Capt. Benny Blanco: On the Front Lines for the Everglades

Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 41 with Benny Blanco.

Benny Blanco: Guides in general are a resilient bunch of people. You wouldn't have become a guide if you listened to everybody tell you no. I mean, my family told me no a million times. We don't take no for an answer, and that's part of the reason why we've made the progress we made in this fight. Daniel and Chris are fishing guides. Our base is fishing guides. We don't take no for an answer. And we know what's happening in the state is wrong. And so we're gonna fight to make it right. My name is Benny Blanco, and this is the Tom Rowland podcast.

Tom Rowland: That was Benny Blanco. He's guiding 300 days a year, mostly in the Everglades, and he is also passionately devoting his time to fighting for the health of the Everglades. If you're familiar with this issue, this will be a lot of interesting and additional information to what we've covered on the podcast before. If you're not familiar with the issues in the Everglades, this will be a good primer for you to kind of understand the issues that are going on down there better and how important it is that we try to do something to fix it.

Tom Rowland: Benny recently won a conservation award that was given by Costa. We discussed that award as well as all the water issues in the Everglades and his involvement in educating people and also taking action. There is a group that we continue to talk about a lot on this podcast and in this interview with Benny, and that is Captains for Clean Water. Captains for Clean Water is a group that gets my full support. It's a bunch of fishing guides that are actually taking action.

Tom Rowland: So if you don't know what Captains for Clean Water is, you can go to captainsforcleanwater.org. Check out their website. It's referenced many, many times in this podcast with Benny, and there's some videos up there. Those videos are probably the quickest, easiest, most concise, and most accurate source of information on what's going on in the Everglades right now. So if you're interested, that's a great place to go and find out just what's going on.

Tom Rowland: And if you like it and appreciate what they're doing, it'd be great if you could become a member or at least follow them on their social media platforms. That's incredibly important because if there is something that needs to happen, like recently there was this bill that needed to pass, they can use their social media, their email lists to get the word out to people so they can take action. So Benny and I sat down. He was fishing all day. He met me, and he's really working hard. Benny is a hardworking guy. He's fishing all the time, and he's also finding time to raise a family and finding time to fight for the Everglades. He's passionately pursuing what he knows is the right course of action. And I really enjoyed this conversation with Benny. I hope you will too, so stand by for Benny Blanco.

Tom Rowland: Alright. Captain Benny Blanco, thanks for coming, man. I really appreciate it.

Benny Blanco: Thanks for having me, Tom.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, absolutely. How was the fishing today?

Benny Blanco: It was great. We caught a bunch of snook and redfish, which is a nice change of pace. You know, the park hasn't been exactly wonderful this last couple years because of our issues with water. But on the days where we can target them and actually sight fish them, it's wondrous. Reminds you of how it used to be.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. So you've been fishing the park all your life?

Benny Blanco: My entire life.

Tom Rowland: You grew up in Miami?

Benny Blanco: I'd like to say I grew up in the park, but I grew up in Miami. Yes.

Tom Rowland: So who introduced you to that?

Benny Blanco: My uncle and my father did, by chance. They'll probably kill me for saying this, but they weren't great fishermen. They were great outdoorsmen. And they just gave me a taste, and that was all I needed to jump in full steam.

Tom Rowland: So they had a boat, obviously, and would get you out there on the weekends?

Benny Blanco: Yeah. My uncle had an old, old, old Hughes. And he took me one time when I was really, really young, and I don't even know if we caught very much, but it was the separation from Miami. It was the separation from concrete. It was surrounded by trees and the birds and the fish and just being completely captivated. And I knew that I had to do something more there. That's all I knew, and I was drawn to it constantly. I grew up playing sports, and that was my first love. But as I became older, it became evident that I needed to spend more time in the Everglades National Park, and that's what I did.

Tom Rowland: So that became a profession at what point?

Benny Blanco: I think it was not by choice, really. I was taking friends and jumping on friends' fathers' boats, and they quickly realized that I knew what I was doing or at least had an inclination of what to do. And that led to, you know, let me pay for your gas, let me jump on. And then it led to, let me give you a hundred dollars for today, to me realizing that this is something that I should probably explore more. I went to school at Georgia Tech in Atlanta for a year.

Tom Rowland: Georgia Tech, really?

Benny Blanco: I did. Yeah. I wanted to be a civil engineer. I wanted to do something for the environment, believe it or not. But I missed the water so deeply that when I came back, I just jumped in, and then it's all she wrote since.

Tom Rowland: So I think Joe Simons from Salt Strong, an alumni of this podcast, he also was a Georgia Tech guy. That's a great school. Really great school. I know a lot of people that have gone there. So the civil engineering, did you finish Georgia Tech?

Benny Blanco: I didn't. No.

Tom Rowland: And that's because you just had this calling for the water and you had to get back?

Benny Blanco: Between you and me, I think it was. I definitely wanted to finish school, there's no question. But, you know, sitting behind a desk, looking at a computer screen, becoming an engineer was not appealing, and thinking about those snook and redfish and tarpon was. So it was an easy decision for me. And then once I started and realized I can make some money doing it, it wasn't a very hard twisting of the arm to get me to commit fully.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Did you have a boat that you could start out with, or how'd you make that happen?

Benny Blanco: I didn't really. My dad had a little 17-foot Sailfisher, believe it or not. And it was enough to get me on the water going. I had a little John boat, and that's what I did most of my exploring with, which is an excellent boat to explore with. And then I bought my first Hughes light tackle, an old-school light tackle, that was just beat your brains out. But it got me on the water, and I was able to entertain guests. And that's what started it all.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, that's cool. And so now, like right when you came in here, you said you're fishing three hundred days a year. That's a heavy schedule. What's your family life like?

Benny Blanco: That's a good question. You know, my family is extremely supportive of what I do. It's been tough for the last couple years because I've been 100% invested in the fight for water, which means we don't take vacations, which means I don't have two days in a row to be with them. It means we don't have a lot of expendable income because I spend it going places. And the family life is great in the sense that they are fully committed and understand and, you know, they're in. I spend my evenings doing homework. Every chance I can attend one of their accolades, you know, acknowledgments, I'm there. But it's been tough the last couple years, and it's gonna be tough for the next couple years because we're not even close to having a resolution.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. So how old are your kids, though, before we move on to the water?

Benny Blanco: I have three daughters.

Tom Rowland: Three daughters? I have one daughter and two sons. So how old are your kids?

Benny Blanco: So my youngest is 10. She's a sixth grader. My middle one is 14. She's a freshman. And then I have one about to be 16. She's a sophomore in high school.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I have one that just turned 15, and she's a sophomore. That's a different deal because I had the two boys, that are both now in college, and a lot of different challenges with girls. Three girls. That's interesting. My uncle had five girls. Five girls. He just kept trying for the boy, and he just kept getting girls.

Benny Blanco: So I became wise up to the third one.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, he would say that, you know, his life wouldn't be complete without all five of them, but he did keep trying for the boy, and he kept getting the girls. But that's cool.

Winning the Costa Conservation Award

Tom Rowland: So you just won this award at the ICAST thing, which was a Captains for Clean Water and Costa gave an award for a captain that is the most involved in the fight for the Everglades. Is that what the award is?

Benny Blanco: It was a conservancy award. The award for captain with the most conservation, I guess, effort for the year. It was the first time they announced it. I was completely blindsided by it. Actually, I was speaking with Amanda from Costa when they announced it. And initially, I was extremely thrilled just in general that there was an award acknowledging conservation efforts, because I don't think that we do enough of that. I'm happy to accept it in the sense that it maybe will inspire some other people to wanna get involved. I'm a 100% behind that. But it is hard to accept an award for conservation when we're sitting in, you know, major issues in Florida Bay, and my friends on the West Coast are dying because their business is they can't keep people on their boats, and the green water is killing their fish, and the red tide is killing fish. It's like, you know, the analogy I use is we're in a marathon, and I won the first heat, and I just got a trophy. It's great, but we're in a marathon.

