CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gapsBay Street Yard set to open in late May
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
Lionfish Lionfish are beautiful and all-too-plentiful non-natives that people wish would just go away. Emma DeRoy, a graduate student at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, is observing live lionfish at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Vester Marine Field Station in Bonita Springs to understand the species’ feeding behavior – lionfish are a major threat to any marine environment they invade because they eat vast quantities of juvenile native fishes, including economically important species such as snappers and groupers. With lakes St. Clair and Erie the closest large water bodies to Windsor, DeRoy became interested in lionfish through undergraduate course work and wrote a research paper on the species. When the time came for her to do her master’s thesis, she decided to study lionfish in Southwest Florida, where one of her biggest challenges was the summer heat – the average high temperature in Windsor during July is 82 degrees, and the average low is 62, compared to Southwest Florida’s average July highs and lows of 92 and 75. Researcher Emma DeRoy at Vester Marine Field Station. “Lionfish are a model invasive species,” said DeRoy, who has been living and working at Vester since April. “They’re generalist feeders. They have a wide range of physiological tolerances. A lot of research has been done on invasive freshwater and terrestrial invasive species but not on marine invasive species. I’m trying to use feeding behavior to understand the impacts of lionfish, and that could be translated to other invasive species.” Natives of the Indo-Pacific, lionfish were first reported off Florida in 1985, probably the result of aquarium releases. Since then, lionfish, which have few known natural predators and reproduce at an alarming rate (females can spawn every four days and produce 2 million eggs a year), have spread in huge, voracious numbers throughout the Western Atlantic, including the Gulf of Mexico. For her study, DeRoy needs live lionfish, so field station manager Bob Wasno and a rotating team of divers have been capturing them in 90 to 100 feet of water at the Captiva Blue Hole, 30 miles off Redfish Pass. Capture protocol, devised by Wasno and DeRoy, is simple: Lionfish don’t spook when approached by divers, so the lionfish team just swim up to them and catch them between two short-handled nets. Then the lionfish are put into a cage (designed by Wasno) on the sea floor and slowly brought to the surface. Back at Vester, DeRoy observes, among other things, lionfish attack distance (the distance the fish travels to catch its prey), which “adds another dimension to understanding feeding ecology.” Such information could lead to further research about feeding and prey-capture techniques of other invasive species. DeRoy is also looking at how lionfish density (the number of lionfish in a given area) affects feeding dynamics. “Are lionfish better hunters in groups?” she said. “Some studies have suggested that lionfish hunt cooperatively, but when you get a higher density of predators, sometimes they compete for prey, so that each predator ends up with fewer prey items when hunting in groups. So, with lionfish, does cooperative hunting increase consumption?” To test the effects of density in feeding, DeRoy will put different numbers of lionfish in a tank and feed them specific numbers of prey items (small fish and shrimp). Lionfish Netting: Divers descend 90 to 100 feet to capture lionfish for DeRoy’s research “Invasion biologists have done a lot of research on the impacts of invasive species,” DeRoy said. “But we still don’t really understand the scope of their impacts because the impacts are often subtle, they change over the invaded range, or they’re delayed, which makes them difficult to quantify and predict. This is especially the case with marine invaders.” DeRoy’s research, which is being funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, can fill in some of the gaps concerning impacts of invasive marine species. “Better understanding their impacts is key in mitigating their threat and developing appropriate management strategies,” DeRoy said. For more information on this project and one on research efforts to save the endangered smalltooth sawfish, go to https://fgcu360.com/2017/10/wishes-for-fishes.