4 March 30 - april 5, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ SOUTH FLORIDA SEAWEED MELTDOWN WILL THE MASSIVE SARGASSUM “BLOB” LIVE UP TO THE HYPE? BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN R ecent national media coverage of the 5,000-mile belt of sargas- sum drifting towards Florida might have tourists thinking a towering seaweed monster is going to roll in at high tide and swallow them whole if they step foot near a South Florida beach. The seaweed belt dubbed the “blob” has sparked countless news stories, some of which give the impression that it will choke off Florida shores and ruin beachgoers’ day. But this isn’t Florida’s first rodeo in deal- ing with sargassum seaweed. “In Florida, we’re fortunate because we rely on our beaches, and our beach managers have resources,” says Helena Solo-Gabriele, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Miami. “There are special grooming trucks, and they’re able to separate sand from the sargassum, and they can re- move the sargassum from the beach. And so, it doesn’t get to that point where it over- whelms people.” Most of the seaweed is expected to stay offshore such that South Florida beaches won’t experience piles as large as what has rolled up on the shores of some Caribbean is- lands and the Lesser Antilles in recent years, requiring large-scale cleanup efforts. Still, the seaweed might make South Florida beaches a bit stank, thanks to a rotten egg odor from the hydrogen sulfide it emits if left to de- teriorate on the shoreline. Stephen Leather- man, a coastal scientist, tells New Times that the off-gassing won’t create health concerns unless you have chronic respiratory disease. “So it’s not going to hurt you. It’s just a huge nuisance. As this stuff rots, it attracts flies, and then, of course, it covers a beach and there’s no place to put your beach chair,” Leatherman says. While the seaweed may put a damper on your beach plans, Leatherman, AKA Dr. Beach, says the sargassum is a far cry from the toxic red tide algae affecting the southwest coast of Florida. The more dangerous algae, Karenia brevis, generates an acrid toxin that has been responsible for mass marine die-offs in Collier, Lee, and other west-coast Florida counties in the last few years. “If we were having red tide, I would be freaking out,” Leatherman adds. “There’s not going to be big piles of fish on our beaches... We’re not going to have toxic shellfish. This is not as harmful.” Notwithstanding its unpleasant smell, the washed-up sargassum has potential benefits. Research into recycling it as fertilizer or in biofuel production has ramped up over the last five years as blooms became more intense and pressure mounts to find a practical use for the seaweed. Some local governments grind it up and use it as fill material; in other instances, it is disposed of as waste. Through their research, Solo-Gabriele and her graduate assistant Afeefa Abdool- Ghany have successfully converted the sar- gassum into compost and used it to grow plants, including radishes. Solo-Gabriele tells New Times that the seaweed can contain trace levels of arsenic, so using it as fertilizer for ornamental plants rather than edible plants would be safer. “It’s being moved to a landfill, so why not do something positive with it?” Solo- Gabriele says. South Florida beaches are no stranger to this brown, stringy algae. “[Sargassum] happens every summer, but then lately, in particular over the last five to ten years, it’s getting bigger and bigger over time, worse and worse,” Solo-Gabriele tells New Times. “It’s an issue that’s going to get bigger and bigger over time because of cli- mate change and also other global factors that influence the growth of macro-algae.” Leatherman has hypothesized that the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into ag- ricultural land, as well as dust from the Saha- ran Desert in Africa, deposit large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous into the water, which in turn has been fueling algae growth. “A fair amount of [fertilizer] runs into the Amazon River, which is one of the largest rivers in the world,” Leatherman suggests. “So that comes out into the south Atlantic Ocean and pushes far out into the Gulfstream current.” The current size of the belt is unusually large for this time of year, as the blooms usu- ally peak in late spring and summer. Although the seaweed belt can provide a floating marine habitat and nursery off- shore, marine biologists have raised con- cerns that if too much of it approaches the shore, it can block sunlight from reaching coral reefs and seagrass, potentially harming fragile ecosystems. Blobs of sargassum invaded Miami-Dade County and Broward County beaches after a belt formed in 2018, which researchers esti- mated weighed more than 20 million tons based on satellite images. Just last July, Mi- ami beaches saw their highest levels of sar- gassum since the county began closely recording the data in 2019. “2018 was one of the really big years,” Leatherman says. “That was gigantic. This may be close to it.” | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS A worker uses a rake to clean up piles of sargassum in Tulum, Mexico. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images ▼ MIAMI BAD COP MIAMI POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF SCAMMING FEDERAL COVID LOAN PROGRAM. BY IZZY KAPNICK A Miami police officer is facing federal prison time for allegedly submitting fraudulent documents to cash in on a COVID-19 relief program. Prosecutors claim Gregory Dennis scammed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by mis- representing his business income when applying for a hardship loan tied to the COVID-19 pan- demic. He allegedly submitted bogus tax forms to a California-based lender through its contrac- tor’s online loan application portal. Dennis, a Broward resident, is charged with a single count of felony wire fraud. “That PPP loan application falsely represented the business’s 2020 gross income, and as part of the application process, Dennis submitted a false and fraudulent IRS Form 1040... for tax year 2020,” prosecutors claim. Dennis submitted more false tax documents to secure a second PPP loan draw, prosecutors say. He received more than $41,000 in total through the program, according to court documents. The name of the lender, based in La- guna Hills, is not disclosed in the criminal complaint. The Miami Po- lice Department tells New Times that Dennis was relieved of duty as of March 23. He remains employed with the department pending an internal review. The fraud charge has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Based on a review of recent PPP loan fraud cases in South Florida, however, Dennis is not likely to face a two-decade sentence. His initial appear- ance is set for March 24 in Fort Lauderdale fed- eral court. If Dennis winds up as fortunate as former Coral Springs police officer Jason Carter, he might avoid jail time altogether. Last June, Carter was charged with fraud in connection with his application for COVID-19 relief funds through the Economic Injury Disas- ter Loan program while serving as a Coral Springs officer. With an eye towards padding his loan funds, he claimed his business had $100,000 in revenue, when in actuality, it made nearly no money, the feds said. Carter allegedly spent a chunk of the loan funds on personal car repairs and high-end auto parts. In December, a judge gave Carter five years probation and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $30,000 along with a $5,000 fine. He had pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud, the same charge Dennis is facing. Dennis’s case is one of the latest in a PPP loan-fraud crackdown that has persisted since the peak of the pandemic early last year. As of September 2022, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida had seized more than $23.5 million in stolen funds and prose- cuted more than 80 fraud cases tied to govern- ment-backed COVID-19 loans. The Payroll Protection Program was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It provided forgivable loans to businesses to keep up with payroll and stay financially afloat during coronavirus- related closures and government-ordered shutdowns. Nationwide, more than 1,500 defendants had been charged with COVID-relief loan fraud as of September 2022. [email protected] DENNIS SUBMITTED MORE FALSE TAX DOCUMENTS TO SECURE A SECOND PPP LOAN DRAW, PROSECUTORS SAY.
