This is the WFHB Local News for Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022.

Later in the program, WFHB Correspondent Kayan Tara speaks to family members of Malik Ali Malik - a man who died in a car chase with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office one year ago. More in today’s feature report.

Also coming up in the next half hour, WFHB Environmental Affairs Correspondent Sofia Fitzgerald discusses the impact sharks have on coral reefs. But first, your local headlines:

Covid-19 Press Conference

Photo courtesy of University of Michigan.

On February 10th at the Covid-19 Press Conference Health Director Penny Caudill shared that Monroe County is still in the red advisory category, but says that the rate of community spread is expected to steadily decline.

IU Health President Brian Shockney shared that although the number of hospital patients has been declining, patients are staying longer due to their symptoms.

Shockney said that the hospital is hoping to have room in the near future to continue surgeries that had to be postponed due to the high numbers of Covid-19 patients.

Indiana University Chief Health Officer, Aaron Carroll said that cases on the IU Bloomington campus are declining with a positivity rate in the single digits. He shared that there is only one student in the personal isolation unit.

Carroll also shared that IU is offering students twenty dollars in Crimson Cash to incentivize students to get their booster shot.

The next Covid-19 Press Conference will be held on February 25th.

Utilities Service Board

Photo courtesy of Schmidt Associates.

At the Utilities Service Board meeting on February 14th the board heard from Director of Bloomington Utilities Vic Kelson about a memorandum of understanding between the Lake Monroe Water Fund and the City of Bloomington Utilities. Kelson said the M-O-U is for Bloomington’s financial contribution to watershed projects.

IU Vice Provost of Communications Kirk White asked about who administers the Lake Monroe Water Fund. Kelson replied saying that the board is composed of many different stakeholders.

The board approved the request unanimously.

The board also approved a M-O-U between Bloomington Utilities and the Parks and Recreation Department to finalize each other's roles at the Miller Showers Park. The next board meeting will be held on February 28th.

The Real Killers: Humans and Overfishing

The overfishing of sharks can cause a trophic cascade that impacts the health of our coral reefs causing them to bleach and further damages our aquatic ecosystems.

Sharks are a flagship species. When they are killed or fished, it causes an imbalance in the marine food web. Less high-level predators, like sharks, cause an increase in mid-level predators, like snappers. These mid-level predators then over-hunt herbivores like parrotfish. These herbivores eat algae - so a decrease in the fish population would thus cause an increase in aquatic algal blooms, which significantly affect coral health. The parrotfish are pertinent to coral health because they eat the algae that would otherwise overwhelm young corals on reefs that are recovering from natural disturbances. This algae then overwhelms the coral reefs, furthering coral bleaching and causing a crisis of aquatic health. 

Ph.D. recipient Jonathan Ruppert spoke with his alma mater the University of Toronto News Department on this issue, where he explains the relationship coral reefs have with sharks, “The reefs provided us with a unique opportunity to isolate the impact of overfishing of sharks on reef resilience and assess that impact in the broader context of climate change...