Milton did us a solid with Midnight Pass

On a recent Thursday morning, a pelican sat bobbing around in the water, taking a free ride on the small but bouncy waves created by breezy conditions and the strong current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico into Little Sarasota Bay.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Current flowing from the Gulf into Little Sarasota Bay.

It's beautiful.

It's welcoming.

It's clean.

It's Midnight Pass.

While our pelican pal was yo-yoing about and enjoying the sun on an unseasonably cool, crisp day, his buddies were not far away circling overhead just inside the bay.

Soon after, one would make the nose-dive like a missile right into the water to snare a passing fish. 

The true definition of "eatin' good in the neighborhood."

Six days, and some 41 years prior to that, the scene of the pelican sunbathing in the crosshairs of the bay and the Gulf, wasn't happening.

It didn't exist, it was closed. It was a relatively lifeless strip of sand that acted as a barrier between lovely, clear pristine waters of the Gulf on one side, and the tea-colored, cloudy bay.

Amid the destruction from Helene and Milton, Mom took back what is rightfully hers and many between Siesta and Casey keys are elated she has it back.

The pelicans are, too.

Mom, who goes by the formal name of Mother Nature, tapped through the once-closed Midnight Pass via Helene and decided a trickle of flowing water wasn't enough. 

Two weeks later she sent Milton, which punched a hole through Midnight Pass so wide that it actually IS a pass now from Little Sarasota Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

"It was perfect in terms of the pass," said Danielle Nutten, owner of Salty Adventure Boat Tours. "It gave us two channels (on the bay side) and it gave us nothing to really work on except for what's going on the gulf side and the shoaling (of sand) that can hurt over there, but ideally it gave a deep pass, a wide pass."

Now, we hope it stays that way.

Just after Helene, the pass opened slightly, a mere "creek" of water passing through and in a matter of a couple days the build up of sand was too much and the pass started to close.

Various groups were out there battling the odds with shovels to make every attempt they could to keep the pass open.

Then came Milton.

Somehow Milton's force drove all the loose sediment into the bay to the point where it built a shelf of sand that accumulated about 50 yards inside the pass.

Photo by Michael Harris

"To see this, it's like our prayers have been answered," Nutten said.

What Milton did is more than open a wide lane for boats to go from the bay to the Gulf, it's more about filtering out the muck of Little Sarasota Bay and "breathing" clean water into it from the gulf.

The water of the bay had been trapped with no outflow for a stretch of nearly 15 miles. Over the years, it was brown from various pollutants, algae and at times gave off an unwelcome odor. 

On a recent tour, Nutten noticed a big difference after the pass was open.

"We were out last night (Wednesday) on a tour and we could see into the bay with our underwater lights, where we couldn't before," she said. "To see fishermen, they were out there casting away and catching all kinds of fish."

The greatest fear is the fact that over some time, the pass could start to fill up again, like it started to do after Helene.

That's where groups like restoremidnightpass.org hope the government will help and do what it can to keep Midnight Pass open and maintained.

The pass has a history of course. Until 1983, the pass was open and water flowed freely, although it would "shift" due to shoaling on one side or the other. Because of that, two homeowners wanted to close the pass permanently and got permits to do so. 

Since then there have been attempts to reopen it and some groups who didn't want the pass reopened, if you can believe that.

Last September, the Sarasota County Commission listened to any prospects of reopening the pass and really didn't have an option unless the state or feds get involved.

During the meeting, it was clear the commission was hopeful something could be done. Oh sure, one option may have meant doing some kind of "doohickey" pump system that would transverse water from the gulf ... whatever. That wasn't going to happen.

So Milton comes along and now its life by natural causes.

Well that just made things easier right?

Possibly.

Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Neunder is a big proponent of Midnight Pass being open.

"The general public is happy this is open, you know, there's always those for and those against, but because it opened naturally, I would say 95, 96, 97 percent are happy it's open," he said. "But what I would like to see is a process where we (the County) allocate money to maintain the pass, much like a beach renourishment project." 

It would need someone higher up than the county to give approval.

Last week, Sarasota County issued a very direct statement on the situation despite what the hurricanes have done.

"Sarasota County is not currently permitted to make the physical changes needed to maintain the opening that resulted from the hurricanes," the county said in a release.

Well, there you have it. No dice.

However, U.S. Rep. Greg Stuebe is cutting through the murky "who-does-what" waters of this situation and urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep Midnight Pass open permanently.

In a letter addressed to Lt. Gen. William H. Graham, Jr. of the USACE, Steube stated the storms gave us an opportunity to address the long-standing environmental and economic concerns caused by the closure of Midnight Pass.

“Although Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused tremendous damage in my district and across the state of Florida, the storms naturally reopened Midnight Pass between Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, which provided an opportunity for my constituents to experience some of the benefits of a reopened pass,” Steube said. “I am hopeful that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will complete a permanent restoration of Midnight Pass.”

We can assume when Stuebe says constituents he means humans, so it should be added that oysters, shrimp, fish and plant life would also experience the benefits of a reopened Pass and ultimately a cleaner Little Sarasota Bay.

Oh yeah, and the pelicans, we can't forget them.

Everybody and every thing wins.

The bottom line is Midnight Pass needs life to give life to Little Sarasota Bay.

This is also a major opportunity to right a wrong from 41 years ago, and we got a "major solid" from Milton and Mom.

Nutten called Mother Nature's actions a gift.

"It was the best of what we could possibly hope for."