Cape Coral native David Armendariz, 23, hopes people will become aware of the negative impact of the Lake Okeechobee water release after he and Sam Harmon, 24, of Texas found a dead 500-pound Goliath grouper in the Cape Coral Canal.
The two men discovered the fish early Tuesday morning, thinking it was a manatee at first.
“We were about 20 minutes into our trip,” Armendariz said. Upon further inspection they discovered it was a Goliath grouper, causing them to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to check out the fish.
Armendariz believed the incident to be caused by the millions of gallons of freshwater that had recently been released from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee.
“I’m thinking it’s the low salinity,” he said. “I can’t be 100 percent sure.”
Armendariz says he has steadily fished these waters over 13 years and has noticed the devastating effects the releases have had over the last 5 or 6 years.
Image: News-Press
FWC researchers retrieved samples from the 7.5-foot-long fish, saying they would have results to determine the cause of death in two to three weeks.
“The cause of death is unknown at this time,” Frank McCloy, a spokesperson for FWC at the St. Petersburg research institute, said. “It could be anything. Testing will shed more light.”
