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When she called me last night from the county jail on her inmate telephone debit account, my lady Kari and V.P. running mate said the night before she’d had wonderful swimmy died and went to heaven dreams about me, which she could not describe in a letter because it would not be allowed by the jail censors to leave the jail. I said I wished the angels were giving me dreams about her like that, but, alas, I’m out here in the free world working my ass off on a hard rock pile and feeling awful a lot of the time because of the nasty spirit shit I’m absorbing, but that’s nothing compared to what it’s like for her in the jail, and I was glad she’d had those dreams that made her feel wonderful. Her probation violation hearing at the Plantation Key courthouse is tomorrow, Wednesday. They will take her up there tonight, shackled, in the sheriff’s. We have no clue what will happen tomorrow.
Meanwhile, more stuff happened yesterday,
which led to further conversation in one of the Facebook threads reported in yesterday’s Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” and other US Memorial Day musings and roadside and seaside attractions on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, reported at goodmorningkeywest.com post at goodmorningkeywest.com. So, here is the entire thread through right now. If you read yesterday’s post, scroll down to Susie Warren Henry’s first comment, and read from there:
Also today, excerpts from 3 emails recently sent to me by Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry; Jerry lives in Key Haven, just above Key West:
1)
Politics today is worse than horrific —look at some right wing senators and congressmen -aside from uninformed stupidity, they are ideological sadists; sludge at the bottom of the barrel…..UGH !! the voters where are they at—?? twisted and confused. ???!!!
By the way I count the jets every morning while I swim at dawn -we have at least twice as many Jet fighters , maybe more than usual ——a bigger war seems eminent.-more money down the drain directly to the corporations that make military equipment… ENOUGH -Jerry.
2)
we should not be inthemiddle east at all!
3)
good you put a real conceptual thought about the worthlessness of war.
John Nash and his lovely wife -life is so fragile and precious. Nash just snuffed out-
jolts me.
keep up your good work -makes some people think-hopefully.. !!
kind regards and thanks for all your stimulating fine work—Jerry
Jerry used to be an avid diver and remains an avid fisherman and lover of and advocate for the ocean, and has schooled himself in its biology and chemistry.
I wish I could find the email Jerry sent to me a few days ago, about his discussion with Park Rangers on Key Largo, in which they grimly described to him what they observed on the reef after a cruise ship had dumped its sewerage into the sea, en route from Miami to Key West. A south-flowing “inside” or “eddy” current caused by the north-flowing Gulf Stream, is what cruise ships and other sea vessels use traveling south from the Florida mainland. My friend Sandy Downs, who lives on Cudjoe Key, just across the canal from my gracious host Todd German’s home, told me over a year and a half ago that I should meet and get to know Jerry Weinstock. Sandy has a son who is a commercial fisherman. Several years ago, Sandy told me of her son from time to time coming upon patches of the Atlantic outside the reef, which smelled like raw sewerage. She said she was with him one of those times.
Jerry emailed me about the reef:
SLOAN: ,,,, I did contact both the University of Florida
Natural history museum -info from a Ph.D : also the field Museum
in Chicago -to which i have s special relationship with-biggest and best in this
country—have been a member since age 12 years old;
TEXT EXACT: “Corals grow around the world in shallow tropical seas..—-
The tiny coral animals capture microscopic animals (zooplankton )
with their stinging tentacles, but their main source of food and energy is tiny
photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae)-that reside within living coral tissue. Moving water
supplies the coral with additional nutrients and oxygen. THE WATER MUST BE CLEAR
SO THAT LIGHT-DEPENDENT — ZOOXANTHELAE- CAN SURVIVE. . NITROGEN EXISTS IN WATER IN VARIOUS AMOUNTS in all oceans -organisms are relatively resistant -and if death occurs it is over a period of time. —-years —and the concentrations must be high. Sudden die off-dredging of any sort contraindicated-extremely destructive -as any compromise of the light source which is sunlight.-
causes rapid die off—debris and especially polluted run-off with silt -that is deadly”……..