Benny Blanco: And so I applaud Captains for Clean Water, and I applaud Costa for, you know, having the foresight to create an award to continue awareness and to maybe inspire more people to get involved. But I'd definitely like to use it as a springboard. I'd wanna see more people like you, like the leaders in the industry, get involved as much as possible. It's really important that our singular message is that we need to clean our water. And we need to fix our water. And, unfortunately, there are many captains, many guides, many industry people who don't wanna talk about it much because they're afraid that it's gonna send people away. And I understand that a 100%. I, however, have adopted the other methodology, which is to educate my clients, to tell them about it, to encourage them to get involved, to make them become members of Captains for Clean Water, Bull Sugar, Everglades Foundation, to write their congressmen and senators, because the only way we're gonna get to a resolution is if we all stand together shoulder to shoulder.

Understanding the Everglades Water Crisis

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I also think it's super important. I mean, I know from my own journey in this and fully understanding this issue, it really helped to sit down with Daniel Andrews from Captains for Clean Water and have him explain it. And he's been on the podcast twice now, and we've had tremendous feedback from the listeners who from all different states and from all different, even different countries, coming up with an understanding. And I'd like to talk to you about how you're explaining this to your clients and how you're explaining this to different people, because you're coming at this from a slightly different angle than I am, being in Miami. We're down in The Keys.

Tom Rowland: And, again, for the sake of this podcast, and there's some new listeners coming to this all the time, let's go over the overall issue and particularly this summer. We're having really bad problems with the Caloosahatchee River, what's coming out of the Caloosahatchee River. So one of the things that I think a lot of the people, particularly that are familiar with the Florida Keys, and maybe that's the only place that they fish in Florida, and maybe it's Key West, this whole issue is really, to them, they come in, they come out, everything looks great.

Tom Rowland: We've had algae blooms there that are associated with this. It's very scary, and it was, you know, it was an eye opener to see that stuff come in, especially in the middle of tarpon season, and you got this green water. But you have a lot of areas in the Florida Keys where there are tons of fishing guides that all of what we're talking about has no effect on them whatsoever. Right? Like, if you have a guy that's maybe in Duck Key and all he does is go out to the reef and go swordfishing, he's not seeing any effects of this whatsoever.

Tom Rowland: However, you're having other people that are fishing in the Everglades. And I guess, in a nutshell, a lot of the bites in the Everglades — and I'm not telling you this, I'm just kinda bringing the audience up to speed a little bit — there's an issue in the Everglades of the water being far too, well, not enough freshwater at all. So it becomes too salty.

Benny Blanco: Hyper saline.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Hyper saline. So you're having, like, it's like you had a saltwater fish tank in your house, and you just never add water to it. It gets lower and lower and lower. The salinity gets higher and higher and higher until absolutely nothing can live there. And you have weird algae and all kinds of weird things that are going on. At the same time, when big storms come over, it seems like that would be a good thing. And it would be if you could localize that rain right over Flamingo. Right? But if it's further up in the state and then it all collects into the Okeechobee area, you have a lot of issues with effluent.

Benny Blanco: Well, the lake gets overfilled. When it gets overfilled, the issue becomes that the dike can only hold so much water, so much height, because it becomes a health risk. Obviously, if the dike breaks, then thousands of homeowners around the lake would be flooded. And that's the reason the dike was built, back when that hurricane happened in the nineteen twenties. The problem with that is that when the lake overfills, they have to dump it. And when they dump it, there's no mechanism right now currently for them to capture that water, to treat it and send it south to Florida Bay where it's supposed to be. They send it east and west, which is not a natural situation. The Saint Lucie River and the Caloosahatchee never had flow from Okeechobee ever, but we've constructed that to be the case. And when that water comes out of Okeechobee, it's not just fresh water, which would be bad enough. It's algae-laden. It's high nutrient water, and it hits both coasts, and it causes chaos.

Benny Blanco: In both coasts, oyster beds die, grass die. And now we're seeing a supercharged red tide, which no one wants to talk about, but is absolutely supercharged by these discharges from Lake Okeechobee. And you've seen the pictures — dolphin and turtles and, I mean, every species imaginable dying that you've never seen die before, 100-pound tarpon. We instinctually avoid issues like that. And then in Florida Bay, we are completely starved of water. And they can't send that water south because we don't have the mechanism. But luckily last year, we were able to get SB 10, which is the reservoir, approved, which is south of the lake.

Benny Blanco: We are currently in — and we got funding, we got the governor to sign off on it. We got funding from the state, but it's a cost-share situation where the federal government has to come up with their half. And we're part of that WRDA bill, which is supposed to be voted on next month. We've been at DC a couple times advocating for that approval. Brian Mast from Palm Beach has been up there pushing it as hard as he can. And once that portion gets approved, we can start building the reservoir. And that reservoir would be maintained so that we capture the water, treat it so that we're sending clean water into the Everglades like it was supposed to be. Obviously, it's not a perfect situation. It's not the original sheet flow of the Everglades. It'll never be that because we have Miami and several farms in the way.

Benny Blanco: But some sheet flow is better than none. In a situation like we had in 2015, when we had no fresh water coming from the glades, that hyper saline situation caused 40 to almost 50,000 acres of dead seagrass. And we're still dealing with those aftereffects, because what happens when we lose seagrass is the infrastructure of the seagrass doesn't hold the silt down. So when there's any kind of wind event, the water gets muddy. When the water gets muddy, it prevents sun from getting to the grass. And so the current grass that's there is having trouble staying alive. And so it's a domino effect of issues that happen in Florida Bay that's directly related to the discharges that come out of the East and West Coast.

Benny Blanco: And so, yes, you're right. There are guides south of us that don't see effects. However, I beg to differ in the sense that they will eventually see effects. We know that there's damaged reefs north of them. It's only a matter of time before it heads down that way. We know that the algal blooms come down and go through the bridges. You've seen it. That cannot positively affect the reefs. So my question isn't how do we neutralize the problem north, but my question is how do we get everybody together to fight together? Because eventually, it's gonna affect them.

Educating Lawmakers and the Public

Tom Rowland: Don't you think that getting people together begins with education? I mean, I do. A 100%.

Benny Blanco: A 100%.

Tom Rowland: So when you have — I think this would be very beneficial, and I would just like to know how you're doing it. But when you have somebody that's not familiar with South Florida, like a senator or an elected official, how are you educating them on this problem, because you probably only have a small amount of their time? It's a very large and complex issue. Do you have your elevator speech, so to speak, that kind of, in short form? If you do, I'd like to hear it.

Benny Blanco: Sure. We meet with congressmen and senators all the time. And everyone's time frame is different. When we don't have time, it's a very simple thing. It's: the Everglades is being starved of freshwater. We need to fund the reservoir south of the lake so that we can capture and treat extra fresh water and send it south to solve our problem right now. And everyone agrees with that a 100%. The long form is what I explained earlier, and it can be even longer than that because the issue is not just the reservoir. There's so many complicated avenues to the problem. We have issues with the FWC and South Florida Water Management District spraying and treating canals all over the state of Florida, which —

Tom Rowland: For weeds or mosquitoes or what?

Benny Blanco: For all of the above. And that gets down into our aquifer. We have issues with fertilizers in our yards that we do innocently enough, not understanding that that also goes down into our aquifer. We have issues with blockage of canals in the Okeechobee. We have, in the CERP program, which is that first comprehensive Everglades restoration plan that was approved twenty years ago, there are hundreds of projects. We've only finished one. And the one is the bridging of the Tamiami Trail. And that was just a small portion of that bridging. Some of it has been approved since. And so just knowing that there's a hundred projects, even if we got the reservoir approved and funded and built, we still don't have the mechanism to send it south. We still have all these other projects that we have to get done. So it's an extremely complicated project, a series of projects. There's no one silver bullet. I wish there was.

