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  • ♪♪

  • This week on WATERWAYS:

  • Wading Birds of the Everglades,

  • and Benthic studies.

  • There are over 360 species of birds that spend

  • at least part of the year in Everglades National Park.

  • Some are shorebirds.

  • Some are raptors.

  • And some are wading birds.

  • Blue heron.

  • Snowy egret.

  • Roseate spoonbill.

  • Everglades National Park is a part-time home

  • to sixteen species of wading birds.

  • There are some amazing views of wading birds

  • in the Everglades.

  • In Florida Bay, what I think is the most striking thing is

  • this broad expansive, beautiful water,

  • the most scenic natural conditions ever

  • and just hundreds of wading birds.

  • Everglades National Park - a World Heritage Site,

  • an International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of

  • International Importance - protects the

  • largest subtropical wilderness in the United States,

  • and is considered to be the most significant breeding grounds

  • for tropical wading birds in North America.

  • Because Everglades National Park was established

  • for its flora and fauna, its wildlife primarily,

  • which was the first park that was established

  • for that explicit purpose.

  • I mean, you know, there's no grand vistas

  • in Everglades National Park.

  • You know, there's no mountains, no grand canyons,

  • none of that.

  • But what there was, was these huge numbers

  • of flocks of wading birds.

  • And so, I think the Service understood the need to monitor

  • that, because the numbers had already started

  • to decline and they knew that.

  • The story of wading birds in the Everglades

  • is a story of bounty, decimation and rebirth.

  • It is a conservation success story with caveats,

  • and a lesson in ecology and hydrology.

  • While we don't know how many wading birds existed

  • in the Everglades prior to the arrival of Europeans,

  • some experts have estimated as many as 2.5 million.

  • But, by the early 1900s, it was a different story.

  • The once-abundant wading bird population

  • was decimated by a feather fashion frenzy,

  • as well as the encroachment into their habitat.

  • So disturbing was the slaughter of these birds and

  • the destruction of their habitat by plume hunters

  • that the state of Florida instituted

  • a ban on plume hunting in 1900.

  • In 1902 the Audubon Society in Monroe County hired

  • Guy Bradley to protect wading birds

  • and to arrest violators of the ban.

  • A mere three years later, he was shot and killed while

  • attempting to arrest a well-known plume hunter for

  • killing egrets on Cape Sable.

  • Further protection came with the advent of wildlife

  • refuges, such as Pelican Island and Key West National

  • Wildlife Refuge, specifically set aside to protect

  • a colony of nesting birds.

  • By the time Everglades National Park was established

  • in 1947, wading bird numbers were down

  • to about three hundred and fifty thousand

  • - by the 1980s, they numbered even less.

  • But in more recent years, wading bird

  • populations have begun to rebound.

  • Wading birds are, have shown definite improvements

  • in the number of birds in the system,

  • utilizing the system, and the number of

  • birds nesting in the system.

  • So, that's a vast improvement over what

  • it was ten years ago.

  • Is it anything like what it was historically?

  • No!

  • Will it ever be like that?

  • Probably not.

  • But it's certainly an improvement over what it was

  • when, you know, wading birds in the, within the confines of

  • Everglades National Park were probably, you know, maybe 3 or

  • 4 percent of what they were historically.

  • Spend a few minutes in the Everglades really looking,

  • watching the wading birds and their unique behavior.

  • Each has their own dance, their own strut; each hunting

  • method a little different.

  • There are tactile feeding birds like the white ibis,

  • wood storks and roseate spoonbills, and there are

  • visual predators like egrets and herons.

  • The reddish egret abandons the stately nature of most other

  • egrets by clumsily running around in shallow water

  • scaring its prey from hiding places;

  • plucking them from the water;

  • or the ibis that uses its long, curved bill to probe

  • the mud to capture insects and small fish along shorelines

  • and shallows; or the great egret that gracefully and

  • patiently stalks its prey, and, like a bolt of lightning,

  • pierces the water snaring its meal.

