Stel Bailey: Florida's own Erin Brockovich-style citizen scientist documents manatee deaths and water quality

The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral

Stel Bailey is a citizen scientist and cancer cluster survivor who spent the last year documenting the unprecedented starvation deaths of a record number of manatees around the state of Florida. She describes the heartbreaking experience of watching manatee carcasses get disposed of as simple trash, and the fight to stop the massive pollution of Florida’s waterways. She says - and scientists concur - that manateees are starving to death because there has been a widespread die-off of seagrass beds around the state. That’s the manatee’s main food source. And scientists say the sea grass is dying off because of nutrient pollution in Florida’s bays and estuaries.