The City of Cape Coral has teamed up with Beemats, a company dedicated to nutrient control through the use of planted wetlands, littoral shelves, and floating plant islands, to fight harmful algal blooms in order to help protect the city’s water quality.

The pilot locations that the city is currently focusing on are Reflections Park, Armstrong Canal North, and the Veterans and Kamal Intersection Pond.

Beemats will be filling in foam mats with aerated pots to serve as floating wetlands with the goal of absorbing the nutrients that the algae would typically absorb, therefore limiting the growth of algae.

The growth of algae is in part to blame due to the use of fertilizers. According to Wink News, “Kraig Hankins is an Environmental Biologist with Cape Coral Public Works. “Martin County has a statistic they put out that a dollar worth of fertilizer costs the government $1000 to $10,000 to remove from waterways,” Hankins said.”

Cape Coral and Beemats’ President Steve Beeman encourage the responsible use of fertilizer. “Don’t over-fertilize because that gets into the drains and gets into the ponds, which gets into the rivers and the estuaries,” said Beeman.

The city’s hope is that the floating wetlands become a permanent part of Cape Coral.

For more information on Beemats and the science behind why it works, check out their website.