Benny Blanco: The reason we push the reservoir is because it has the most immediate impact, the potential for the most immediate impact, and it's something that we could actually tangibly put our hands around. And it was part of the CERP project plan from the beginning.

Tom Rowland: And that's already been voted on?

Benny Blanco: Approved.

Tom Rowland: And approved and everything. That's where it really hit home with me when I was talking to Daniel, and he was like, look, if people knew about this and knew that this had already been voted on, they would be, you know, rioting in the streets. Like, this is something that has already been established, but nothing's been done. One thing's been done in thirty years. It's a constant struggle.

Benny Blanco: With the red tape involved between a plan that gets approved and when it actually gets done, because there are so many different agencies that have a say in what happens and where it goes and what it does, that it's exhausting. And, unfortunately, a lot of those agencies, their directors and their boards are appointed by a governor who's influenced by special interests. I hate to get political, but that's the problem — our political will isn't for us. Our political will is definitely special interest, and this election in November is critical for us. We have to have an AG, and we have to have a governor who are pro-environment. Otherwise, we stand to lose our estuaries.

Tom Rowland: I mean, we're on the brink already. And so are there people that are in line to run that you feel strongly about?

Benny Blanco: There are, on both sides of the tail. DeSantis is the Republican who has been fighting with us hand in hand. He's running against Adam Putnam, and Putnam has proven to be someone who takes a lot of money from those special interest groups that we spoke of. And for AG, I don't have someone to recommend because there are some really, really great ones, but Matt Caldwell is the one that I would highly recommend against, because he's been part of that flow of money that has proven over the years, up and down the scale, all the way to Washington, DC, dictates what happens politically afterwards. I think if we can separate ourselves from those special interest groups in a massive way, then we can make some positive change happen immediately.

Blue Sky: The Best-Case Scenario

Tom Rowland: And so let's just blue sky it and say that everybody comes together, and the people that are supportive of this issue get elected. In your opinion — you blue sky it — what happens then? What's the best case scenario that we can hope for right now?

Benny Blanco: So our best case scenario is that we have a South Florida Water Management District board that is appointed, who are made up of scientists, biologists, and people who understand the flow of water and not farmers who stand to benefit off of water. It would also mean that our reservoir is on a fast track, which can absolutely happen. We've done everything in our power to make that possible. And if our reservoir is fast tracked, we can look at a reservoir being built and operational in two years. Blue sky would also mean that the four or five projects between the reservoir and the top of the Everglades, the top of Taylor Slough on the East Side of the Everglades, are completed, and that can all happen at the same time. That would be blue sky, which means that we'd be safeguarded to an extent for those perfect storm situations that we had in 2015.

Benny Blanco: So that when we have a drought, we have south wind, and there's no rain, and we have that hypersaline situation, we've got water to send to Taylor Slough. And so we can send fresh water to Florida Bay. In 2015, if we'd had the reservoir, we certainly would have still had some issues because that was crazy, you know, a perfect storm of a situation. But it would have been much smaller and controlled in the sense that it wouldn't have been an ongoing eight-month die of seagrass. It would have been a month, and we would have recovered. But so blue sky is a two-year plan to have — and as part of that plan, and what the rest of the state needs to understand is, when the reservoir is operating, it also means that we're not sending as much water east or west. In a perfect situation, we fix all the CERP plan and there's never any water descending east and west. But right away, blue sky, the reservoir is built and a third of that water going east-west doesn't go.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. A third would certainly help. I would imagine that would be a lot better than the pictures that I see where the floodgates are just wide open. Right? And then we see what the effects are. And it seems to be more obvious, at least, on the West Coast than it is on the East Coast. Is that right? That out of the Caloosahatchee, we're having more immediate issues from this, certainly this summer?

Benny Blanco: Yeah. It's exacerbated by the red tide. The red tide is a naturally occurring thing. It occurs way offshore usually. Unfortunately, this year, with the amount of nutrients that we've flushed into the West Coast from Okeechobee, that red tide has blown up. A 160-something miles of red tide beat on the beaches. Something like 3,000,000 pounds of dead fish have been removed from Charlotte County. That's — I mean, I don't know how to explain that, Tom. That's a family's vacation ruined. That's, you know, a little boy's first fish. It's — we can't, as Floridians, we can't let that happen anymore. Red tide is natural and we deal with it and we've learned over the years to get around it. No problem. But to have a 160 miles of it is unacceptable. In my opinion, it should be a rally cry for the entire state of Florida to stand up and say that's enough. No more special interests.

Tom Rowland: And it really should be something that gets other people besides just anglers, birdwatching, you know, ecotour type people, interested in a solution, because this is real estate, restaurants, hotels, bed tax. That all of a sudden gets — some real — I mean, that starts putting up some red flags to some people that this is a fiscal disaster.

Benny Blanco: Which is honestly where we had to go to get everybody involved. We had the discharges in 2013, and it caused some major chaos, but they dissipated, and everybody forgot about it. Again, in 2015, we had issues, and 2016. And now this year is the worst year. And I really feel like we had to get to this point for everyone, including real estate and hotels and restaurants, bait shops and paddleboard shops, etcetera, to get involved. This is the first year that it's actually hit their business, their pocketbooks, with a bang. And I think this year is gonna result in issues next year and the year after that, because we're getting national attention now, and people came this year who are never gonna come back again. Because, you know, from a family in Colorado, if they're gonna come to South Florida, it cost them almost the same to just go to The Bahamas, and they do. Again, as a Floridian, we can't let that happen anymore. Our tourism is everything.

The Power of Science-Based Advocacy

Tom Rowland: Well, I think that the education part is super important — to educate guides and anglers who are sharing this experience with other people, and that have an educated voice so that they can explain this problem on a scientific level. Like, this is what's happening. You're getting lots of freshwater going out the sides of Florida. No freshwater going where it normally is. You're having high salinity here. You're having pure freshwater where there should be saltwater. That's the simplistic explanation of what's going on that causes all kinds of problems. If you can educate a lot of the fishing guides so that they can speak well to their very influential customers who, a lot of times, might be elected officials. I mean, lots of people like to fish down here.

Tom Rowland: But the education process, in my mind, goes way beyond that to that family that comes down, and there's miles of dead fish on the beach. Like, what is going on, and why should they care if they're in Missouri?

Benny Blanco: We've slowly, over the last couple of years — not slowly, actually, at a pretty accelerated rate when you look at the overall fight for the Everglades and the water in Florida. In the last couple of years, Daniel Andrews and Chris Wittman have done an awesome job of rallying the troops, so to speak, but doing it based on science. And they collaborate with organizations like Bonefish Tarpon Trust, Everglades Foundation, Everglades Trust, Florida Oceanographic, Riverkeeper Alliance, all of the organizations that base all of their claims, all of their data, on science. And because it's easy to get confused. When you're dealing with special interests, they have the money to spread the news they wanna spread, and they do. So that's been one of the hardest things for us — to keep our eye on the ball, because of what we know based on the scientists that we've spoken with, the people with the best interest of Florida in mind as opposed to special interest.

Benny Blanco: So over the years, over the last couple years, it's been a push to make sure every guide, everyone, every angler in the state of Florida, every visitor to the state of Florida has a chance to get that direct information. They can do so by going to Everglades Foundation or Captains for Clean Water or Everglades Trust or Bull Sugar and getting the direct facts as opposed to what the special interests are spreading.

Tom Rowland: Right. And that goes right to the polls. I mean, that influence ultimately goes right to the polls, and there's a lot riding on both sides. Man, it's such a complicated issue, and it's just heartbreaking to hear the fishing guides, certainly right this summer on the West Coast, just telling the stories of what they're seeing and just dead fish for miles. And the videos on Instagram of just idling down these — I mean, they're as wide as a football field, to the horizon.

