NSU researcher part of a team addressing potential risks of deep-sea mining
On Thursday, the NSU Newsroom revealed that Tracey Sutton, Ph.D., a research scientist and professor at NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, was recently a part of the research team that conducted a new study on deep-sea mining. Led by the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, the study “argues that deep-sea mining poses significant risks, not only to the area immediately surrounding mining operations, but also to the water hundreds to thousands of feet above the seafloor, threatening vast midwater ecosystems,” according to the NSU Newsroom. Jeffrey Drazen, Ph.D., a professor of oceanography at UH Mānoa, who was also part of the study said, “We are urging researchers and governing bodies to expand midwater research efforts, and adopt precautionary management measures now in order to avoid harm to deep midwater ecosystems from seabed mining.”
Disney World reopens
On Saturday, Walt Disney World’s parks, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened to the public, with the Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios parks to reopen July 15. All guests in attendance are required to wear face masks. Despite the number of cases continuing to rise in Florida, hundreds of people were in attendance to the parks’ reopening. However, Disney’s competitors, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, have actually been open now for several weeks. According to Disney’s theme park chairman, Josh D’Amaro, “The world is changing around us, but we strongly believe that we can open safely and responsibly.”
Dengue fever cases confirmed in Florida Keys
On Saturday, Monroe County officials confirmed three more cases of dengue fever in the Florida Keys totaling the case count to 14 within the county. Transmitted by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, dengue fever is not contagious but presents itself as a severe flu-like illness with severe muscle aches and pain, fever and sometimes rashes. As of now, there have been no reported cases in Miami-Dade or Broward County.
Florida breaks single-day COVID-19 cases record
On Sunday, the state of Florida reported the nation’s largest single-day COVID-19 case record with more than 15,000 people testing positive, raising the total cases in the state to almost 270,000 cases. According to AP News, “Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5% of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19%.
