OUR Sabellariid Reef in Central Brevard is a unique ecosystem and home to a myriad of sea creatures, yet we're going to cover it up with sand?

This project permitting allows for 3 acres of the Worm Reef to be covered up by trucked in sand. Basically the first 30 feet along the shore. The part you see in the photo above.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO STOP THIS PROJECT FROM MOVING FORWARD! Our community needs to wake up and stand up for OUR natural resources! The reason this passed is that no one was paying attention. It's time to change that NOW by signing this petition today.

Many of you have other concerns that are also impacted by this action such as: Sand Quality, Turtle Habitat, Shore Break, AND the Millions of Dollars of Tax Revenue being spent!

The $40 + Million dollars is coming out of your pocket, by way of the 1/2 cent sales tax increase that Brevard County approved. Money that was marked for "tourism". This project is not 100% funded!

"The GRR has now received final approval and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are now in the process of developing plans and specifications for project construction. The County has begun to pursue construction funds on local, state, and federal levels. Brevard County's passage of the 5th one-cent addition to the Local Option Tourist Tax and subsequent re-allocation of exiting collections should provide a dependable source of local match for Mid Reach construction, mitigation, and monitoring."

The Ecological Importance of the Intertidal Sabellariid Reef is huge to our area. An examination of the organisms living within small worm clumps collected from the reef, revealed a number of invertebrates including various mollusks, crabs, shrimp and echinoids. The worm reefs host dozens of species of fish, including grunts, snappers, snook, and tarpon. The inhabitants of OUR NATURAL REEF, will not be the same as the artificial reef being placed offshore. The algae and food source will no longer be there for shorebirds and other marine creatures. This artificial reef in much deeper water will attract much larger fish, these larger fish will be a direct threat to SEA TURTLE HATCHLINGS. In addition, the reef offers a sanctuary to these hatchlings on the way to the open ocean.

If you look at photos from over the last 50 years in our area, you will see that the shore has always looked the same, it has never been like Cocoa Beach to the north. The Port Canaveral Jetty has ZERO to do with the amount of sand on our beaches in Central Brevard.

The 200 residents that helped this pass last year, DO have NOT represent the MAJORITY of OUR RESIDENTS viewpoint on this. Please take 5 minutes to sign this petition. Yes, there have been many county meetings in the past over the years discussing this project, but most people I know , and people I have talked with had no idea about this project until the barge arrived this week.

We encourage everyone to take a look at the county summary report on this project - posted on Feb. 9th, 2017.

http://www.brevardfl.gov/docs/default-source/natural-resources-documents/appendix-l---public-workshop-and-correspondence.pdf?sfvrsn=3

There are a dozen more detailed reports on different aspects of this project that were posted on Feb. 9th, 2017, to the county website. If your looking for more in depth information , go to the section marked mid-reach, and you will find these reports.

http://www.brevardfl.gov/NaturalResources/Beaches/RestorationProjects

Please share this with your friends and family, who care about stopping this from moving forward. There is no guarantee that this petition is going to save the 3 acres of reef along the shoreline from being covered by sand.

But this petition is going to be delivered to the officials and the environmental groups listed in hopes if nothing else ... They know that there are MANY, MANY, MANY people who CARE, about the REEF, the SAND being trucked in, and ALL aspects of this project, and what it is going to do to our beach! There is a track record of these types of projects in BREVARD COUNTY, and it's not good!

We need to learn to honor this natural flux of OUR OCEANS by restricting construction in the future , of man made features, and conserving/preserving the dunes which organically impede erosion. This beach re-nourishment project is expensive at $40 + million dollars and unnecessary.

THANK YOU FOR CARING & FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Photo Credit to Sara Cassidy