behind every floating cruise city is a football field wide swath of black -Gray silt-repugnant.
proof there it is -I ran my boat behind cruise monsters a dozen times or more —terrible mess stirred up
which incidentally killed the harbor -our harbor…. Happy memorial day for the reef —Jerry
I replied:
I still think nitrogen and phosphorus are part of the problem. People dive on the reef daily, and they can see it and the sun shining onto it through the water. That’s why I am not convinced cruise ships killed the reef by turning the water cloudy, turbid. If the water was turbid all the time on the reef, that would be different. I’ve been on the water around Key West, fishing with a guide friend. The water was clear. The sun was getting into the water just like when I fished the Keys for nearly 4 decades around Islamorada.
Jerry wrote:
THE AVERAGE VISIBILITY BEFORE THE CRUISE SHIPS WAS 100 to- 200 feet ;
NOW 20 to 30 feet is a lot —and sometimes much less —the harbor in Key West was
an Aquarium —-a translucent Plankton , crustacean paradise —fabulous fishing—NOW DEAD AND OPAQUE——-of course nitrogen and many other chemicals contribute —but NOT the main cause of OUR sudden die-off……..SINCERELY< Jerry ( hope things straighten out a bit with Kari )
one of he the causes of “fast buck freddie’s” closure —-the Tarpon fishermen and women
several hundred left —they were well healed $$$$$ -and fished Tarpon in the harbor—-death of the harbor caused them to move —-interviewed several at the square grouper restaurant years ago—Jerry
the cruise boat crowds had other dynamics inimitable to a high level store—-not compatible..
different socio-economic class etc. a major difference —-and too many people !!
I replied:
I imagine there are a number of reasons for the Key West harbor being less pristine, cruise ships stir up lots of silt is a big piece of it, but I don’t imagine cruise ships are dumping in the harbor. You keep going back to the harbor, but it’s the reef that is our topic. I’m going to speak with dive shops about visibility on the reef, hear what they say.
After talking with a dive shop operator yesterday morning, I wrote to Jerry:
Talked with a dive shop owner at Key West Bight about an hour ago, who has been here 40 years. Said yesterday, visibility underwater on the reef was 25 feet, 30 feet the day before. Visibility depends on weather, wind currents and the Gulf Stream. Sometimes visibility is 80 to pushing 100 feet. Visibility around the Vandenberg can be very good, depends on above factors. Did not feel cruise ships were the cause of reef dying, cited chemical fertilizers from mainland. I said, also sewerage pollution from keys. Operator said people blame it on dogs and cats, laughed. I laughed, said I blame it on people. At the presentation put on by Last Stand and and the Florida Everglades Society in the NOAA facility on Truman Waterfront about 2 years ago, Billy Causey, District Director of the Federal Marine Sanctuary was adamant that nitrogen is fatal to corals, and he was equally adamant that chemicals tests done over time at the reef did not show significant nitrite count. His position is adamant: chemical fertilizers from the mainland have nothing to do with our reef dying.
Jerry wrote:
Subject: false propaganda
Believe what you want to-
I am surprised with your intelligence -you are so easily taken in-
why do you think they sank the Vandenberg ??? -because the reefs were alive and beautiful;
You swim in the water full of cruise sewage not me.; MRSA terrifies me….
Without the Vandenberg-dive ships would be out of business ,
especially the “Dive industry” anywhere near Key West
I see them leave every day from where I swim -TO the Vandenberg NOT the reef
Do you think we haven’t done chemical analysis privately—- we have more than once
lots of petrol -chemical dispersants —-and laden with bacteria—most nitrogen comes from fecal material dumped usually at the site -it is quickly dispersed —concentration diminished -DILUTED
more than a hundred miles away from sites sensitive. The cruise people have done an excellent job -along with Historic tours —of shifting causality -with sufficient money anyone will testify to anything….—————-!! We have lots of nitwits denying climate change and evolution and even science;
My position is clear,—,my mind is quite satisfied !! SINCERELY -Jerry.
