The toxic blue-green algae bloom that is fouling Florida’s Treasure Coast is also spawning a noxious release of rhetoric. "We've never been able to get politicians to take real action to protect Florida's waters, and now that a catastrophic bloom is occurring everyone says it's not their fault," an attorney for Earthjustice said.

The main cause is clear, according to environmental scientists: Runoff from heavily fertilized sugar cane fields and deep-pocketed Big Sugar’s opposition to a land-buying plan that would alleviate polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

"The real question is are they going to try to do anything that will have a real impact,” Bradley Marshall, a Florida-based attorney with Earthjustice, told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.

Marshall said he remains “skeptical that once these blooms dissipate that [state lawmakers will] do anything to prevent the next bloom."

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» Related: Tourism boss says PBC beaches open for business. @PBPost.

'Last gasp'

» Captive breeding may be the last chance to save Florida's grasshopper sparrow, North America's most endangered bird. (Via Audubon)