  • Can't tell an egret from a heron?

  • Or a heron from a, heron?

  • The great egret and the snowy egret look similar.

  • But, a great egret has a yellow-orange beak

  • and the all black legs.

  • The snowy egret has an all black beak

  • and black legs with yellow feet.

  • You may find another white wading bird, often mistakenly

  • called a great white heron.

  • This is actually the great blue heron in a "white morph".

  • Through genetic work, ornithologists no longer

  • consider the great white heron to be a distinct species.

  • Another heron often seen in the Everglades is the

  • tri-colored heron.

  • A tri-colored heron has a white belly whereas

  • a little blue heron does not.

  • Probably the wading bird that people most

  • often want to see in the Everglades

  • is wood storks .

  • And they're the only North American stork; they're big.

  • They have these great big sort of ugly flinty heads

  • and a very unique habit of foraging.

  • Wood storks, they're once again a Florida specialty.

  • They do occur in other areas and they are expanding up into

  • the southeastern U.S.

  • Georgia, even North and South Carolina they occur now.

  • But, they are something that you are most likely to see

  • still in the Everglades.

  • They're striking, being a large, fairly large wading bird.

  • The most notable thing about them is when you get up close,

  • the first thing people usually say is: "Haaa, that's an ugly

  • wading bird!"

  • They do have a, I guess, an unpleasant look to their skin

  • on their head usually a bare head and neck; it's sort of

  • blackish and almost woody-looking color.

  • But they also have a white body and the trailing edge of

  • their wing is beautiful black iridescent feathers.

  • Another must see, of course, is the Roseate Spoonbill

  • because they are absolutely gorgeous and many

  • times of the year they are in breeding plumage in the

  • Everglades and they have this beautiful flame/orange colored

  • feathers that's just unforgettable.

  • Snowy egrets are very commonly looked-after just because

  • they're active and they have beautiful plumes, little white

  • bird and very pugnacious, as well.

  • Visit Snake Bight in Everglades National Park

  • and you just might get a chance to see

  • some of these wading birds in action.

  • You might even see a flamingo or two!

  • During the 1800s, large flocks of flamingos could be found in

  • the Snake Bight area of Florida Bay, but the birds

  • were relentlessly hunted for their meat, and all but

  • disappeared after 1902.

  • Today, individual flamingos or small flocks,

  • presumably from the Bahamas and Caribbean,

  • are occasionally spotted in the area.

  • The status of many of these wading bird

  • species is precarious.

  • Roseate spoonbills are listed as federally threatened; wood

  • storks are listed as endangered.

  • And, all other wading birds have protected status within

  • the state of Florida.The health of wading bird

  • populations in Everglades National Park reflects the

  • health of the Everglades.

  • To monitor the health of the ecosystem, park staff have

  • been tracking wading bird nesting populations using

  • fixed-wing aircraft.

  • Lori Oberhofer is a biologist with Everglades National Park.

  • Between February and May, for 3 to 4 days a month and for 6

  • to 8 hours a day, she crisscrosses the park taking

  • photographs of any wading bird nesting colonies she sees.

  • Covering almost one point five million acres,

  • Lori's flights take her across vast sawgrass prairies,

  • cypress strands, mangrove coastlines

  • and muck-filled swamps.

  • This monitoring project has been conducted

  • every year since 1985.

  • We have almost a pure record going back to the 1940s.

  • And the longer we continue monitoring these colonies,

  • the more important this data becomes.

  • We can see long-term trends over time.

  • We're seeing some interesting trends now with how the

  • colonies are moving into areas where they historically nested.

  • Lori and her team are primarily concerned with

  • the locations of the colonies and the species

  • identification; but data collected on estimated sizes

  • of those colonies, as well as data collected from areas

  • surrounding the park, is proving to be equally important.

  • We have a comprehensive program that counts

  • birds from the Florida Keys through the central

  • Everglades and then into Lake Okeechobee.

