STUNNED AND CONFUSED AT THE ANNUAL EVERGLADES CONFERENCE
The annual Everglades Conference, held January 28-30, 2026, in Naples, usually brings together governors, elected officials, public agencies, scientists, and activists to discuss one of the largest ecological restoration projects in the country.
However, a few days before the opening of the 2026 conference, a wave of cancellations came from the government side, without any explanation: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service canceled their attendance, which had been customary for decades.
This move illustrates the tensions surrounding massive cuts in the staff of federal environmental agencies; attacks on protective laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act; and, of course, the fierce controversy surrounding the Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention camp set up in the Big Cypress Reserve without prior environmental studies.
THE PROLIFERATION OF FLOATING ALGAE IS GLOBAL
A study conducted by Chuanmin Hu, professor of oceanography at USF (University of South Florida), and researchers from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), analyzed 1.2 million satellite images from NASA and NOAA, taken between 2003 and 2022.
Algal blooms began to spread in 2010, and this trend is expected to continue. These algal ecosystems, particularly the vast Sargasso Sea, are stimulated by rising temperatures, increased nutrients, and changing currents. They provide an essential habitat that serves as a nursery for juvenile species, sometimes to the detriment of coastal communities when these algae reach the shoreline in the form of decomposing biomass.
Notably, the Sargasso Sea, a vast carpet of algae off the east coast of North America, is currently in decline due to rising temperatures. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has exploded about 600 miles further south in the tropical Atlantic, becoming the dominant area for this seaweed.
Similarly, the northern Gulf of Mexico is seeing less and less seaweed: “If the baseline temperature is already above the ideal temperature range, a warmer ocean would decrease macroalgae, and that’s what we think happened in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sargasso Sea,” Hu explains.
BILL FOR UNIVERSITY SAFETY
Republican Representative Michelle Salzman of Pensacola is sponsoring the bill, which has just been approved by the Florida House Judiciary Committee. The shooting on April 17, 2025, at FSU (Florida State University), where a 20-year-old student killed two people and wounded six others, motivated this bill.
The proposed measures are based on those implemented in high schools after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018: allowing colleges and universities to participate in the guardian program, which allows trained employees with concealed carry permits to carry a weapon on campus; require institutions to have “active shooter response” plans in place; and mandate annual security risk assessments.
SECOND CREDIT RATING DOWNGRADE FOR BRIGHTLINE
Following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Brightline in December 2025 (from BB- to CCC), Fitch Ratings, another rating agency, has downgraded Brightline’s credit rating from B- to CCC, stating that Brightline’s shares carry a very high risk of payment difficulties. This will give Brightline Holdings’ newly appointed CEO, Nicolas Petrovic, plenty to work on.
