Welcome Aboard to our new monitors - Tom Boyle, Shari Clark, Rachael Dailey, Carla Hughes, Mathew Johnstone, Steve Medeiros, Michael Spainhour, Jane Thompson, Melinda Tribe, Marcia and Devin Werdenberg

   The Indian River Lagoon is long and narrow like a river, but it is called a lagoon because it is really a salt water lake connected to the ocean by inlets. Unlike a river, the lagoon has no particular direction of water flow and moves in whatever direction the wind blows. As agriculture expanded in the early 20th century, wetlands that historically did not flow to the lagoon were drained by canals that now bring more than twice the amount of freshwater into the lagoon basin than it historically received. The dredging of the Sebastian, Ft. Pierce and St. Lucie Inlets increased ocean salt water flow into the lagoon near those inlets. The result of human intervention was the raising of salinity levels near the inlets and reduction of salinity in areas near cities but far from inlets. The concentration of salt in the Lagoon is critical for the survival of the plant and animal species that live in it.