  • So we have a very good handle on where birds are at any time

  • in the breeding season and how their numbers are

  • comparing with any previous year.

  • Plume hunters were not the only reason

  • wading bird populations declined.

  • Early flood control measures and ensuring south Florida had

  • an adequate water supply for its growing population

  • also played a hand.

  • It's the goal of the Comprehensive Everglades

  • Restoration Plan, or CERP, to mitigate some of the adverse

  • effects of these past water management actions by

  • capturing fresh water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean

  • and the Gulf and re-establishing a more

  • historic flow of fresh water into the Everglades.

  • If you drain the land too much, you end up with, not being

  • able to produce the young fishes that the birds are going to eat.

  • If you put too much water in the land and hold it there,

  • the young fishes are eaten by the larger fishes.

  • So, either extreme is bad for wading birds.

  • Now we have two extremes going on, one of which is: a largely

  • over-drained Everglades, like Everglades National Park and

  • we have very much wetter, deeper areas like the water

  • conservation areas, which are really good for large fish,

  • but not necessarily good for small fish.

  • Now that restoration of the Everglades has begun,

  • resource managers, armed with one of the longest records of

  • wading bird population distributions in the world,

  • can more accurately correlate whether water

  • management decisions are beneficial by

  • measuring the effects on the fauna.

  • As biologists have long understood, the health of

  • wading bird populations is tied to the health of the

  • overall ecosystem, especially the distribution, timing and

  • amount of water flowing through the system.

  • The water levels in the summer are high.

  • That means that wading birds which have, are limited by leg

  • length for foraging, have to find some place else to

  • forage; they need shallow water to forage in.

  • So they have to move someplace else.

  • Water, fish, birds.

  • It really isn't rocket science! It really isn't.

  • It's pretty straightforward.

  • You need, wading birds have to have concentrations of food at

  • the right times of the year to nest.

  • If we can restore the Everglades,

  • in a way that gives them the functional parts

  • of the ecosystem that they need, I think there's a

  • really good chance that we're going to see a very large

  • increase in the wading birds in the Everglades.

  • In general, I think we've actually seen

  • a pretty large increase, especially in the last decade.

  • We've seen an increase in great egrets, white ibises,

  • wood storks, of three to five times

  • their breeding population.

  • That's a really big increase and that's something that I

  • think is great news and something that most of the

  • population really doesn't really know about.

  • The best way to see wading birds in Everglades National Park

  • is by canoe or kayak although a hike along

  • the Anhinga trail is a hot spot for wading bird sightings.

  • These amazing birds are also often seen in the sawgrass

  • prairie just off the main park road or at one of many scenic

  • viewing areas like Paurotis Pond, Mrazek Pond or Eco Pond.

  • Bring some binoculars, bring a bird guide, or just bring a

  • love for the outdoors and a curiosity for the strange

  • behaviors and quirky characteristics of south

  • Florida's wading birds.

  • Seeing an enormous flock of 500 ibises get up out of

  • the marsh at once, is something that really does

  • take your breath away.

  • You don't get many chances to get your

  • breath taken away these days.

  • ♪♪

  • When one thinks of the Florida Keys National Marine

  • Sanctuary, they often envision magnificent coral reefs with

  • vibrant colors and ornate tropical species.

  • But these areas are only a fraction of the area within

  • Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary boundaries;

  • less than one percent.

  • The Sanctuary protects the entire seafloor of the Florida

  • Keys, and all the habitat types found there, including

  • sand flats, hard bottom communities, seagrass beds,

  • and the coral reef.

  • Studying the bottom or benthic community over time gives

  • scientists and managers critical information on

  • ecosystem condition and how living resources are changing,

  • for better, or worse.

  • The seafloor and the benthic community of animals and

  • plants that it supports are the foundation of the coral

  • reef ecosystem in the Florida Keys.

  • A way of looking at the sea bed

  • or the sea floor is it really is, it's kind of

  • like a barometer of what's going on,

  • especially in the water itself.