Benny Blanco: Yeah. So I get messages, being one of the guys on the front line. I get associated with someone to speak with when there's an issue like that. And so I get messages and calls pretty regularly, as I'm sure Daniel and Chris do, and they're heartbreaking. The good news is that as bad as it is, it is only temporary, because at some point, we won't have the influx of rain, and we'll be able to manage the water, and it'll go away. Now, hopefully, enough people have been influenced by it to take that to November and vote correctly, but it is only temporary. So, while I talk about bad water all the time and I beg people to get involved and I show them these videos, and we see the videos on Facebook, I do wanna encourage people to know that it's only temporary. Florida still is an unbelievable sport fishery. These guys who are dying, you know, watching these fish float and their clients not come, are finding areas where there are fish, and they make a living.

Benny Blanco: Because guides in general are a resilient bunch of people. You wouldn't have become a guide if you listened to everybody tell you no. I mean, my family told me no a million times. We don't take no for an answer, and that's part of the reason why we've made the progress we made in this fight. Daniel and Chris are fishing guides. Our base is fishing guides. We don't take no for an answer, and we know what's happening in the state is wrong. We're gonna fight to make it right. But the message I was just trying to get across is that, you know, yes, it's pretty horrible right now, and we need to have more people get educated on the issues, to go to Captains for Clean Water, go to Everglades Foundation, read about the issues, become educated enough to take that to the polls, but to know that, you know, the fishing is still good.

Staying Positive on the Front Lines

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, that's certainly very true and one of the reasons why I got along so well with Daniel. The time that I spent with him earlier this year, I was just very impressed with his ability to keep things on the positive. And we went out. We had a great day of fishing. We were fishing up in the Everglades on purpose. We wanted to go up there. Saw some things we had never seen before. We saw permit in places that never seen a permit before. It was great. But his ability to keep things positive even when he's on the front lines like you are, and, you know, people are sending him these videos and these reports of what's going on, he still — and you still — are remaining very, very positive. You're fishing three hundred days a year, so you're obviously not fishing in bad water. You're able to find water. And that's the message that needs to go out there as well, just like what you said, that the fishing — like, after Hurricane Irma, the fishing was as good as it ever has been, in my opinion. I mean, it was dynamite. It was crazy good.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And I think that's what happens a lot with hurricanes — it makes everything man-made suffer, everything natural benefits, to an extent. But this issue, it's like this nagging little thing that kinda goes away a little bit, and then it comes back. And it kinda goes away a little bit, and then it comes back. And it seems like if we just handle it and get the ball rolling —

Benny Blanco: Sure.

Tom Rowland: That's the idea, that our children, our grandchildren will be able to experience an Everglades like we always have.

Benny Blanco: For years, for decades, the predominant methodology was to not talk about it so that people would still come, but we're past that. And it's a nagging issue that comes back. You're absolutely 100% correct, but it's progressively getting worse, and we have to address it, and we have to fix it. We have the momentum now. We've made some serious progress over the last couple years, and I'm super optimistic to the fact that we've already seen, after 2016 in Stuart on the Saint Lucie River, we saw replanting of oysters and grass and it was coming back. And I think that's why everyone's really upset, because they really placed a high effort on refurbishing the area, and it was coming back.

Benny Blanco: So this year in December, the Audubon issued a report that it was the best year on record in the history of record keeping of nesting for wading birds in the Everglades, and they attribute some of that to the raising of the Tamiami Trail. So there is huge hope that if we could just fix a few things, if we can send some more water south, if we can stop sending it east and west, if we can address the spraying, if we can address the fertilizers in general, that we could have a huge positive impact in the Everglades. In fact, I tell this to my clients all the time. No one that I know was alive when we actually had freshwater sheet flow from Okeechobee. It's been blocked since the twenties. We don't even know what kind of positive effect that would be. It might be beyond our wildest dreams.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Benny Blanco: I hold on to that hope all the time. And the other thing I wanna say about the guides in Florida — we're professionals. I think the misconception throughout the planet is, you know, a fishing guide is a guy who sits on the back of his jon boat with a cane pole and, you know, overalls, and that is not the case. Fishing guides are dynamic. You met Daniel. We are educated in general. We are businessmen. We're obviously marketers. We're great customer service. We don't take no for an answer, self-driven. We're professionals. And if you call your fishing guide and he's in a bad area and he tells you he can put you on fish, I would trust him. We know what we're doing. So my message would be that we need help. We need people to get educated. We are making huge progress. We're very optimistic. We have some major issues, but we're pros. And so rely on us to come down and have your vacations and catch fish.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, there's plenty of great fishing. It's — I don't know. We've had some of the best fishing this year that I can remember, and partly best because of the hurricane, but, I mean, it's been fantastic. And actually, even up in the Everglades, it's been quite good. Has that been your experience?

Benny Blanco: Absolutely.

Tom Rowland: Do you fish mostly in the Everglades?

Benny Blanco: Yeah. So I'm pretty flexible. I grew up fishing Biscayne. So I have no problem going to Biscayne, but I made my name, so to speak, in Everglades National Park, fishing Florida Bay in the backcountry. What's missing for me the last couple of years is that sight fishing in Florida Bay, specifically Snake Bight and the bights — that doesn't exist right now because the water is dirty and there's no grass to clean it. And so those clients that come from all over the planet to fish that sight fishing, I take them to Biscayne. We catch bonefish and permit. And that's been fantastic. Fishing in general in the glades has been great. It just depends on what you wanna do. But, again, we're professionals, so we know how to make those adjustments.

Tom Rowland: There's no place like the Florida Keys for diversity and variety of fishing. And plus then you have so much tidal difference between the oceanside and Flamingo and Biscayne Bay and Key West. I mean, you can find an incoming tide basically anywhere and the right water depth for what you're looking for throughout — I mean, a 150 miles of it. Right? So there's a tremendous amount of good news coming from Florida. But this is something that people definitely have to be aware of.

Seeking Solutions, Not Finger-Pointing

Tom Rowland: And I like so much the approach of, look, I don't even know why this is happening necessarily. I mean, like you said, it's a lot of factors. It's stuff we put on our own lawns. It could possibly be mosquito spray. And if they didn't spray for mosquitoes in the state of Florida, not a lot of people would be living in Florida, certainly not as many as we are. When we were fishing with Richard Black, we were on East Cape Canal, and he knows a lot about the Everglades. And he was saying, yeah, you know why they built this? And I said, well, no, actually, I don't. And he was like, well, it was for cattle. You know why it didn't work? And I was like, well, I don't know. I'm waiting for this good story. And he's like, well, the cows kept suffocating because the mosquitoes would be so thick that they would go in their nose.

Tom Rowland: So there's probably some need to spray. Otherwise, people are going to leave the state of Florida. If you're gonna suffocate cows with a number of mosquitoes, there's probably a need to. And you put in Flamingo — I mean, they don't spray for mosquitoes there, and there are a lot of mosquitoes. But it's so many factors. And I like the approach of not pointing fingers and not saying, oh, it's all their fault over there. No, it's more seeking a solution. And that's what I wanna get behind — I wanna get behind seeking the solution, not the finger pointing and being upset with one group or another. It's like everything I wanna do is moving towards a solution. And I felt like that is exactly what Captains is doing. Captains for Clean Water and all the work that you guys are doing up in Washington is moving towards a solution of getting something done that has already been voted on and already been in place, but just no work has been done.

Tom Rowland: So what do you think has to happen to actually see work being done? I mean, we talked about blue sky, and we talked about electing the right people. But even at that point, are there other challenges that we might expect even if the elections go — like, I love those signs that are like, "Republican, Democrat, Water." That's cool, and you see those in people's yards. And what that means is, look, who cares what party you're for? Vote for whoever's gonna fix or be in support of this water situation.

Benny Blanco: I think it's a combination of things. Obviously, the election is important because that'll dictate who's managing the district, and the district is the one building the reservoir. And they will also work hand in hand with the Army Corps of Engineers with regard to the other projects in the CERP program. So the election is super important. The second thing that I truly believe is that we have to come to some type of compromise or agreement. There need not be a separation between fishermen and farmers, and there's a lot of that because, like you said, there's a lot of finger pointing. And the reality is, I fully believe that a healthy Everglades and a healthy sheet flow is beneficial to all. It's beneficial to our water, for the city of Miami, for people's consumption. It's beneficial to the farmers for their fields and the health of their crops. And it's certainly beneficial to the Everglades, which affects all of our tourism. The more separated we are, the more divisive we are, the easier it is for them to keep us from getting that resolution.

