St. Augustine entrepreneur and longtime kayak instructor Ben Brandao has a startling observation — marine life in St. Augustine seems to be disappearing.
Brandao owns and manages GeoTrippin Kayak Adventures, a canoe and kayak tour agency off A1A South in Crescent Beach, about 10 miles south of St. Augustine.
In his line of work, he’s used to seeing the city’s marine and wildlife — dolphin fins piercing the surface, fish swarming the waters, and native birds searching the shores. That is, until this year.
Since around January, Brandao said he rarely sees dolphins in local waters. He used to guarantee customers at least one sighting per kayaking excursion — but no more. And he hasn’t seen a single shark.
Other residents out on the waterways have also noticed the lack of wildlife, Brandao said.
“I was hanging out in the bait shop one day, and an old-timer fisherman was here, and he literally looked me in the eye and said, ‘Where’s all the fish?’”
But that’s not the only change to the St. Augustine ecosystem Brandao has noticed. He’s also worried about poor water quality and its darker brown hue, which he attributes to increased development. “They’re just sending all their dirt down the channel,” Brandao said.
“This can be dangerous to fish and other wildlife,” he added. “With the extra sediment, I’m worried that things are suffocating.”
Matanzas Riverkeeper and Executive Director Jen Lomberk shared the organization’s findings with The Citizen. Her nonprofit seeks to protect local waterways and conducts frequent water quality testing.
Though Lomberk says the water quality is higher than in many areas of Florida, “our landscape is being changed, and as more people are moving to the area, the water quality is slowly starting to degrade.”
She cited nutrient pollution — nitrogen and phosphorus contamination from fertilizers pushed into waterways through storm drains — which can produce harmful algal blooms. Fecal bacteria from aging septic systems also pollutes water quality.
Brandao’s colleagues in the ecotourism industry are reporting similar decreases in wildlife.
AyoLane Halusky, owner of Earth Kinship Kayak Tours and Nature Education, told The Citizen he’s noticed a massive decrease in amphibians, frogs, and reptiles since the early 2000s. He says he remembers seeing 6-foot alligators frequently, but now it’s “very rare” to see one of that size in the area. Similarly, frogs used to sing every night at twilight, Halusky says, but now it’s less common to hear them.
A St. Augustine native, Halusky grew up on the water. When talking about St. Johns County reptiles, he says he remembers seeing them “swimming through the swamps like he used to when he was a kid.”
His father, the late Joseph G. Halusky, was renowned for his work with the University of Florida’s Sea Grant Extension Program and had an office at Marineland.
Brandao and others in the ecotourism industry also say increased boat traffic is bad news for the oyster habitat. Oysters — a food source for fish — help maintain a healthy and abundant marine environment.
“When we get rid of the grasses and the oysters by putting boat traffic through a very fragile ecosystem, we start overfishing,” he said, leading to further strain on Northeast Florida marine life.
Lomberk has a similar mindset, telling The Citizen, “As you put more stressors on a habitat, you put more stress on the creatures that occupy that habitat…Everything is interconnected.”
But it’s not an irreversible problem, local experts stressed. “When you stop hurting nature and step back, it rebounds very quickly,” Brandao said.
Florida wetlands are the perfect example of nature’s resiliency, Brandao said. Wetlands are productive in terms of carbon sequestration — the ability to store carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere.
In 2024, the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research found that “over 31% of all land in the state of Florida is currently designated for conservation purposes, with eight counties already over 50%.”
Much of the conserved land contains wetlands. In a January 2024 report, the Florida Natural Areas Inventory stated that 22% of St. Johns County land is designated for conservation.
For Halusky, the answer requires a change of thinking. He says, “We’re not stewards. We don’t even understand the earth.” Thus, the name of his organization: Earth Kinship. “We are not stewards of the earth. We have a relationship with it. We are part of it.”
The solution, Halusky says, lies in “action, not activism.” During his nature excursions, he asks participants to take ten minutes of quiet rest. “Nature has a way of reaching out to you in the process,” he says. And when participants leave, they always say the peaceful time in nature is their favorite part.
Brandao also urges county officials and residents to listen to St. Augustine’s nature — it affects so many livelihoods. After all, the environment, he said, is “protecting us. It’s feeding us.”
