High school employee arrested

Support staff member faces child porn charges.

Federal wildlife officials have opened an investigation into dolphin deaths off Southwest Florida, where a red tide is suspected of killing 41 dolphins in August alone amid widespread fish kills A support staff member at across five counties.

Port St. Lucie High School In a briefing Friday, the who worked in the media National Oceanicand Atmocenter was arrested Friday spheric Administration said it for possession of child por- was declaring the deaths an nography and promoting “unusual mortality event,” the sexual performance by allowing the agency to cora child. ral resources to research

A student told a school the ongoing deaths linked resource officer that another to the algae bloom. Since student at the high school the 1990s, the agency has claimed that 36-year-old declared four similar red Alexander Rivera Marcial tide dolphin die-offs in the had asked the minor stuGulf. Three occurred in the dent to record themself Panhandle and one, during a naked and to give Marcial 17-month long tide that ended the video, according to the in 2006, covered the entire St. Lucie County Sheriff’s west coast.

Office. The officer inter“As we go through this viewed Marcial, the student event, if it’s truly red tide, who made the claim and you may see a shift in the the student who informed type and what the strandthe officer. ings look like,” said veter

“Through this investigainarian Teri Rowles, coor- tion it was learned that the dinator for NOAA’s Marine victim had asked the staff Mammal Health and Strand- member to assist them in ing Program. connecting their phone to Resear c he r s at Mote Wi-Fi and in doing so propoMarine Lab in Sarasota said sitioned the student to video they confirmed evidence of themselves and provide it a bloom nearly a year ago in to him,” St. Lucie County October. Massive fish kills and Sheriff Ken Mascara said in i sea turtle deaths followed, a statement.

Detectives with the sheriff’s office arrived at the school and Marcial confessed, according to law enforcement.

Marcial was still listed on the school website’s faculty page Saturday. He was not in a teaching capacity and was immediately removed from his duties, according to the sheriff ’s office. It was unclear how long he worked at the school.

By the time polls closed Tuesday night, 27.46 per- cent of registered Florida voters had cast primary-elec- tion ballots.

But turnout in some rural North Florida counties dwarfed the state rate. The highest turnout rate, 56.46 percent, was in Franklin County, followed by 55.33 percent in neighboring Lib- erty County, according to numbers posted on the state Division of Elections website. They were followed by Jefferson County at 49.37 percent, Gadsden County at 41.82 percent and Holmes County at 40.69 percent.

The state’s lowest turn- leaving beaches littered and canals clogged with carcasses by June. It’s not unusual for dolphin deaths to lag behind turtles, manatees and other marine life because dolphins tend to be poisoned by the food they eat rather than the water, Rowles said.

“In red tide events, we know the animals often die acutely with high levels of brevetoxins in their bodies and in their stomachs,” she said. “But ... even when the bloom is gone, we may see an increase in mortality.”

Dolphin deaths stayed in the normal range through much of the bloom: one was reported in November out rate, 20.6 percent, came in Central Florida’s Osce- ola County. That was followed by a 21.35 percent rate in Miami-Dade County, a 23.53 percent rate in Broward County, a 24.01 per- cent rate in Hendry County and a 24.8 percent rate in Bay County, the state numbers show.

Florida Power & Light asked state regulators Friday to extend a program in which customers can voluntarily pay $9 a month to boost small-scale solar energy projects.

The program was approved as a three-year pilot in 2014 and about two dozen more eight known sub popula- BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil through July, said Erin Foug- tions, she said, but only rig exploded in 2010. In 2016, eres, NOAA’s strandings coor- one is coastal and well-doc- Rowles and other researchdinator for the southeast umented. Dolphins live long, ers linked the deaths to the region. Then in July the numwith some females as old oil spill. ber hit eight, double the hisas 60. But they are slow to It may also take dolphins toric average, followed by the reproduce: pregnancy lasts longer to recover if the fish 41 deaths in August. about 12 months and moth- they consume are wiped out

Only 10 carcasses have ers nurse their babies for up by the tide. been examined so far, but to 20 months. They only give “The food web needs to all had high levels of red birth every three to six years. recover and then it takes the tide toxin, suggesting their “So it can have an impact,” dolphins time to recover,” deaths were linked to the Engleby said. Rowles said. algae bloom, Rowles said. In 2005 and 2006, the last To help with the investiga

It’s not clear what effect time such an intense red tide tion, researchers are asking the tide will have over the blanketed the coast, 283 dol- anyone who finds a dead or long term on the Gulf’s dol- phins died in two red tides sick dolphin, or one behavphin population, said Laura in the Panhandle and on the ing strangely, to call NOAA’s Engleby, the Southeast Region west coast. The Gulf also emergency strandings numMarine Mammal Program had a spike in the number ber at 1-877-WHALE HELP Branch Chief. The Gulf has of baby dolphin deaths after (942-5343). and was extended through 2018. The proposal filed Friday at the Florida Public Service Commission seeks approval to extend the program through December 2019. The filing said 32,848 customers were enrolled in the program through June 30.

The program has supported installation of 84 solar structures, with an additional 53 under construction. The solar structures are installed on such things as rooftops and covered walkways and are in locations such as parks, zoos and schools, the filing said. FPL is limited to spending 20 percent of the customers’ payments on marketing and administrative expenses.

“The VSP (voluntary solar partnership) Program is successfully increasing visibility and awareness of solar energy through customer engagement and the strate- gic installation of program facilities,” the filing said.

E-ZPass arrived Saturday in Florida, with users of the toll-collection system in 16 other states being able use their transponders without facing extra fees on Central Florida Expressway Authority roads.

“The more than 35 million E-ZPass users can now drive in metro Orlando and avoid having to fumble for change at CFX toll gantries,” the Central Florida Express- way Authority said Friday.

For the nearly 400,000 account holders of the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s E-Pass system, the change will be one-way for now. The authority continues to work on a new transponder to be called E-Pass Extra - expected to be introduced in the fall - that will combine the systems.

Also, E-ZPass customers traveling on roads operated by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise under the SunPass brand will continue to be invoiced for tolls via Florida’s “toll by plate” program. E-ZPass is a network of toll agencies operating from Maine to Illinois and south to North Carolina.