Benny Blanco: So I'd love to see — I think everyone on our side would certainly love to see — a collaborative effort in pushing for the CERP program to be finished and operational and successful, because a healthy Everglades means good for everyone.

Tom Rowland: Some of the farmers, though — I mean, part of why there's resistance against this reservoir is because that's a massive piece of land that's being used right now. Is that correct?

Benny Blanco: Sure. But putting all the farmers into one basket would be like putting all the fishermen in one basket. You know, there's offshore and there's inshore and there's sight fishermen and there's bait fishermen. There's a million different ones. And a lot of the farmers are good people, and they manage their water correctly, and they don't burn their crops, and they're very conscious of what they put back into the ground because, obviously, their crops depend on it. But there are another group of farmers who are part of that special interest group who absolutely do not care and they only care about their bottom line, and they're extremely greedy in that regard, and that's why we're in the problem we're in.

Benny Blanco: So I don't wanna link the farmers in one group. The EAA, which is mostly south of the lake, they've been great in general with managing their water and managing what comes out of their properties. But overall, we'd like to see the regulations that were put in place twenty years ago continue. We'd love to see that being regulated and enforced. And if it is, then we have a better situation in general, because it holds all of them to an equal standard. And, again, if we can fix the CERP program and manage those regulations correctly, then we can see a healthy Everglades eventually.

How the Reservoir Would Work

Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's interesting. What about the timeline? And are there other challenges with getting — you said it was the Corps of Engineers that would be building the reservoir?

Benny Blanco: That's correct.

Tom Rowland: Once they get the green light. So they have to get the green light from who?

Benny Blanco: They have to get the green light from the feds. So right now, the funding, the 800,000,000 that is the federal cost share for the reservoir, is part of the water bill, which is the overall water bill for the entire country.

Tom Rowland: And that's what we were pushing out so hard on social media just the last couple of weeks. The form on Captains for Clean Water — if you were following our social media and many, many other people's social media, you're being asked to write a letter to your congressman or elected official. And it was a form letter that you just kinda put your address in there, and you send this letter asking your elected official to support this bill. If they do support this bill, then that gives the green light to the Corps of Engineers to go ahead and break ground and start building this?

Benny Blanco: That's correct.

Tom Rowland: Okay. And is there anyone using that land right now? So it's just sitting empty, grading?

Benny Blanco: Currently, it's all state-owned land. The original SB 10 proposal included some of the sugar land. The South Florida Water Management District tried to tell us that they made every effort to swap, because we had several other state-owned properties that they could swap. It just wouldn't happen. So the reservoir itself shrunk. The footprint is different, but it's all state-owned land. It's ready to be built immediately. There's nothing holding us back.

Tom Rowland: Do you have any concern over the funding of this? Like, the money is supposed to be there, right? The state of Florida is there?

Benny Blanco: The state of Florida has already guaranteed their 800,000,000. They've already actually said that they would start building theirs once they got indication that the feds would come up with their portion. So in a sense, Florida has done everything they can. We as a state, we have done everything we can. We've begged, and now we're asking for the feds to commit to their 800,000,000. Based on what we experienced in DC, we're pretty sure it's gonna happen, but it has to happen. And until they sign that dotted line, we can't start.

Tom Rowland: It seems like $800,000,000 from the state of Florida could build a pretty good sized reservoir. If you had another $800,000,000, is there a way that Florida could go ahead and start without federal support?

Benny Blanco: They could. But remember that the reservoir — we haven't discussed this, but the reservoir has to be built correctly. The reservoir isn't just —

Tom Rowland: Why don't you explain what the reservoir exactly is going to do? Obviously, there's a lot of extra water. It has to go somewhere, and then this is a place where it's gonna be treated.

Benny Blanco: Right. It can't be just a bathtub to hold water. It has to have STAs, which are treatment areas, which are made up of different foliage, which is proven to take out nitrates and phosphates. It has to be treated. But there are a few methodologies for how the reservoir needs to be built. Some people think it should be built very deep, which is extremely expensive. Some people think it needs to be built very shallow, which is expensive because it has to be wide. But the reservoir that's proposed right now has to be built with a certain amount of STA. Otherwise, you have, for lack of a better analogy, a big swimming pool with a filter as big as your thumbnail. And that can only move so much water. So the STA has to be appropriate. So 800,000,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it really isn't. The full 1.6 needs to be funded in order for it to be built correctly. Because if we don't build it correctly, then we stand to do more damage than not having it.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Benny Blanco: Because we can't send the algae water into the Everglades. That would be worse.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And that's been something that I've seen a lot of people asking. Like, how do we know that this solution is going to be better than the problem that we currently have? Because — you know as well as I do that a lot of times when man gets involved in trying to fix a problem — like, there's an introduced species, so let's introduce another species to kill that species. And it just — both blow up. You know? Sometimes they don't realize one's nocturnal and the other — you know, whatever. That's been one of my questions — once, if this reservoir is built, how is that sheet flow, that laminar flow, even if it's 10% of what it once was, how is that distributed into the Everglades? What's the plan on that? Like, it wouldn't just be one pipe and hopefully it just kinda seeped out, right?

Benny Blanco: There are several projects between the reservoir and Taylor Slough that would have to be constructed simultaneously while the reservoir was being built so that that water could be distributed into a sheet flow again. But sheet flow occurs over sawgrass, you know, and over the natural situation that the Everglades creates.

Tom Rowland: Just kind of the water percolating up and then —

Benny Blanco: Correct. It's on limestone, which is a natural percolation. So what we have to restore is that flow from the top, and the Everglades does the rest for us. But my answer to your question about how do we know that the reservoir will work is: we already have STAs in place, several of them actually. They're used as duck ponds constantly because the foliage that's there is conducive to ducks and other wildlife and wading birds. So this is just a bigger scale, and it allows us to capture extra water in situations where we would have had to open the dike, open the water, and send it out east and west.

Benny Blanco: So it's a much bigger scale. And again, it was part of the CERP plan from the beginning, because it was the central piece of the CERP plan, in order to convey more water in a bigger form down through the Everglades. So we know the STAs work. We know that conveying more water requires a bigger STA. So the 1.6 is necessary in order to build it. And then we know that there are other projects between there and Taylor Slough that have to be constructed. The Tamiami Trail being one of them, and that one is fairly done. Although there's still some more work to be done west of where Miccosukee is currently. So assuming the reservoir is built and the STA is built correctly and those other projects are done, then we would have some sheet flow again, and it would be somewhere near 10% of what it would normally be.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And that water is getting into the areas that it needs to be. The Rankin, Garfield, Snake Bight, all that is benefiting from that small amount. I mean, 10%.

Benny Blanco: Some of it is getting down there. Ideally. You know, the reality is we've never seen water flow south. So what we know is based on how the rain flows. And we know when it rains, it comes out of Garfield Bight, and it comes out of the other bights naturally. And so we would simply be adding water to that situation. So I'm fairly certain that that water flow on that East Side in a dry season would be fantastic, because I've seen it. But, again, we've never been in a situation where we've had general flow on the East Side. It could be phenomenal. But getting the reservoir right and getting the STA right is absolutely critical. And we've been dealing with roadblocks since we got it approved because of the current format of administrators that are involved.

Roadblocks and Why November Matters

Tom Rowland: So those roadblocks — you're saying that in the boards and other administrators, like, of what? South Florida Water Management District, Army Corps of Engineers? Seems like there's a lot of moving parts. That's kinda what I was trying to ask, and I guess I didn't know how to ask it exactly. But just getting the elected officials in there in November, like, that's gonna be a huge win.

Benny Blanco: That's the driver for all of this.

