[Coral-List] Steven Miller

[Steven L Miller]

Dear Nohora

Oh my. You made me smile this morning.

It's human nature I guess to make assumptions. In this case, maybe some 
confirmation bias too?

Just to be clear, I am not the Steve Miller you addressed in your last 
post. I am not the Regional Sales Manager for Restoration Dredge, or any 
other dredge company affiliation.

Here's my contact information.

Steven Miller, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Nova Southeastern University

https://works.bepress.com/steven-miller/?_aiid=12167

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1QLmgmQAAAAJ

My career spans the time from when coral reef research was not dominated 
by monitoring, but instead was defined by experimental ecology, to where 
we are today - catastrophic decline.

Related to your post, what you call a coral reef adjacent to Port Miami 
is instead a naturally occurring hardbottom characterized by extremely 
low coral cover. The area is also subjected to major human-caused 
modifications that started over 120 years ago when dramatic shoreline 
modifications began in south Miami, including development of the port.

My point is, pick your battles. Damage caused by Port Miami dredging was 
a fly-speck compared to losses elsewhere in Florida from global warming. 
However, Port Miami dredging was an easy target that allowed local 
groups and agencies to solicit public sympathy and funding. That's why 
the science matters. It also matters how the science is communicated.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not advocating for unconstrained 
dredging. Instead, best-practices are called for in terms of how 
dredging is conducted, scientific monitoring is performed to evaluate 
damages, mitigation costs are derived, and ultimately what restoration 
activities arise.

If you want to discuss further, please contact me at smiller52 at gmail.com 
or smiller at nova.edu.

Best Regards

Steven