Gulf Coast Life

We're marking Parkinson’s Awareness Month by talking with two people devoted to helping people living with the neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Ramon Gil is a neurologist at the Parkinson’s Treatment Center Of Southwest Florida, and Mary Spremulli is a medical speech-language pathologist and owner of Voice Aerobics Speech Language Therapy in Punta Gorda. We also talk with one of her clients, a 78-year-old man named Mike Davidson who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016.

A recently published review in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries brings together more than 150 years of data collected by researchers from all over the world. A team of researchers reviewed more than 3,000 documents and extracted data from 834 studies to determine that 989 fish species have been shown to produce active sounds.All that data has now been compiled on a website called FishSounds.net. This new repository acts as a global inventory of fish sounds easily accessed and added to by contributors around the world, and members of the public who are curious or have an interest in fish species.

We listen back to our 2012 conversation with autism advocate, speaker and author Temple Grandin. She’ll be the keynote speaker at the Promising Pathways: The Road to Best Practice in Autism Spectrum Disorder Conference at FGCU on Saturday, April 9.

Next week on Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership is hosting the 2022 Southwest Florida Climate Summit. This year it will be held as a two-day hybrid event so people can attend virtually or in person at the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers. This public event will feature innovative thinkers to exchange dialogue and ideas on expanding the region’s capacity to respond to climate challenges, and towards building increased community resiliency.

There is an exhibit on display now at the Barron Library in LaBelle called Water/Ways which explores the relationship between people and water. It explores the centrality of water in our lives including its effect on the environment and climate, its practical role in agriculture and economic planning, and its impact on culture and spirituality. We learn about it with Nicole Hellard, director of the Barron Library; and Dr. Brandon Jett, professor of history at Florida SouthWestern State College.

Researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida Atlantic University are studying the possible human health impacts caused by airborne toxins produced by Blue-Green Algae through a study called 'Cyanotoxins in Air Study' or CAST. They’ve been collecting air samples here in southwest Florida and across the state in Stuart, and are asking volunteers who live near the water to provide blood, urine, and nasal samples. There hasn’t been a major blue-green algae bloom for a few years so right now they’re collecting baseline data.

Life has changed for all of us in some ways over the past two years as the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the world. Explore what these times have been like for writers, who generally do their work at home, or in a sort of isolation.

Project SEARCH is a program that helps students with intellectual and developmental disabilities transition from school to work. Hear from two women who make Project SEARCH possible, an a current Project SEARCH intern, and a former intern.

David Futch’s family has deep roots on Gasparilla Island — about as deep as they come. His family first came ashore in the 1880s to fish, and it was his great-grandfather Frank Futch who first figured out how to catch tarpon on a rod and reel and started the guide-fishing industry on the southwest Florida coast. In his new book, Historic Tales of Gasparilla Island, Futch shares stories about island life and its history that come from both his family’s tales, and historical records.

Florida’s annual legislative session wrapped up Monday with lawmakers approving a $112.1 billion budget. The session was largely dominated by contentious culture-war issues and legislators passed many of Governor Ron DeSantis’ priority bills. Other issues including Florida’s struggling property insurance market and the redrawing of the state’s Congressional district boundaries remain unresolved, and could signal a possible special session. We’ll get insight and analysis from a panel of Florida political science experts.