Healthy Tides for Healthy Florida: Holding Government and Polluters Accountable For Red Tide

 Rachel Smith


In recent years along the coast of Florida, harmful algal blooms like Red Tide have noticeably increased in intensity. Largely fed by pollution from nutrient rich waste water dumped by industrial sources, these events bring with them respiratory issues for anyone who breathes in their toxic fumes and enormous fish kills which are detrimental to the state's economy. In 2018 alone, an estimated 2,000 tons of marine life were killed by severe Red Tide blooms which led to over $8 million in businesses losses for Floridians (Brice, 2021). These issues for the people of Florida are allowed to continue because the state government, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, doesn't do anything meaningful to mitigate harmful algal blooms. He may tout millions of dollars aimed at vague attempts at improving water quality and clean up, but he refuses to go after the people who hold the most responsibility. If this issue is going to get any better, the government needs to be willing to hold industry accountable for pollution and punish large corporations instead of its people. Real policy and punishment will prevent red tide events from continuing to appear in large quantities which will help Florida's ecosystem, economy, and public health. Therefore, I created a campaign to petition for just that.

    Healthy Tides for Healthy Florida is the name of the campaign I created with the goal of fighting government inaction concerning Red Tide blooms. My objective was to get 150 signatures on a petition directed towards Governor DeSantis demanding change that would improve water quality. My strategy was to target my primary audience, Governor DeSantis, by going after the secondary audience, his constituents, by using public health and economic frames that would appeal to both. To reach my audience and gain their attention, my original plan was to submit a series of letters to the editor to the Tampa Bay Times. These letters focused on the government's lack of action, the economic loss caused by Red Tide blooms, and detriments to public health. They also all advertised my campaign and told people how to get involved with fixing this issue including going to the Instagram I created (@healthytideshealthyflorida) and signing my petition at the link in bio which sends a letter to the Governor with each signature. Unfortunately, while one of my letters did get published, presumably due to a policy that the Tampa Bay Times has, they cut off the part that talked about my campaign. So, while hopefully many people were able to read and learn about the issue, I had to find new ways to create action. 

   From there out I increased my efforts on Instagram, posting about twice a week and also advertising the account on my personal social media, which garnered moderate attention to my campaign and petition. By working in an online space, I was able to make full use of hypermediacy, known as the connectivity of the online world that makes it easy to direct people to many resources (Pezzullo and Cox, 2022, p.116), through linking to my petition, Instagram, and published letter across platforms. At this point, I also fully engaged in clicktivism, encouraging others to take action with little effort other than a click (Pezzullo and Cox, 2022, p.120), by sending an email out to Eckerd College students encouraging them to sign the petition, check out my social media, and read my letter. Seeing as Eckerd is a coastal community itself who is being affected by Red Tide as of 12/12/22 while I'm writing this blog post, this email resulted in many signatures. 

    In the end, my campaign resulted in 154 signatures as of 12/12/2022. Overall, I did my meet my goal, so I am counting the campaign as a success, but there are a few things that I think could have gone better. While I was able to obtain the signatures by reaching out to a community like Eckerd College that was likely to care about this issue, I would have liked to take my campaign beyond Eckerd and get more signatures from other citizens of the Tampa Bay area. Unfortunately, as it seems that the Tampa Bay Times could not keep the portion of my letter that advertised my campaign, this was difficult.  Additionally, the graphics and advertising I did for my Instagram page could have been better quality. Social media was not intended to be the main focus of my campaign, so when it had to be, it was a bit of a scramble. However, in the end I'm happy with my work and what I was able to accomplish by myself in just a month. Through my knowledge of the issue and environmental communication I achieved my communication goal and came out with a final product I can be proud of.   


Get Involved!!!








References: 

Brice, A. (2021, June 4). 3 years ago, a massive algae bloom in Florida killed 2,000 tons of marine life. it's threatening again. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/24/us/algae-bloom-florida/index.html

Pezzullo, P. C., & Cox, J. R. (2022). Environmental communication and the public sphere (6th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.


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