sizing and densities for long term statewide propagation. 

In closing, when you consider all the ways in which weather, human habitation, and the shifting landscape cause damage to core habitats, it is great to know that there are plans being executed to rebuild and help the natural world flourish. 

What about the manatee's role in this as an indicator and a keystone species?  What about that lazy spud?

Image by Hamim Fadillah 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~