  • So, that's kind of the easiest way to think about it, so it's

  • kind of an indicator for what's going on with water

  • quality, what's happening in terms of, for example,

  • fishing, if organisms are being removed, that gets

  • reflected in the benthos.

  • So benthic organisms, the things that are on the seabed,

  • kind of, they kind of integrate all that.

  • Mark Chiappone and his team, led by Dr. Steven Miller,

  • Senior Research Scientist, Nova Southeastern University

  • Oceanographic Center, began sampling the benthic

  • environment across the Florida Keys annually in 1998.

  • NOAA has funded much of this work, through their Coral Reef

  • Conservation Program.

  • Logistical support has been provided by the Florida Keys

  • National Marine Sanctuary and Biscayne National Park,

  • as well as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

  • We will mark it with a diver flag.

  • And so we have these divers that descend down to the base

  • of the diver flag and then, basically, 2 fifteen meter or

  • 50 foot transect tapes are spooled out basically survey

  • on each side of the transect tape.

  • And then we're surveying numbers, we're identifying the

  • organisms, how many of them there are, their sizes, and

  • then, in the case of corals, also, what their condition is.

  • It's kinda like a diagnosis, it's as if a patient went to a

  • doctor's office, how are they feeling, you know, how they

  • look, and so, that's basically the data grab.

  • The survey measures abundance of species, sizes of

  • species, condition of species, and location.

  • These numbers combine to provide a snapshot picture of

  • the community structure and health of the coral

  • system in the Florida Keys.

  • Our program looks at not just corals,

  • but pretty much just about everything that's

  • attached to the sea bed.

  • So that includes, you know gorgonians and sponges;

  • we look at certain types of mollusks, including queen conch;

  • we look at the urchins and so a variety

  • of different benthic invertebrates.

  • The team also looks at seaweed cover.

  • Almost like the U.S. Census Bureau

  • covering rural areas, suburban areas, cities;

  • some of Mark Chiappone's survey areas are seemingly

  • empty, others are teeming with life.

  • But the ecosystem Mark is monitoring is much different

  • than the one of years past.

  • The overall snapshot includes results that range from

  • dramatic change and decline, to places that still

  • look in relatively good condition.

  • Many of the historically abundant species and

  • biogenic habitats had already been severely altered or

  • reduced when the Sanctuary was designated in 1990.

  • Resource managers are working to conserve pieces of that

  • former ecosystem so it can be restored to an improved state.

  • This research will help us do that.

  • What's changed the most are the

  • offshore reefs, where we previously had amazing

  • stands of elkhorn and staghorn coral,

  • both of which are largely gone.

  • One of the methods that has already proven successful in

  • managing this precious resource is the establishment

  • of marine zones.

  • Like areas set aside on land for conservation and

  • separation of uses, setting aside areas in the oceans for

  • conservation and the separation of uses is working

  • to protect habitats and marine life.

  • For example, we have zones in the Sanctuary

  • that allow diving and snorkeling,

  • no consumption activities.

  • And then other areas which we call general use areas are

  • areas where people can go fish, they can spear fish,

  • they can do a lot of things that you maybe you cannot do

  • in the diving and snorkeling areas.

  • Marine zoning is critical to achieving

  • the sanctuary's primary goal of resource protection

  • and ensures that areas of high ecological importance

  • will evolve in a natural state,

  • with minimal human influence.

  • ♪♪

  • Every research program conducted within the

  • Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

  • is designed to answer an important question

  • that helps ecosystem managers understand the system better.

  • Until this monitoring program was implemented, there was no

  • research that showed how the benthic community responds to

  • the combined influence of environmental changes and

  • management actions across all habitat types and how

  • protection through marine zoning has affected the

  • benthic community over time.

  • It's important for managers to understand where

  • things might occur; what density they occur in?

  • Are they occurring inside or outside zones, for example.