Tom Rowland: But it's not like you flip the switch and all of a sudden the bulldozers go over there and start building this pond.

Benny Blanco: No. It's a fast track, basically, because what we've experienced till now, because of the current administration and its longevity, is just roadblocks. We've never had a fast track. We've only had a fast track in the last couple years because of our efforts.

Tom Rowland: Now when you say the current administration, you're talking about Florida administration or federal administration?

Benny Blanco: A little bit of both, but mostly Florida. The South Florida Water Management District board is appointed by the governor. The Army Corps of Engineers listens to both. So we have to eliminate that connection to special interest in that central piece. And if we do, then we rely on science again. And we know that when we rely on science, we can actually get some things done correctly. Obviously, the Army Corps of Engineers hasn't been great with a lot of things in the Everglades. We've seen that and experienced that. I don't know how much of that was dictated by special interests or not. But I know that we have good science now. Independent scientists that are funded by companies that have nothing to do with any special interest, who are telling us that we have to restore water flow. And so I fully believe that if we can elect the right people in November, that we can fast track some of those projects that will help us immediately. And we can see some positive change in a couple years.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's so incredibly optimistic, and I really like that so much because, like you say, with just a little bit of fresh water, I think the Everglades would explode with life and be maybe better than we've ever seen it in our lifetime. And if that could be kind of expanded over the years, with more cooperation. And I think — don't you think it all boils down to, on a federal level, if the economy of Florida goes through the roof because the ecosystem is healthy and tourism is up and commercial fishing is better, and on and on down the line, that that really opens people's eyes to maybe this situation in a way that they're not currently looking at it.

Benny Blanco: Absolutely. Yeah. So, we know what the tourism industry is in the state of Florida. Everyone relies on it whether you're in tourism or not, because it affects everything in the state. I'd like to think that we have the ability to be the model for the rest of the country on how we take back control of our water. We make protecting the environment a priority, because we're not the only state in the country that has problems with water. As a matter of fact, I don't know a single state that doesn't have a problem with water.

Tom Rowland: Right. Some too much, some too little, some none at all, some diverted. It's all a water issue.

Benny Blanco: It's a water rights issue, and it's throughout the entire country, and special interests are winning throughout. But what they underestimate is the power of the people. And in the state of Florida, we love our water. We are here because we love water. I would have been at Georgia Tech if I didn't love the water the way I do. So we're gonna fight for it, and, again, we have the ability to be the model for the rest of the country. And November is when we make that statement. And I think it's gonna be a huge turnaround, with regard to how we treat our water and how we protect our ecosystems and estuaries and watershed. And I wanna believe that it's gonna be a first step to a brighter future for our state. And like you said, the domino effect is amazing. You know, our economy will boom again. Unfortunately, this year, it's gonna be down.

Tom Rowland: Well, it's down, but for a lot of factors. I mean, the hurricane was a huge factor in any tourism dollars being down. I mean, there were areas of the state that were basically closed. I mean, not even the residents could get into the Florida Keys. So there's, you know, three weeks off of having everything closed. That's a lot of money. So, I mean, I think this year is an outlier, in my own opinion. But, yeah, I would like to think that the best days for Florida are just ahead, just over the horizon right now.

Benny's New Conservation-Based TV Show

Tom Rowland: So you started this new show of your own, right?

Benny Blanco: I did. Long story short, I've had a relationship with Florida Sportsman since the beginning. Before there was social media, where everyone bought a little tiny ad in the back of the magazine and hoped that you'd get some trips from it. And I did some shows with them a while ago. And Blair called me to take over a show that he had an idea for. And I'm not a fan of the current format of shows that revolve around sponsorship promotion and talking about how great the fishing is when I'm, you know, hurting inside for what's happening to Florida Bay and my buddies on the West Coast. So I said, look, the only way I'm gonna do a show is if we can talk about water, and we can further this movement for clean water. And it took some wrangling, but that's the premise of the show. It's a conservation-based show.

Benny Blanco: We're gonna go into every single Florida fishery that is dealing with a water issue, which is every single Florida fishery. We're gonna lean on the biggest voices in those areas, and we're gonna tell the story of those areas. We're gonna tell a story of what's happening currently, how great it was, how great it is right now. We're gonna show how great it is right now so that people inherently wanna come visit, and they wanna help. And that's the entire premise of the show. And hopefully we can raise some awareness in places that we ordinarily wouldn't and further that conversation about water, because it needs to get outside of our industry. It needs to be outside of just the fishing guides.

Tom Rowland: How many shows have you filmed?

Benny Blanco: We haven't filmed any actually.

Tom Rowland: Oh, yeah.

Benny Blanco: Yeah. We've just filmed the little sizzle that's been all around the internet, and we have our first advisory panel meeting next month, actually in a couple weeks. We're doing it right in my mind in the sense that we're involving some of the science-based organizations I mentioned earlier to be involved in the ideas for the shows so that, A, we're completely factual, because it benefits no one to get out on a national level and talk about something that's not correct. And, two, we wanna make sure that we're hitting the areas that need to be talked about, the discussion that needs to happen. Again, so that we can just further the conversation.

Tom Rowland: And where do you think it will air?

Benny Blanco: It will air on World Fishing Network, Sun Sports, and Fox Sports.

Tom Rowland: So you intend to have it on the air in January?

Benny Blanco: It'll be on the air in April 2019.

Tom Rowland: Okay. Cool. So you have a little time. And have you got an idea of how the shoots are gonna go and where you're headed? I mean, you seem to know the areas that you're going, but do you storyboard those? What's the process?

Benny Blanco: Yeah. For sure. I'm already a military-style organized person as it is. So the first step is that advisory council, but I've already discussed shows with Pilar in Mosquito Lagoon, with Will Benson in Key West, with C.A. in Tampa. There's a few others that we're working on, but without a doubt, there'll be storyboards. In every area that we go into, we're going to promote prior to have a town hall, so to speak. So when we go to Mosquito Lagoon, we're gonna have a night, a party, so to speak, where everyone's invited to talk about water, to tell us their stories. We want everyone to be involved in the show, because the show is not about fame or money, because, let's be honest, both of them aren't great. The show is really about furthering this movement, and I want everyone to feel like they're involved because they are. The more people who come and tell us their story and get educated on the actual facts, the more great information we have going out to the general public, and that's what we want.

Benny Blanco: And so we have 12 shows that we're planning on shooting, potentially 13 for next year. And the areas that are struggling right now will definitely get airtime. Daniel Andrews, Chris Wittman will be on a show probably. We're looking to do a show in Florida Bay in back of Islamorada at some point, maybe even next month. Apalachicola with David Mangum and Brett Martina to talk about the issues with their paper mill and their water rights issues with Georgia. There are water issues throughout the entire state, and all of our fisheries are suffering because of them. Again, our fishing is insanely good because we're the state of Florida and we're the sport fishing capital of the world, but we have to, in general, take control back of our water.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. But I guess the message is really, if you take control back of the water, you can take a fishery that is outstanding right now and make it better than it has ever been in our lifetime. And if that revolves around the entire state — I didn't even know about the Apalachicola paper mill situation. I have to look into that. But that's the message that I keep putting out there — that the fishing is, well, it is outstanding. And with a little help, it can be better than ever. And with a little help, we can also make sure that the problems that we're having right now are at least minimized, if not prevented from happening in the future.

Tom Rowland: Well, that show sounds really good, and you got some incredible guests lined up. That should be fun. Do you have much TV experience? Have you done — you've been doing some shows with Florida Sportsman?

Benny Blanco: Unfortunately, I've done a lot of shows.

Tom Rowland: Flats Class. I've seen you on Flats Class.

