SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Last hurricane season, Helene and Milton struck a one-two punch, slicing open Midnight Pass and creating a shortcut into Little Sarasota Bay.
The pass now separates Siesta Key and Casey Key for the first time in 40 years. ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska profiled the pass just days after Hurricane Milton landed on Siesta Key.
Paluska returned to Midnight Pass this month to see how it is changing the ecosystem.
Dave Tomasko, Director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, and Ryan Gandy, Science and Restoration Manager for the non-profit, took us out to see the wild pass from the water.
"There is value to having this re-established connection, and now that it's done basically for free, and now that it's kind of stable, this is like a win, win," Tomasko said. "This is one of the areas where manatees would hang out because not many boaters were here. One of our main concerns is to let people know you will have a lot of manatees here. Don't hit them."
The pass is becoming more popular with boaters as a quicker option to the Gulf of Mexico.
"But then, with that increased water clarity and lower nitrogen load in this system, because it's flushing a lot more. We would anticipate that there will be a lot more seagrass growth, so the recovery afterward was but what we'll be tracking to see, and that'll be interesting," Gandy said. Some of the things we're looking to learn are: what are the short-term dynamics in this past? Is it going to stay open? Those are the, you know, hydrological questions. And then, once it becomes stable, what is it going to look like?"
The pass is in nearly the same spot it was four months ago when storms opened it. But Tomasko and Gandy both tell Paluska it is migrating North and South. There is a real concern that since it is a wild pass, it could shift towards homes.
"That's what wild passes do," Tomasko said. "They move around. It's like a living creature. They're like, that's one of the silly things about living on a barrier island. You live on a barrier island, by a wild pass, you know, one day it's gonna bite you. And, the number one thing they will have to do is make sure that nobody. It is in the way. When this pass starts to migrate, it's got a lot of room to the south and the north. And so if we can keep people from overreacting and closing the pass, then that's step number one."
"I'm not a drag on the system."
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