  • If we start seeing that there are a lot of recruits, little

  • small corals, occuring inside or outside the marine zones we

  • would like to know more about why.

  • Why is that happening?

  • This research is designed specifically to

  • help us answer those questions.

  • This research directly informs the Sanctuary's

  • science-based management decisions.

  • The Sanctuary's advisory council and public working

  • groups have used information from this long-term study to

  • help draft recommendations for the future of Sanctuary rules

  • and marine zones.

  • Every 5-10 years the Sanctuary is required to

  • update its regulations, its management plan,

  • and this science feeds right into that development process.

  • We incorporate science-based decision making into the way

  • we approach marine zoning and how we manage the human

  • interaction with the ecosystem.

  • Mark and his team have sampled roughly 1600 locations

  • throughout the Florida Keys ecosystem from Miami to the

  • Tortugas and two very different stories

  • have emerged from their work.

  • There's good news and there are some things

  • that are not so positive.

  • On the up side, you know, there are still lots of places

  • both in the Sanctuary and in Biscayne National Park that

  • are really spectacular, spectacular in the sense of

  • you dive, you jump in and there's 30, 40, 50 percent of

  • the bottom is covered with live coral and they're big and

  • they're healthy and there's a lot of reef and there's lots

  • of fishes swimming around and most of these places

  • are not heavily visited.

  • They don't have mooring buoys and they're not well known.

  • So there's still a lot of spectacular places out there.

  • One of the "downsides" that Mark and his

  • team detected was the massive loss of staghorn

  • and elkhorn corals.

  • Since the 1970s, these two important reef-building corals

  • have suffered an estimated 95% decline in the Florida Keys.

  • Staghorn and elkhorn corals were not the only

  • species that the surveys determined were in trouble.

  • Long-spine sea urchins, also called by their genus name,

  • Diadema, were decimated by a disease that wiped out

  • populations Caribbean-wide in the mid 1980s.

  • One day these urchins were there and the next day they were not.

  • And, they exhibited these disease-like symptoms that

  • were, and it was 100% mortality when an urchin got infected.

  • Their spines literally started to fall off

  • and then their "tests", which is their body, literally kinda

  • peeled apart, almost like an onion or an orange.

  • So, that happened here in the Florida Keys.

  • The first report of that was back in July of 1983.

  • Long-spine sea urchins were and still are important

  • herbivores contributing essential grazing activities

  • to the ecosystem The loss of urchins was

  • significant for reefs because it meant that less grazing of

  • algae on hard surfaces was taking place at the reef.

  • And so, two kinda group of organisms that are, that

  • really tend to battle it out are the corals and the algae.

  • And so, and there's and the corals have kind of a losing

  • proposition sometimes because they don't grow as fast as

  • most of the seaweeds, but as long as they can maintain

  • their live tissue, then they have a fighting chance.

  • So the reason that these herbivores, such as Diadema

  • and Parrot fishes are so important, is they help to

  • keep basically, they help to keep the seaweeds in check.

  • And that provides one more justification for the long-term

  • studies that are conducted in the Florida Keys.

  • With data that covers decades, trends can be detected

  • and causal relationships proven.

  • The loss of one species affects the

  • health of the entire ecosystem; and the efforts of

  • one person can affect the future

  • of our entire environment.

  • Sometimes we have to make, we have to make sacrifices

  • and maybe not do everything that we wanna

  • do whenever we wanna do it.

  • And a good example of that is in this system.

  • For example, I love to fish and I love to eat seafood,

  • but I know the reality of what it takes to get certain

  • products, not all but certain products, to the table.

  • And I know the damage that it causes, and so,

  • it's all about making informed choices.

  • Valid and substantiated data allow resource

  • managers and the public to make informed choices

  • needed to protect the ecosystem.

  • It takes time, effort and resources for scientists to

  • collect these data, but the information gained from such

  • field work is the cornerstone for developing plans to

  • protect and conserve the natural world around us.

  • ♪♪

♪♪

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