{"id":99409,"date":"2025-12-29T23:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/99409\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T23:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T23:57:08","slug":"calusa-waterkeepers-state-of-our-water-meeting-jan-10-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/99409\/","title":{"rendered":"Calusa Waterkeeper\u2019s \u2018State of Our Water\u2019 meeting Jan. 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calusa Waterkeeper<\/a> will welcome\u00a0Dr. Gregg Poulakis of the Fish and Wildlife Research Center, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission\u00a0to discuss the endangered smalltooth sawfish, sharing what is known about this unique species and what is being done to promote its recovery in the Caloosahatchee and beyond.<\/p>\n

The event will be held at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Fort Myers-Lee County Garden Council headquarters at\u00a02166 Virginia Ave., Fort Myers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The smalltooth sawfish looks like a shark with a hedge trimmer for a nose. Historically, it was found in warm coastal waters on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Today, the species is only regularly found in south Florida and the western Bahamas. Thus, Florida state waters are \u201crecovery central\u201d if the species is going to avoid extinction, especially considering the mass mortality events that occurred in the Florida Keys in 2024 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poulakis is a fish biologist who earned a B.S. in biology from the State University of New York at Oswego, M.S. in marine biology from Florida Tech (wetland fishes), Ph.D. in oceanography from Florida Tech (sawfish). He started working for the state of Florida in 1997. <\/p>\n

His research interests are interdisciplinary and broadly related to improving our understanding of the life histories of fishes, especially economically important and endangered species that use coastal habitats like estuaries for all or part of their lives. <\/p>\n

He has written 54 peer reviewed publications on topics such as reproductive biology and habitat use by snook, tarpon, gag grouper, cownose rays, and, of course, the smalltooth sawfish.<\/p>\n

Following Poulakis\u2019 presentation Ca-lusa Waterkeeper Joe Cavanaugh\u00a0will be discussing the potential impacts of specific development projects and resource management to the smalltooth sawfish habitat in the Caloosahatchee River and estuary, and how you can get involved in local advocacy efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, CWK Ranger Zone Leaders\u00a0will contribute to the\u00a0State of Our Water Address, providing a brief update on recent happenings and the health of local waterways in various areas of Calusa Waterkeeper\u2019s work area.<\/p>\n

To reserve a seat or for more information on this event, please visit\u00a0calusawaterkeeper.org\/events<\/a>. To make a tax-deductible donation of $50 or more and become an annual member of Calusa Waterkeeper, visit\u00a0calusawaterkeeper.org\/membership<\/a>, email\u00a0info@calusawaterkeeper.org<\/a>\u00a0or call 239-899-1440.<\/p>\n

About Calusa Waterkeeper<\/p>\n

Founded in 1995 as the Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association, Calusa Waterkeeper Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection, conservation and restoration of the Caloosahatchee River and its watershed. <\/p>\n

Calusa Waterkeeper\u2019s jurisdiction covers four counties in Southwest Florida and encompasses 1,000 square miles of water. Through advocacy, education, community engagement, legislation and science-based programs and research, Calusa Waterkeeper strives to ensure clean water for current and future generations that is drinkable, fishable and swimmable. <\/p>\n

For additional information about Calusa Waterkeeper, please visit\u00a0its website<\/a>\u00a0or call 239-899-1440.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calusa Waterkeeper will welcome\u00a0Dr. Gregg Poulakis of the Fish and Wildlife Research Center, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-99409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}