Benny Blanco: I have. I've done many, many shows. I'm not afraid of the camera at all. In this case, I would be even less afraid or nervous, because we're setting the show up to be — it's culture based. Again, I'm not selling anyone's product. I'm just telling the truth about a fishery that needs help. And as you can tell, that's my passion. So when you're being truthful and you're being passionate, it's easy to make something happen. And if all goes right, the fishing will be so great in these shows that people will want to help. And that's my goal. It's the only reason I decided that I would do the show. Again, because I fish already too much, and I'm already away from my family too much, so this isn't gonna help. But I feel a calling in the sense that people are listening to me in some respect. So I have to get out there and get the right information and make sure I spread it to as many people as possible, because I feel like we're at a turning point in many cases, that if some of us don't stand up in a big way and make waves and get people involved, that we could lose some of the stuff that we love dearly. And the last thing I wanna see is Florida Bay lost. And the last thing I want is for my buddies on the West Coast and the East Coast to be in dire straits again in another summer. So I look at this as an opportunity to spread the conversation and to potentially set people on the right path of doing the right thing for water in general in the state of Florida.

How You Can Take Action

Tom Rowland: When you talk about putting people on the right path and getting people to take action, what do you think is really the take-home from this conversation of how people can get involved, whether they're Florida residents or residents of other states? We've obviously stressed the importance. But at this point, what is it that people do, in your opinion?

Benny Blanco: It's twofold. It's very simple. One is get educated, and they can do that by going to captainsforcleanwater.org, evergladesfoundation.org, and a number of other organizations that are all linked together, to get the actual science. I would highly recommend that they not believe everything they read on Facebook or Instagram and that they go directly to those sources to get the real science. That's number one. And number two, get educated on the people they're voting for. It's extremely easy to fall into someone's Kool-Aid, so to speak, as to what they're gonna do for the state. But the easiest way to find out how they're gonna react to the environment is to see who their donors are. And if they have special interests who benefit from controlling the water themselves, then they're gonna do just that.

Tom Rowland: How does somebody see that on a casual level?

Benny Blanco: If they go to those websites, they will be educated enough to know who to look out for. And some of those websites actually do make recommendations for the political parties that they should vote for.

Tom Rowland: But also on those websites, they're showing who the donors are? Because that's public information.

Benny Blanco: It's all public information. Thank god they haven't blocked us in that regard. It's a shame that special interest can make such high donations in any election whatsoever, but they do. Very fortunately, it's public information.

Tom Rowland: Have these special interest groups gotten savvy enough to change their name and do all kinds of things? So how do people know? I would imagine that they could come up with — I mean, I know in the hunting, in the anti-hunting world, there's all kinds of tricky names that you really — it looks like, oh, this is a conservation organization, but it's absolutely not. What are some that you need to watch out for? How can people learn about those so that when they're looking at this person, they're like, okay, well, this guy is in line with all of these things I believe over here. Let's see where he stands on the water. Oh, it looks like five special interest groups are supporting him, but these look like conservation water-associated groups. How would you know the difference?

Benny Blanco: It's really difficult to say over a podcast, you know, how to handle that. But what I do personally is I go to Captains for Clean Water and Everglades Foundation and Bull Sugar and Everglades Trust, and I read what they are sharing as far as public information as to what those groups are. And in a lot of cases, it becomes pretty easy to determine who's taking money from special interests and who isn't. You know, somebody who's raised $5,000,000 in campaign donations and 4.5 of it comes from three companies, that's a problem. And that person's never gonna be for the people. That person's for the companies who put them there. That's a really easy way to tell. And this election is not easy. There are a lot of the politicians who are for the right things in one area and who aren't in the other. And it's extremely complicated. But I'll tell you this, from my standpoint, water is the biggest issue this year. Because why talk about, you know, health care reform if there's no water next year? Why talk about, you know, low income housing if there's no water next year?

Tom Rowland: Well, I think that, you know, obviously, I feel the same way that you do, but I believe that sometimes those are masking issues. Like, somebody may be in line with so many things that you want, whether — I mean, whichever side of the aisle you're on, or no party or whatever, you're trying to pick the person that you're voting for. And, certainly, the people that are listening to this podcast, water is probably the most important. If it isn't, then maybe you happened upon this podcast accidentally. But I'm sure that it is, you know, the most important issue for so many of the people that are listening here. But there are opportunities to vote Democrat, Republican, probably independent, for someone who has water as part of their plan once, if they were elected. Right? So, I mean, it's not a Republican-Democrat issue. It's really not a political issue except for this person needs to be elected to really be able to flip the switch and help this issue.

Benny Blanco: I believe it has to be not their singular issue, but their main issue. Because as we alluded to earlier, our tourism industry is reliant on water and it is in danger this year. Very fortunately, it's an election year. So we have the power as people of the state to make that change. And that change has a huge effect on how things get fixed in the next couple years. So I'm begging everyone I talk to to get educated on the person they like, to make sure they're not being put there by someone who seems to benefit from them being there, and to make sure that they're gonna put our environment, our estuaries, our watershed ahead of everything else, because it's crucial. Anyone listening in Monroe County knows that this is a big issue, and my friend Steve Friedman is running for House Seat 120, to take Holly Raschein's seat. Holly voted for SB 10 last year, but in our very humble opinion, she didn't fight. You know, if I was the House Seat 120 representative and I was looking at Florida Bay in the state that it is, they would be so tired of hearing me talk about fixing the water, they would kick me out of Tallahassee.

Benny Blanco: And we need someone there who's gonna fight for water. Because without water in the Keys, what do we have? I mean, we're not farmers.

Tom Rowland: Nothing. We have nothing.

Benny Blanco: So we have to put Steve in office in Tallahassee. If Steve was in office last year when we were fighting for SB 10, we wouldn't have had the fight. He would have got it done. And we need to have somebody in Tallahassee. And, generally, the elections around the state for representatives are very much the same. We have grassroots pushes for people who just wanna help fix the water. And so having Steve represent us in the Keys in Tallahassee is huge.

Tom Rowland: You know, for people that might not know, Steve is a professional fishing guide as well. He is, right? So he's a captain. And I haven't talked to Steve. You gave me his information, and I definitely wanna call him and have him on the podcast as well. But he's someone that is feeling strongly enough about this, similar to Daniel and Chris that are working fishing guides that are willing to take a year off, two years off, the rest of their life off, to dedicate to this issue. Is that —

Benny Blanco: So Steve came with us to Tallahassee and DC a few times last year and was moved. He understood, like I did, that our presence there was crucial. They responded to what we had to say, and he feels strongly, as I do, that if he was to get into Tallahassee that he could make some extremely positive changes, not just for Monroe County, because a fishing guide in Tallahassee means that we're fixing water throughout the state. And that's important dots to connect. But the other thing I wanna mention about Steve is that he doesn't wanna be a politician. He wants to fix the water so he can go back to work. None of us guys wanna fight for water for the rest of our lives. And Daniel and Chris don't wanna be fighting for water for the rest of their lives. They wanna go back to fishing. I mean, that's what we're here for. That's what we grew up loving. And what I can't do, what Steve can't do, is sit back and watch politicians take money from whoever and then not protect our water and do what's right for us.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And so now we've gone over two things. Get educated on the issue with real science, and you gave the right places to go. Get educated on the people who are running and who you have an opportunity to vote for. And then are there other things that you would like to see people in the state of Florida, like Florida residents, do?

Benny Blanco: Absolutely. You know, I was guilty of fertilizing my lawn for years, decades, because I love seeing green grass, but I love my water more than I love seeing green grass. And the fact is we get enough rain, my grass stays green regardless. I don't wanna say all fertilizers are bad, but, generally, they are. And everything you put on your grass gets into the aquifer, and our aquifer is damaged. We already have pump stations on the East Coast pumping up saltwater, and that's because we don't have freshwater flow coming from the Everglades. The Everglades is the supplier of freshwater into our aquifer, which we're working on as we just discussed with the reservoir.

Tom Rowland: Well, the saltwater being pumped up, that wouldn't be associated with the fertilizer on the grass. That would be associated with no water percolating into the ground, right?

Benny Blanco: Correct.

Tom Rowland: So there's a quantity problem, and then there's a quality problem.