(without light energy from the sun life would not exist on this planet-the same with Coral)..
I replied:
Jerry, your argument that the sea is so turbid that sunlight does not reach the reef is not supported by what I have seen with my own two eyes and what a 40-year dive shop operator told me this morning. The Vandenberg comment was about water clarity, which you say basically does not exist and is the cause of the death of the reef. The dive shop operator laughed when I said someone is arguing with me that turbid water killed the reef. Be that as it may, I am not the person where your argument should be filed. The person, actually the persons, are the Key West mayor and city commissioners, the Monroe County commissioners, the local mullet wrappers, the Sanctuary for which you have such high regard, which, as far as I know, never made a peep about cruise ships killing the sea and the reef, Reef Relief, which you also have had high regard, which, as far as I know, never made a peep about cruise ships killing the sea but, and instead, hired a cruise ship executive to be in its board of directors and accepted donations from that cruise ship executive’s cruise ship line, and Last Stand, which you hold in high regard, but I have yet to hear Last Stand come out against cruise ships killing the sea and the reef, and Jolly and Will Benson, Will is a local tarpon guide, who formed a PAC to fight the “channel-widening” referendum, actually a referendum to bring in bigger and more cruise ships to Key West, who have yet to attack cruise ships for polluting the sea and killing the reef. As far as I know, Jerry, I am the only person in the Keys who has publicly and persistently gone after all of the above for doing nothing to stop cruise ships from calling on Key West, who has publicly and persistently called cruise ships sea and reef killers, and you have flat refused to do what I did, and you tell me I have my head stuck in the sand, so to speak? That’s hilarious. If I had my way, all cruise ships would be scuttled and sunk in their berths, but you have not come close to proving they, basically alone, killed the reef by making the ocean around the keys turbid so sunlight cannot get to the reef and that’s why it died. I am satisfied cruise ships contributed to the death of the reef with their massive dumping of human waste and food scraps ground into chum and oil. US Navy ships did the same, and worse. The beginning of the cure is, all humans leave the Keys, forever. And the planet.
Sloan
Jerry wrote:
increased turbidity is it PERIOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!
for rapid die off —-
I and my daughter have logged 10,000 dives over several decades
we are experts way beyond any crap you have heard ,,, !!!
Jerry wrote again:
Subject: conviction
I KNOW I AM RIGHT-and time will prove it-along with ACTUAL scientific assessment.!!
I am totally convinced —-Nitrogen did not cause SUDDEN-die off HERE ;
noxious as Nitrogen is -but does enter this discussion as -irrelevant —silt and turbidity the cause
Land based completely what the cruse industry wants you to believe-so believe it..
What happen to the harbor happened to the reef —-clear as can be…!!!!!..
I have dived south Florida reefs for going on 8 decades -my daughter 4 decades
Match that with anyone.-no one can put those numbers up…!!
I have evidence it will be in my book !!!!!!!!!! SLOAN: thanks for stimulating me -really -Jerry
have a great day —Jerry
I replied:
Jerry,
I don’t believe anything the cruise ship lines say about their impact on the sea. I don’t know where you get that.
I don’t see your evidence that there is the turbidity at the reef you say is there, and was there, and that it killed most of the reef. I understand the photosynthesis, or lack thereof, argument. But it needs the turbidity part of the equation to prove your case. You need to prove the turbidity exists, has existed, at a level to hinder, or stop, photosynthesis, which, in turn, killed what the corals fed on and the corals died.
Sloan
I wrote:
If you are right about turbidity, surely there are divers and fishermen and ocean scientists down here who would back you up on that point.
I wrote:
And, you need to prove what caused the turbidity, and, again, surely there are divers and fishermen and scientists down here who can testify to that, if it is as you say.
Jerry wrote:
I was at the Tropic with Donna and saw Ozman -she—a diver, an old friend from turkey —
her husband films underwater scenes for sea documentaries ;
She was helping him out while he was just filming in Cuban waters —had a tan
and she looked beautiful —-also a part time projectionist at the Tropic.
