Copied from: Palm Beach Post, Jan. 14, 2012

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional/nuke-plant-fish-kill-leads-to-improvedreporting-p/nL3C9/

Nuke plant fish kill leads to improved 

reporting procedures

By Christine Stapleton

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A massive fish kill at a Florida Power & Light Co. nuclear power plant — including tons of protected goliath 

grouper initially reported as an “unknown” amount of “unidentified” fish — has prompted Florida wildlife officials 

to create a protocol for gathering information about fish kills at power plants.

Although the fish kill occurred in late August, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida 

Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not learn of the 

magnitude of the loss until December, sparking concern by officials and outrage by researchers.

A report published by The Palm Beach Post on Dec. 8 revealed that between 50 and 75 goliath grouper, a 

prohibited species, were killed when the St. Lucie plant’s three intake pipes, located almost a quarter-mile 

offshore, sucked in an enormous amount of jellyfish, clogging screens that clean debris from the water.

FPL spokesman Doug Andrews said the utility shut down the plant out of concern the jellyfish could harm its 

equipment.

But the jellyfish’s poisonous tentacles stung the goliath grouper trapped in the plant’s intake canal, causing 

their gills to swell. Ten goliath grouper were rescued before divers were forced out of the water when they, too, 

were stung.

“To our knowledge, the report to the FWC’s Fish Kill Hotline covered the jellyfish intrusion and noted a fish kill, 

but did not include specific mention of fish species affected,” FWC Chairwoman Kathy Barco explained in her 

Jan. 6 response to a letter from angry scientists.

On Aug. 27, five days after FPL called the Fish Kill Hotline, an FWC law enforcement officer visited the plant 

but saw no goliath grouper.

“Based on our current understanding of the situation, the power plant may have already removed the dead 

groupers by that time,” Barco wrote. “To our knowledge, the FWC was not aware of the extent, nor the specific 

species impacted by this event until Dec. 2011.”

How the new process works

Under the FWC’s new protocol, the Fish Kill Hotline operator would immediately pull the location up on Google 

Earth satellite photos and determine the exact place where the fish kill is taking place, especially if the plant 

has more than one canal.
The operator also would ask the time of the kill, the suspected cause and whether protected species are 

involved. Water samples should be taken immediately and shipped overnight to the commission. Photos should

be requested. Contact information for FWC experts on specific species is provided to the operator.

“Do not allow any of the species information to go unanswered,” according to the protocol.

Scientists were furious after learning that the carcasses were disposed of without any effort to gather data. FPL 

officials did not determine how many goliath grouper were killed, whether they had been tagged for research or 

how much the fish weighed.

“Scientists conducting research on goliath grouper were not notified of the event until two days before the 

newspaper article was published,” researchers Christopher Koenig, with the Reef Fish Ecology Group at 

Florida State University, and Sarah Frias-Torres, with the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, 

wrote in a letter to Barco and other top Florida wildlife officials. “If contacted as the event happened, we could 

have mobilized enough hands to rescue the goliath grouper and avoid the massive fish kill.”

FWC officials met with FPL staff on Dec. 19 and identified several actions for improving communication and 

cooperation, including “allowing FWC staff on FPL property to collect data if something like this occurs again,” 

Barco wrote.

The fish kill occurred as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was conducting an environmental impact 

assessment for FPL’s request to increase the amount of power it generates at the plant. In a draft report 

released Jan. 6, the NRC concluded that a power increase would cause no significant impact to the 

environment. The public has until Feb. 6 to comment.

“We are proud that the federal government’s independent environmental assessment validates that the 

upgrades at St. Lucie will have no measurable biological impact,” Andrews said.

FPL has committed to “additional monitoring programs to ensure continued compliance with all state 

environmental standards,” he added.