Benny Blanco: It's both. Our aquifer is damaged from both sides. We don't have an influx of freshwater coming from the glades because we're starving it in the EAA. And then we're polluting it with fertilizers that we put into our grass. So we have to attack this from all sides. As we said, it's a super complicated issue. It's not just the reservoir. If it was just the reservoir, you know, we'd be pitchforking Tallahassee right now, and making sure the reservoir was built. But it's not. It's a combination of things. So as a Florida resident, you can, A, get educated on the facts, B, vote for the people who are gonna fight for our environment, and, C, stop fertilizing your yards as best you can.

Benny Blanco: I'm sure there are some organic ways to do it. I don't know of them, but I've stopped completely. My yard is green as anyone else in the neighborhood. And I sleep better at night knowing that I'm not putting fertilizers in our aquifer. It's the water that we rely on. I mean, it's already being damaged by lack of water from the Everglades and the intrusion of saltwater from the ocean.

Tom Rowland: Now what about people outside of the state of Florida, other state residents? Because I know that this is — in talking to Daniel, I mean, he was saying, look, man, we need help. It might be equally as important for people outside of the state to be aware of this issue and take action. So what would you like to see people do that are not Florida residents?

Benny Blanco: Sure. I mean, half my clients are from out of state. And they are all Captains for Clean Water members. They all write their congressmen and their senators, because, for example, the WRDA bill, which we're heavily relying on right now, is voted on and supported by congressmen and senators throughout the country, and they are all moved by our presence in DC. They understand how important it is for a fishing guide, if they've taken days off of work in high season, which we did, and to show up in business suits and hats and go talk to them and plead for them. So anyone outside of the state who has come, plans to come, or dreamt of coming should help us in the sense that they could simply go to Captains for Clean Water's page and fill out that form letter that goes directly to the congressman or senator that begs them to please support the water bill and the reservoir. And that's something that everyone in this country can do right now. And that would be a huge positive impact.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And it's really super easy. I was gonna do an Instagram post of how long it took me to do it, but then I actually did it without doing the screen thing, but it took less than a minute. I mean, you go there, you put in your name and address, and it pops up the two or three people that it's supposed to go to. You hit it. And then within, I don't know, an hour, I got a letter from one of the elected officials, and it really doesn't take much time at all. That goes a long way. That is a huge tool for Captains for Clean Water, because I think a lot of people wanna help. Everybody's kinda busy, and they live in, you know, Kansas. It's kinda like, oh, I don't even know who my elected official is, and then it stops right there. Where this, you don't have to know who your elected official is. You don't have to remember between the time that you turn this podcast off and go on to your computer, what was the name of that bill? You don't have to know any of that. All of the stuff that Benny's been talking about and that we've been talking about on this podcast, it's all included in that letter. It's everything that your elected official needs to know to support this bill.

Tom Rowland: And to make sure that once these people are elected in Florida — and correct me if I'm not right here on the timeline — but if we get the right people elected in Florida, then that kinda flips a switch, and then all of a sudden this bill can get funded and actually we start seeing, you know, bulldozers and things actually happening.

Benny Blanco: We literally, in the next six months, can go from looking at bad water to physical construction happening on our reservoir to affect positive change immediately. And that's the importance of this November and those emails that you're gonna send. Before this happened, I didn't know who my elected official was. Before I went to DC, I didn't know the power of a letter, but I know now. And I can tell you that the aides in every one of those offices count those letters, and their job is to report that to the actual congressman. And if we sent 400 letters to Marco Rubio, he'd know about it.

Tom Rowland: What is the effect of one letter coming from a guy in South Dakota? It's a mention.

Benny Blanco: It's a proof of reach. It's huge. I mean, one letter is huge. I can tell you that we met with congressmen in California who, when we brought up the subject, said we've received letters in that regard. And do you know how great it was to walk into a congressman who already knew what was going on because he got a letter and wanted to find out what he was getting a letter about? Then that person was a 100% behind fixing the Everglades. They're in California, but they understand the importance of saving our national parks and our water in the state of Florida and how that affects the overall economy in the country. So one letter makes a big difference. I would encourage everyone, take a minute. It takes a minute.

Tom Rowland: It really does. And it's captainsforcleanwater.org. That's the website, www.captainsforcleanwater.org. And there's a place on the website that says "Take Action," I think. If it doesn't say Take Action —

Benny Blanco: It does.

Tom Rowland: It's right on the header. And you take action, and it's maybe two clicks, and it goes straight to that form from the menu at top. But please take action. You know? The Everglades is super important. Some of the people listening may never have been to the Everglades. And the Everglades is super awesome. It's amazing. It is a beautiful place, and it's one of those places that I just think of as a no-lose place. As a fishing guide, you're gonna take your people to the Marquesas, you're gonna take your people to the Everglades — it really doesn't matter if you catch any fish. It's beautiful. You're gonna see alligators, crocodiles. You're gonna see birds of all kinds. The fishing is likely to be really, really good, but it's just some natural beauty that is deserving of being a national park.

Tom Rowland: And for me, it's super important to think about my kids being able to continue to go there and see the things that they've seen as they've grown up and I've taken them up in there. It's also super important to be thinking about grandchildren and great grandchildren being able to do that, because that's really — you know, a national park is put into place for that, so that it'll always be protected. But in the case of the Everglades, if the water that flows through there is disrupted or polluted, then unlike something like, I don't know, a different national park that just has one single river running through it — and the natural beauty is the mountains and all this other stuff that's somewhat associated with that river, but not entirely — the Everglades is a 150-mile-wide river of grass. I mean, that's what it is. What it was at one point was a laminar flow of just this sheet flow, like Benny said, and that can be restored through your action.

Tom Rowland: So I think it's super exciting really to think that in six months, there could be some major, major changes. And for one, I wanna thank you and honor you for your fight and what you're doing for all of us, really, because, you know, there's a lot of people that say that this is their number one priority. There are very few people that are actually going to Washington and actually taking time out of their life like Chris and Daniel to — like you said, they've stopped guiding. They're doing this full time. You are guiding three hundred days on top of fighting for this, on top of filming this TV show, on top of leaving your family and coming and doing this podcast, on and on. But the least that we can do, if you're at all concerned about the Everglades, is please take action. Follow these groups on social media so that you're well aware of what's going on, what the most important actions are, and when there is a big call to action like there was two weeks ago. And it's still not too late to be signed to writing these letters. So if you're new to this issue, go to Captains for Clean Water and fill out the form and send that letter.

Tom Rowland: But follow Captains for Clean Water. Who else would you recommend following?

Benny Blanco: Everglades Foundation.

Tom Rowland: Everglades Foundation.

Benny Blanco: Oh, Bull Sugar. Everglades Trust, Bonefish Tarpon Trust, and Now or Neverglades.

Tom Rowland: Now or Neverglades. Yeah. Follow all those groups, and you can be really educated on this issue. And the steps that Benny outlined: get educated on the issue. Be educated on who you have a chance to vote for. Stop putting fertilizer on your lawn. And if you're outside of the state of Florida, man, send the letter. It really makes a difference.

Benny Blanco: Absolutely. Tom, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for inviting me and allowing me a platform to talk about water. We need everyone to get involved, so I appreciate it.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, you're the ones that are out there fighting. If I can do anything to put your message out there, I'm happy to do it. It's just as important to me as it is to you guys, and we each have a way that we can participate in this to make a big difference. Maybe my way is to bring people like you onto the podcast or onto our television show. Your way may be to create a new television show. The listener's way might be to write that one letter. But everybody pulls together, and we can make a major difference in this issue. Benny, thanks for your time.

Benny Blanco: My pleasure.

Tom Rowland: We'll do it again. Thank you, Benny. Chris Wittman, Daniel Andrews, and all of the guys that are working so hard to protect the Everglades — please join Captains for Clean Water and check out all the other organizations and groups that we discussed in this episode. Do us all a favor: take action and become educated. Alright. We'll see you next week.