WELCOME, MARY!
Editors note: This week, full-time environment reporter Mary Landers takes over this newsletter, and that’s good news enough for the day. But, as always, there’s more.
HELLO, IT’S ME!
For the last six weeks I’ve been estivating. That’s nerd talk for hibernating in the summer. I was resting up after 24 years of reporting at the Savannah Morning News, where I began and ended my job writing about health, including most recently focusing on the pandemic. For almost 20 years in the middle, though, I wrote about Georgia’s coastal environment, telling the stories of everyone from jellyfish fishermen to pipeline protesters. Now I’m back to that environmental focus here at The Current, and I couldn’t be happier.
A little about me personally: I grew up in the Philly suburbs and have a biology degree from Georgetown. After college I worked briefly as an environmental consultant and then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, where I taught high school biology in an urban school and then taught environmental sciences at Lake Malawi National Park. I then earned a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri and shortly thereafter moved to Savannah where my husband attended SCAD. Like many Savannah transplants we intended to be here for two years, but somehow we’ve never moved away.
I drive an all-electric 2014 Nissan LEAF. Solar and geothermal power our house, but not completely. I don’t eat meat but I haven’t convinced my family to follow my example, at least not yet.
I’m a skeptical optimist eager to explore further the big challenges facing coastal Georgia, including global warming and the accompanying sea level rise. I’m even more interested in sharing solutions to these problems. Along the way I hope to continue to bring readers insight into the coastal landscape, its wildlife, and the people who work to safeguard both.
You can reach me at mary.thecurrent@gmail.com Or follow me on Twitter @maryklanders.
WAS IT JUST TWO YEARS AGO TODAY?
Nearly two years to the day later, the M/V Golden Ray’s nearly out of St. Simons Sound.
Responders completed cutting operations on the remainder of the Golden Ray wreck on Saturday, St. Simons Sound Incident Response reported.
The Golden Ray, a 600-foot Korean car carrier, capsized in the sound as it departed Brunswick on Sept. 8, 2019. Four crew members who were trapped inside were rescued the next day.
On Saturday, wreck removal personnel separated the remainder of the Golden Ray wreck into two sections, and they are preparing to lift and stow Section Five onto a dry-dock barge. Once that section is removed, response engineers will prepare Section Four, the final remaining section, to be lifted and stowed onto the Barge Julie B which left the Port of Mobile headed to Brunswick on Thursday. A dry-dock barge remains on-site as a contingency plan for stowing Section Four.
Pollution response teams remain on-station to monitor for any oil or debris present around the perimeter of the Environmental Protection Barrier. Shoreline survey teams continue routine assessments of Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island and marsh areas in the vicinity of the wreck site. Personnel have also increased the protection area around the site from 150 yards to 200 yards for any boaters not part of the cleanup.
Here’s a link to a helicopter view of the last two pieces as they await removal.
WATER ADVISORIES: It’s after Labor Day, but if you are local, you know it’s the best time to enjoy the beaches and rivers. As of this writing, there are no beach water advisories except for the permanent ones at Clam Creek Beach and St. Andrews Beach on Jekyll Island, and King’s Ferry at the Chatham-Bryan County line on the Ogeechee River.
Before you head to the beach, check the link to see current notices.
LEARN MORE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE, SHRIMP
If you have been shrimping or purchased local head-on shrimp, you have probably encountered shrimp black gill, which many area shrimpers blame for declining shrimp harvests. UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher Marc Frischer will explore the causes and consequences of black gill in a virtual Evening @ Skidaway program, “Climate Change and Shrimp Black Gill – Is There A Connection?” presented via YouTube at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14.
To join the program, visit the UGA Skidaway Institute YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/Skidaway (case sensitive). The program is open to the general public and free of charge.
Support non-partisan, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
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