This is my post for #freewrite Saturday prompt Habitat by 
Habitat is very important when it comes to the condition of a river, and here in the Indian River Lagoon, we had one of the healthiest Habitats of anywhere in the state. We had the best oysters and the best fishing but it is all changed. It is supposed to be a brackish water lagoon but for the last hundred years, man (the state)has been trying to stop the freshwater from entering it. Sometime in the 1990s, they succeeded at stopping it. They are keeping the freshwater for the developments and in turn, completely changed the salinity of our river (lagoon). Now we do not have many oysters, they like brackish water. we have very little mullet grass, it is a long grass that gives fish a hiding place from what wants to eat them.
How they did this was to hold the fresh water back until they could dump it all at once and this would cause algae to bloom and they would tell the public it was the freshwater causing the blooms, which the public was outraged that they were not stopping this from happening and they got public opinion against the fresh water, when all along if they would let it come out naturally there would be no problem. Politics killed the river. Developers wanted the freshwater, developers line the pockets of politicians, politicians get the state to hold back the water and dump it.
Ten years after getting the freshwater "detoured" the Indian River Lagoon had a complete eco crash, we lost 95% of all seagrass, thousands of fish, birds, shellfish, dolphins, and manatees. There were little stories in the news but there was no public outcry like there was when the algae blooms happened. How is that so?
The state did the same thing to Biscayne Bay in Miami and to Tampa Bay. Both places were alive with sea life until the state came in and blocked the fresh water from entering. How many times are they going to get away with doing this? The sad thing is, if you ask anyone who does not make their living off the river what is wrong with the river, they will tell you it is to much fresh water. They think brackish water is nasty looking but it is where the food for the starting of sea life thrives, clear water has no food in it, no food for filter feeders like clams and oysters or small fry, (just hatched fish) The salinity in the river is saltier than the salinity in the ocean.
This is a few of the things the state has done in my area, they diked off all the mangrove swamps and made mosquito impoundments, these places are where juvenile fish grew up. Now they can not get into them. There were three big coves with rock bottoms where juvenile fish could hide till they grew up, they filled them in to build a road. They dug an inlet to let ocean water in making the river saltier. Now they are pumping sand from offshore onto the beach to keep it from eroding around the houses and all that is happening is every time we get a storm the sand they put there washes into the ocean and is covering the reef with sand, killing the coral and other things that grow there. But who cares??? Not the politicians or developers, as long as there is a beach and no one sees what it is killing.
Sorry, this ran long and for sounding like a rant, which it is, my blood boils when I think of how the state can manipulate the people to get what they want, and killing the habitat.
No fishing today, it was supposed to rain and have thunderstorms, it sprinkled, go figure.