LEE COUNTY, Fla. — The cleanup in Lee County is nonstop. We went out with one of the most dedicated teams working to clear the waterways — commercial fishermen.
Casey Streeter lost his home in St. James City during the storm and his fish house at Island Seafood Market in Matlacha. His new job isn't fishing for grouper; it's reeling in trash. His business, from top to bottom, is 100% offline. The storm temporarily sentenced his dedicated team of fishermen to lives of hard labor clearing canals, bays, backwaters, and mangroves of trash.
"We lost all of our cooler capacity, freezer capacity, ice houses, ice machines, docks, I mean, literally wiped everything away," said Streeter.
We stood in the middle of his gutted fish house. Streeter showed us how high the water rose, nearly to the ceiling, seven to eight feet. What was left behind was about two-and-a-half feet of mud, and his sole job since felt like an impossible task; cleanup.
"It's a big lift. It's a monster lift. And, you know, unfortunately, in fisheries, we don't have a lot of working waterfronts," Streeter said. "So when you take these fisheries offline, fisheries stop. I mean, you lose that infrastructure. You don't have a fishery, and that's what we lost in the storm. We lost the shrimp boat back there; all the boats were damaged."
Some of his team rode out the storm on their boats. However, one captain was forced to abandon the ship as the surge sent the massive boat crashing onto land and into his store. Luckily, Streeter said none of his fishermen died.
"It's raw; it's a raw thing to see, to be in a disaster. And just see, everyone's life gets upended at one time," Streeter said. "We had about 10 independent owner-operators. Depending on the boat and how long they were gone, we would catch 5,000 to 20,000 pounds a trip."
The amount of debris they are catching is mind-blowing. To date, 478,700 cubic yards of waterway debris have been removed. This amounts to 670,180 tons or 47,870 large dump trucks of debris.
According to Amelia Johnson, the Deputy Director of Communications & External Affairs for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, a total of 809,091 cubic yards of upland vegetation and construction debris have also been removed.
If you want to know how many pounds that is, multiply the tons by 2,000, and you get more than 1.3 billion pounds of debris.
Commercial fishing is a significant part of the economy in Lee County. However, with so many fishermen offline and the money needed to rebuild, concerns about developers moving in are growing.
"What happens in this situation is there's so much money coming down here that a developer will come in and say, 'hey, you know what, I'll give you 15 million for this acre of land or two acres of land, and we're going to build condos, or we're going to build houses here,' and that's gone," State Rep. Adam Botana (District 80) said.
Botana serves all of coastal Lee County and said state leaders are aware of the fishing industry's struggles and are working on getting disaster funds to as many people as possible.
"Economically, can we afford to lose more fish houses?" we asked.
"You know we can't. We're trying our best and whatever we can do, and working with, you know, the Senate, the House, and the governor's office to get this taken care of and see if we can push it across the finish line. I would rather have it fresh in Florida than from Mexico," he said.
"What would be one thing that you need, where you say, 'hey, I'm a state rep, this is my area, we need to do this, what is something we could do?"
"We put an appropriation in for $50 million. You know, this is something that we put in for. I'm not saying we're going to get that. But that's what we put the appropriation, and this is something that we could work on it, and trust me, everybody's talking about it, and we're pushing on all angles," Botana said.
He added, "we want to help a lot of people; we just don't want to help one individual; that we're not interested in just because it's not fair. We're helping broad, you know, that's what we're looking at Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Matlacha where we can help out locally,"
Florida's commercial fisheries generate $3.2 billion in income and support 76,700 jobs, according to NOAA, Fisheries Economics of the United States, 2016.
In 2022, the dockside value of commercial fisheries was estimated at $242 million, according to FWRI Commercial Landings Data.
Cleaning the waterways as soon as possible is vital to fishermen across Lee County.
"We all live and work here, And we want this cleaned up just like the rest of everybody in the community," Greg Trammell, a commercial fisherman, said. "A lot of it's to do with getting everybody back on their boats, get them fishing again, and get them confident that they're not going to wreck their boats. We come to work every day to, you know, make a grid pattern and start taking care of all this area; there's a lot of shorelines that we got to cover. And we're trying to make it thoroughly go through day by day and not leave too much behind. I don't think not many of us had more than four days off in the last four and a half months."
"Every day we're like, wow, that's didn't expect to see that or didn't plan for that. So every day is a surprise. Not a surprise you want, but every day is a surprise," Streeter said. "This is a section of wall, maybe a piece of the roof; here's another boat in the trees."
Boats, decks, huge tree limbs, plastic bags, and anything and everything are in the water. The foam and plastic bags are the worst.
"I used to look for fish," Streeter said. "Now I look for debris and boats and plastic bags. It takes quite a bit for us not able to get it. But, when we come through, it's just brute force. It's just brute force."
Streeter took us out with his team to watch the cleanup. We started our tour of trash in a canal in Flamingo Bay, headed out to 40 Acre Bay, and then into Pine Island Sound.
"Every day, I find something that I didn't see the weeks and the months prior; you know it just like it's the gift that keeps giving. I guess that's not the right term for it, but man, it's just, you know, it gets it's the worst gift you can get. It's the worst gift you can get every day," Streeter said.
On converted pontoon boats, the team pulls out huge waterlogged tree limbs. They've been in the water so long they are covered in barnacles. On the surface, they look tiny, and then once you start pulling them up, you realize you are holding just the tip of the so-called iceberg.
The men made it look easy, but I quickly realized it was not.
"So we're trying to hook this huge tree back down here so long it's got barnacles and it's waterlogged, soaked," Paluska said as he helped pull out a few branches. It takes all of your strength and balance to get it out.
Pulling debris out of the water is nothing compared to one of their most demanding jobs.
"The hardest thing we do is climb through mangroves," Streeter said. "It's a dangerous job. I mean, there's a lot of snakes and, and a lot of hazards in the mangroves. And I mean, it's hard. I mean, to get in there and to navigate these root systems. And you don't just walk into a mangrove."
The mangroves are challenging to maneuver, the mud is thick, the water levels vary with the tides, and debris is everywhere. But Streeter is determined to get it all.
"It takes quite a bit for us not to get it," Streeter said.
Streeter focuses on the cleanup, returning to his real job, and making his family whole again.
"We lost everything, and we were doing a lot better than a lot of other people," Streeter said. "And you say, 'wow, we are very lucky,' it makes you appreciate what you have."
"In six months, did you expect to be where you are now?" We asked.
"I didn't have any expectations, to be honest with you. In the beginning, it was so bad. And it's so overwhelming. And there are so many problems. I mean, it's hard to see where you're going to go and what it looks like to get there," Streeter said.
He added, "you don't feel like you're getting anywhere because it's so extensive. But then you start clearing these areas, and you start to see people's houses get cleared. And, you know, you start to see all this progress. And it's awesome. It's mind-blowing, to be honest with us knowing where we were and where we're now. And we still have a long way to go, but I'm happy with where we're at. Compared to where we were, and I know that if it doubles over, we're going to be in a really good position at the one-year anniversary."