IRL Report Card
“Is the lagoon getting better or worse?”
Adding the most recent available state agency data, we can see that lagoon-wide, water quality and seagrass improved in 2017 after the severe decline (and associated massive fishkill) in 2016. It is interesting to see how seagrass trends along with water quality, although there appears to be somewhat of a lag in the response. When water quality improves, seagrass improves, and when water quality declines, seagrass declines. Clean water quality is key to the health of our seagrasses as well as the rest of us that use the lagoon!
Thanks to a generous donation from the Galesi Family Foundation, MRC and Applied Ecology also added ten major lagoon tributaries to the IRL Report Card this year. The tributary data can be most easily viewed on the story map.
We also updated the water quality and seagrass scores here for each of the ten regions of the lagoon as listed on the map below.
MRC will be taking the updated information out to the community soon! Check back to find a workshop near you!
Regions of the Indian River Lagoon
The ten regions of the lagoon as listed on the map are
Mosquito Lagoon (ML)
1 ML North
2 ML Central
3 ML South
Banana River Lagoon (BRL)
4 BRL North
5 BRL South
Central Indian River Lagoon (CIRL)
6 CIRL North
7 CIRL South
North Indian River Lagoon (NIRL) / South Indian River Lagoon (SIRL)
8 SIRL North
9 SIRL Central
10 SIRL South
Steps to Completing the IRL Health Update
Step 2: Define Lagoon Health Indicators
Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data
Nearly all of the funding for this report came from community members like you. It is important that this health analysis remain objective and independent of political positions. Help keep it that way by contributing to the next IRL Report Card now!