See full version: Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
His research documents that the southern IRL dolphins are “sicker” that their lagoon comrades north of them. Dolphins are site specific and have strong family and territorial bonds. Their ranges generally are limited to one “area” of the lagoon. So even when water quality is awful from discharges, they stay, as we would to protect our homes after a hurricane.
Tonight I am chairing “Love Your Lagoon,” a fundraiser of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation. http://www.indianriverlagoon.org. Funds will support and benefit the HBOI Symposium, that occurred yesterday and will again next year. Over 300 scientists and students from across the state collaborated giving presentations on “bio-diversity,” within the 156 miles lagoon and it’s changes. It was an inspiring and depressing day. [links]
I first became became intrigued with Harbor Branch four years ago when I read the research of Dr. Gregory Bossert and lobo mycosis numbers in southern IRL/SLR dolphins.
Dr Bossert’s work states the polluted discharges from local canals and Lake Okeechobee are the reason southern IRL dolphins are even “sicker” with lobo mycosis. Since his research came out in the mid 2000s, starting in 2013, a “UME” Unexplained Mortality Event has taken the life of 92 northern lagoon dolphins, 132 manatees, 350 pelicans and 40 percent of the seagrasses have died since a “super-bloom”/brown tide in the northern/central lagoon that started in 2011.
His research documents that the southern IRL dolphins are “sicker” that their lagoon comrades north of them. Dolphins are site specific and have strong family and territorial bonds. Their ranges generally are limited to one “area” of the lagoon. So even when water quality is awful from discharges, they stay, as we would to protect our homes after a hurricane.
Mark is older than me. I was born in 1964, and I believe Mark is about ten years my senior. When you’re a kid, that’s “a lot.” But it’s just enough to for constant admiration “from younger to older.” I have been admiring Mark Perry my entire life…
LYL 2015, honoring Mark Perry, invitation. FAU Harbor Branch, Love Your Lagoon, 2015 honing Mark Perry.(STD Cover) Mark and his wife, Nancy at FOS’ 50th anniversary. (Photo from event.) LYL 20014. With Mark Perry and others. (L to R to L: Comr. Doug Smith, Mark Perry, Joe Duke, JTL, Sen. Joe Negron, Sherri Plymale.) (Photo HBOIF, Brian S.) [links]
Early FOS, Kruegar Creek, ca. 1970s. (Tides of Time) more
Over the years, my parents kept me abreast of the Perry family and what was always most interesting to me was Mark’s journey with Florida Oceanographic, an organization his father helped found in 1964 that was originally located in my childhood neighborhood of St Lucie Estates, along Kruegar Creek, in Stuart. I often visited there on my bicycle. more
Mark, his brother Chris, and his parents Clifton and Mimi Perry attended St Mary’s Church as my family did and does today. I first met Mark at St Mary’s…I was probably 3 or 4 years old.
The third time was a charm for the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation’s (HBOIF) annual “Love Your Lagoon” dinner. This year, organizers doubled sponsorships and boosted ticket sales by 35 percent, raising $81,000 in critical funding to benefit FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s (HBOI) Indian River Lagoon Observatory research and outreach efforts. This year’s proceeds were a 53 percent increase over last year’s numbers.
A record 300+ people attended the dinner that celebrated lagoon research and this year’s guest of honor, Alma Lee Loy, selected by the HBOIF Board of Directors for her long-standing role in local leadership and commitment to the environment and the Indian River Lagoon. Proceeds from the dinner help to underwrite events including the recent Indian River Lagoon Symposium, Public Meeting on Lagoon Health and the “Our Global Estuary” national workshop regarding estuarine observatories held at HBOI.
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In addition, proceeds from the 2016 “Love Your Lagoon” gala will support the fifth annual IRL Symposium, a multi-institutional, multi-agency effort to provide a forum for discussing IRL science and its application to management of the lagoon. This year’s symposium will be held on Feb. 11 and 12 at HBOI. For more information, visit http://www.indianriverlagoon.org/symposium.html.
Oyster Sponsors: Mr. James Johnson and Mrs. Gretchen Johnson, PNC Bank, Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Dolphin Sponsors: Dr. Ralph W. Alewine, III and Mrs. Betty C. Alewine, Mr. Howard Brennan & Mrs. Colleen Brennan, Evans Properties, Inc., Ms. Katha Kissman, Dr. Ed Lippisch and Mrs. Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, Mr. John N. McConnell, Jr. and Mrs. Marilyn McConnell, Mr. Michael D. Minton & Mrs. Misty Minton and The Law Firm of Dean, Mead, Minton & Zwemer, Ms. Marjorie Raines, Mr. William J. Stewart, Esq. and Mrs. Laurie Kaneb-Stewart, Mr. Michael Toner and Mrs. Carol Toner, 93.7 WGYL, 97.1 Ocean FM, and Newsradio 1490 WTTB.
Seagrass Sponsors: Mr. Michael O’Reilly and Mrs. Marie O’Reilly.