A summer 2016 National Geographic article highlighted "guacamole-thick" algae now fouling Florida coasts. The phenomenon is the result of a deliberate choice to protect agricultural property in the Everglades from flooding that would otherwise occur naturally from Lake Okeechobee. By releasing nutrient - rich freshwater in order to reduce pressure on obsolete infrastructure, the effect is significant cyanobacteria blooms as the water reaches coastal areas. The article notes a contributor to the nutrient rich freshwater causing the algae bloom is the agriculture property itself, but does not mention the ways to turn this same algae into feed-stock for useful products.



Click on the Picture Above for ExxonMobile's "Turning Algae into Biofuels" Video on Youtube.

According to an American Chemical Society news release in 2015, the same harmful algae that clog waterways "are gradually but increasingly being used as a feedstock for different classes of biofuels, including ethanol." Large-scale operations in Florida already have experience at this. There's powerful economic incentive for an innovative combination of capital improvements to scale up land based algal farming operations along with innovative waterway harvesting operations to capitalize on this opportunity as well as preserve the coastal ecology and tourism economy that's been negatively effected. Do you agree?