tommymonza

36Tango

Before we bought, we rented a boat on a few occasions and did nothing but explore all of the canals. Don't trust "its only 20 minutes to open water". If you get to far up the river you could be a few minutes "out" yet still be 20 minutes to the Yacht Club. We wanted to be able to boat to Sanibel and Ft Myers beach, so we needed to be on the very south side (Delano Court). I know a guy that built up off of Burnt Store north of Matlache and he has a 45 minute no wake trip to get him out to the bridge, and then he either has to go up and over Pine Island (including the shoal north of it), or run south between the island and mainland. Be VERY diligent on doing this before you buy or you could be unpleasantly surprised. Don't get me wrong, Cape Coral is a nice place to be on the water if you cannot afford elsewhere (it is all that we could afford), you just really have to be careful.

Twin O/B Sonic

I remember when we lived in Fla there was a constant battle w/how, when, where the Corp of Engineers released water from Lake Okeechobee.

Madman7

Very informative thread..... I've been looking in the Cape for the past few months as I have a lot of friends down that way. The FMO runs are a big plus, but this thread may give me pause and reevaluate my options.

36Tango

Visit the Calusa Water Keeper website to get up to speed on the water quality in the Cape Coral/Ft Myers/Pine Island Sound area. Realtors and even homeowners that deny a problem will tell you that the water is “stained” due to the tannins released from the roots of the mangroves. I bought into this to justify purchasing in CC, but fairly soon figured out that it was, for the most part, BS. There are lots of places in Florida with brackish water that is not dark and polluted. The source is absolutely Okeechobee watershed, big sugar taking over the Everglades, and the wealthier east coast shutting down Okeechobee discharge at Stuart, sending it all down to Cape Coral/Ft Myers/Pine Island Sound.

If this is not at all accurate, please post up some documentation that shows differently. Not opinions or feelings, but hard data. I do believe the problem will be relieved, but it could take 20 years or better.

https://calusawaterkeeper.org/news/e...e-life-227447/

Hoodoo 2.0

https://thecapitolist.com/after-gett...hemselves/amp/



I always thought unchecked sprawl was as much to blame as inland ag.
The combination of the two factors along with the river being a direct deposit source into a shallow estuary really makes it blow up.
By contrast the water quality in Tampa Bay is much better now than when I was a kid. At least around the Ruskin area.

Twin O/B Sonic

I lived in the Sebastian/Vero Beach area from about ‘2005 - ‘2014 and that was a constant subject the whole time.

Corp of Engineers said the dumping of the lake was A., to reduce risk of flooding/dam failure to the east and B., to reduce runoff to the Everglades to the west.

While there we boated the local Intracoastal continuously and the canal from Stuart to Lake Okeechobee.

The water in that area looked like nasty coffee!
You could drop a quarter in 6” of water and not find it!

The farther south we went, the better it got.

I remember the first run we did from Stuart, south and being able to see the bottom in 15’ of water!

I was stunned.

We camped on the spoil islands in the IC and explored all of the Barrie islands from Port Saint Lucie to Port Canaveral and saw more than most.

I also belonged to a Melbourne based recreational water use, protection group, mostly based on combatting the hype from the save the manatee nut jobs.

The manatee zombies are the ones responsible for the huge increase of No Wake zones in Fla!

I know first hand, all the area described, has a bottom lined w/decaying leaves, 2” deep!

That turns water black same as all farm ponds you see.

We boated all of the area from Bonita Springs to North Captiva and Pine Islands, the Gulf and backwaters and saw similar.

Fla is a unique ecosystem and it’s always changing.

I had a heated debate w/a nephew over government projects that didn’t understand what they were doing.

I gave the example of the red tide that comes up the east coast of Fla every yr, and kills everything!

And no one knows why!

(should have seen him and his daughter and son on their phones googling an answer to shut me up!)

Hoodoo 2.0

I agree for the most part but just wanted to clear up the tannins thing. All dark waters aren’t necessarily polluted. The tannins are picked up along the way as the creeks and rivers flow through natural vegetation.

tommymonza

It’s a been 30 years since I was on Lake Okeechobee, but back then the water was this smelly green pea soup that you couldn’t see 2 inches through.

The Gulf is a big still millpond especially during the summer and not until winter when we get cold fronts during the winter than it gets flushed down to the Keys.

I get a kick out of the statements the started a decade ago that we don’t know why we have soo much red tide killing fish. Duh. I can give you a reason. We barely ever had red tide up until 25 years ago when the dumping of the Coloosahatchee increased to all time highs and the Redtides got worse and worse.

It sucks if you’re in the beach business and have a restaurant on the Gulf as it gets so bad on a west wind that you can’t breathe and now the red tides last months. I foresee another outbreak with all the summer heat and inland rain we’ve had lately.

36Tango

Tannin gets way too much credit. Years ago there were actually more mangrove trees along the Caloosahatchee but the water was much, much cleaner. In other parts of Florida (I see you are from Sarasota), the tannin argument may hold true, but for the specific area of Cape Coral/Ft Myers, it is more due to the crap water coming down the river. The area surrounding the Indian River is not far behind as far as bad water quality.

I am not saying anything here that is not accurate. When we owned homes and a commercial property in Cape Coral I also convinced myself that it was just the tannins. When a guy literally sees thousands of dead fish, dolphins, and manatees, it sure changes perspective. It was not the only reason we sold out of Cape Coral, but it certainly played a big role. Since selling we have chosen to visit other locations in Florida and we have enjoyed the clean waters.

My attempt was to give the original poster some insight.....................