Filming in Cuba as the water here is MUCH TOO CLOUDY relative to
where they were able to film.. where the clarity is superior to around our
residual reefs.-we have been discussing this and other related topics
for years …..(.We have known each other for many years )
She also has considerable technical experience.as does her
husband—— a professional film maker.———(we saw _-Far From the Maddening Crowd
intense and dramatic. -fine scenes in England)—regards jerry
I replied:
It is on you, Jerry, to prove to the scientific community here in the Florida Keys, and to the Keys public, and to the local pubic officials, and to NOAA, and to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and to the Florida Governor and Legislature, and to the US Environmental Protection Agency, and to the President and Congress, that the ocean here is unnaturally cloudy because of human causes, and what is causing the cloudiness, and it is cruise ships, which also call on Cuba and many other Caribbean countries. Just outside our reef is a major shipping channel, used by tankers as well as cruise ships. We have a huge river running nearby, the Gulf Stream, which shifts location ongoing. We have strong winds, which shift. We have huge storms. All of which also affect water clarity. Again, I recommend local divers, fisherman, who have been in the Keys for decades, as your evidence that the ocean here, the ocean, not Key West harbor, is more cloudy than it used to be, and that the cause is human, and that it is cruise ships. Forget Key West harbor, Jerry. It’s a red herring. As is your canal, where you live. The ocean and the reef are the subject matter.
Sloan
Jerry wrote:
forget it —I have wasted too much precious time.
Jerry wrote:
I have wasted too much time on amateurs——you are a self-appointed expert you
do whatever you have to do —BUT I AM CORRECT_-no doubt about it -not entirely but my veracity is over 90 % —-you are debating with someone with infinitely far more knowledge and education than you —-but I respect YOUR HEART AND YOUR MIND and Especially your motives and tenacity
and I respect you -and your integrity even if you have your own self-doubts —maybe i have more respect for you than you do yourself -but not in ====science—you have no idea how complex this is…
to be truthful this IS out of your league scientifically -you know I taught select PhD’s
at the university of Florida and even Northwestern—-where i was offered an unlimited scholarship-
practically a first…———-when you have actual info let me know -facts -NOT opinion;
Do you understand the “General theory of relativity” -I do —I have affection you and you in your own way have stimulated my intellect —-keep up your work -it is important-Jerry.
Most sincerely!!!! Jerry
I replied:
Uh, Jerry - I never claimed to be a scientist, ocean or otherwise. You claimed that about yourself. I have, however, dealt with 2 scientists in the past three years, Brian Lapointe, PhD, Bill Causey, PhD, who are viewed as knowledgeable in ocean science and reef death, and they are 180 degrees opposite. You have an entirely different view from both of them. My request for proof of turbidity, caused by cruise ships, is what killed most of our reef is reasonable and rational. It also was intended to help you make your case in a way scientists and idiots like me, and fishermen and dive shop owners, and elected officials, and government bureaucrats would accept - if your proof was clear and convincing. I seriously doubt they want to hear about your canal being turbid and polluted, as far away from the reef and Key West harbor as your canal is. Your canal was dug way too deep to begin with, and, like many deep canals in the Keys, it now is polluted. The tides don’t change out the water in deep canals very well, if at all, depending on the canals. On Key Haven, where you live, is an old sewerage treatment plant, which became leaky and was putting sewerage into the environment, perhaps that has been corrected recently. The harbor has all sorts of polluting agents in it beside cruise ships. I hope you will drop both the harbor and your canal from your arguments that cruise ships clouded the sea and cut off the sunlight and killed most of the reef’s food, which killed most of the reef. I hope you will proceed as a scientist would proceed, seeking to convince other scientists, not an old worn out lawyer, who will not stop insisting on proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that cruise ships, which he hates and wants to see scuttled and sunk, every last one of them, killed 90 percent of our reef.
Sloan
Mother Nature
sloanbashinsky@outlook.com
