Hurricane IAN Aftermath: First Reports from Sanibel Island and Florida
01 Oct, 2022

September 30, 2022
To all in the extended CORAL family who are asking and wondering: We are safe and our sometime field offices on Sanibel Island are still standing in the wake of Hurricane Ian. However, just a stone’s throw away, the historic buildings at the landmark Sanibel lighthouse are gone, virtually without a trace. TOP: Before… and BOTTOM: After.
We are working on a Florida report for next week, as we fear that many aquaculture facilities, fish farms, and marine biology centers in Florida have sustained damage.
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum appears to have been hard hit on Sanibel, as well as marine conservation and biology research facilities on Tarpon Bay. Sanibel is a world-renowned mecca for shell collectors, as well as the sprawling Ding-Darling National Wildlife Refuge, and marine biology research station on Tarpon Bay. Located on a subtropical barrier island in SW Florida, Sanibel has peserved roughly half of the island nature preserves, including the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States.
If you have first-hand reports from affected aquatics people and places in Florida, please post a note on here.