Wellsprings

<v Host>The following program was made possible by a grant from the Florida legislature <v Host>and was administered by the Florida State Department of Education. <v Host>From Miami, a production of WPT. <v Narrator>Bernie Yokel and his family live in a coastal swamp in south Florida. <v Narrator>The mosquito that snakes that breed here spoil his pleasure and swamp life not at all. <v Narrator>He is a marine biologist conducting research on the functioning of one piece of coastal <v Narrator>wetland and its importance to life in the sea. <v Narrator>And in this Florida swamp, Bernie Yokel's work and his pleasure are also <v Narrator>inextricably linked. <v Bernie Yokel>Looks like he couldnt submerge

<v Bernie Yokel>Yeah he's alive, he is way out of his element. <v Bernie Yokel>He might have gotten caught trying to cross a creek or something. <v Bernie Yokel>He got, he's getting out the sea. <v Child>Right on target. <v Narrator>Bernie's base of operation is Rookery Bay's Sanctuary, a 6000 <v Narrator>acre estuary that was saved from being dredged and filled when a group of private <v Narrator>citizens raised money and purchased it. <v Bernie Yokel>We're coming in to hidden river.

<v Bernie Yokel>Which is a little mangrove line channel that <v Bernie Yokel>looped up in to the upland part of the sancutary <v Narrator>Until recently, our coastal wetlands, which consist of swamps, bays, <v Narrator>grassy marshes and estuaries like this one were regarded as a wasteland. <v Narrator>Private developers were encouraged to dredge and fill such worthless real estate <v Narrator>and to convert it into high priced waterfront property. <v Narrator>No one suspected the real value of coastal wetlands. <v Narrator>No one realized what was their true function. <v Narrator>No one knew that our worthless wetlands, our Wellspring's for life <v Narrator>in the sea. <v Narrator>Even from our ordinary earthbound perspective, it is easy to see that

<v Narrator>islands and peninsulas are projections of land less obvious to <v Narrator>us land dwellers, is the fact that the reverse is equally true. <v Narrator>bays, estuaries and wetlands are part of the sea. <v Narrator>And though most of us, when we think of sea shores, tend to picture sandy beaches. <v Narrator>In truth swamps, grassy marshes and estuaries <v Narrator>like these dominate all coastlines. <v Narrator>Until recently, these ragged edges of the ocean were thought to have no value to man <v Narrator>even their function as buffer zones. <v Narrator>Protecting the land from storms and the eroding action of the sea was given little <v Narrator>attention. That such wastelands could be nutrient rich havens <v Narrator>and nursery grounds for marine life was not even guessed. <v Narrator>But lately, scientists have begun taking a closer look at the wetlands. <v Narrator>Depending on altitude and climate, vegetation differs up and down <v Narrator>our coastline, yet wetlands of all types support an impressive array <v Narrator>of life.

<v Narrator>We will look at how the mangrove lined estuaries of South Florida produce a pyramid of <v Narrator>marine life extending far out to sea. <v Narrator>But what is true of mangrove swamps holds equally true for grassy marshes on the Atlantic <v Narrator>states or the juncos beds of the Gulf of Mexico. <v Narrator>Our coastal wetlands, wherever they occur, are one of our most valuable resources. <v Bernie Yokel>These areas are really unique. <v Bernie Yokel>They're doing something very special for us. <v Bernie Yokel>And that especially is producing food. <v Bernie Yokel>These regions produce food without parallel in the natural environment. <v Bernie Yokel>They produce more food per unit, area per acre or whatever you want <v Bernie Yokel>to use than any other natural area. <v Bernie Yokel>They compare very favorably with with agriculture, where you have to <v Bernie Yokel>plow and you have to cultivate. You have to harvest and you have to apply fertilizers <v Bernie Yokel>and oftentimes pesticides. <v Bernie Yokel>There's a great deal of labor and investment involved. <v Bernie Yokel>These areas do all of this and they don't require any investment

<v Bernie Yokel>of labor or materials on our part at all. <v Bernie Yokel>The red mangrove had several functions in the overall system. <v Bernie Yokel>One of the important ones you can see with this rather <v Bernie Yokel>large tree here is it consolidates the shore, <v Bernie Yokel>it holds that base system together, ties up the sediment, <v Bernie Yokel>makes a marvelous storm barrier protecting the <v Bernie Yokel>shoreline and the things behind it from storm waves. <v Bernie Yokel>It's also a major source of food in the Austrian system, <v Bernie Yokel>and the estuaries are are incredibly efficient at producing <v Bernie Yokel>food. And the mangroves, especially the red mangrove, are <v Bernie Yokel>extremely useful as a source of detritus, clues and <v Bernie Yokel>weird detritus means little tiny particles of plant material or <v Bernie Yokel>leaf material. You can see leaves floating around these areas all the time.

<v Bernie Yokel>And these leaves, of course, come from the red mangrove. <v Bernie Yokel>They fall in the water. They take on water and sink to the bottom and <v Bernie Yokel>eventually become coated with microorganisms, with bacteria, with <v Bernie Yokel>fungus. And the these microorganisms break down <v Bernie Yokel>the leaf matter so that it can be consumed by the animal. <v Bernie Yokel>And the animal actually consumes the leaf, but takes good advantage of the <v Bernie Yokel>microorganisms that sit like a frosting on the surface of the leaf. <v Bernie Yokel>A little piece of leaf is then excreted and it moves <v Bernie Yokel>off into the water press being carried by tide and becomes a little tiny <v Bernie Yokel>pepper speck or piece of detritus. <v Bernie Yokel>And it grows its own new colony of microorganisms and might be transported <v Bernie Yokel>a long distance to be consumed by another animal, either on <v Bernie Yokel>bottom or on oyster hanging on a mangrove root. <v Bernie Yokel>All of these animals undergo a part or all

<v Bernie Yokel>of their life history in regions like this, and many of them consume <v Bernie Yokel>a secondary source of food that is an animal that has been feeding off <v Bernie Yokel>of this basic productivity and is in the form of a pinfish perhaps, or a little sardine <v Bernie Yokel>or a small crab. <v Bernie Yokel>So you have the beginnings of a magnificent food chain that culminates <v Bernie Yokel>in the things that we regard as very valuable, the <v Bernie Yokel>capacity for the area to support birds. <v Bernie Yokel>Our sport fisheries, our food fisheries. <v Bernie Yokel>The capacity for the area to cleanse its own water and keep it clean. <v Bernie Yokel>But their most important function, certainly of the red mangrove is as a food <v Bernie Yokel>source. And the tribal food chain is a very important one in <v Bernie Yokel>estuarine systems like this. <v Bernie Yokel>So you you get this reward, you get this bounty from the <v Bernie Yokel>estuaries simply because you let it alone.

<v Narrator>The routine work of a marine biologist is less glamorous and more grueling <v Narrator>than many TV adventure stories suggest. <v Narrator>It is three thirty in the morning. <v Narrator>Bernie and his assistant, Bob Robinilski, are only now completing their final <v Narrator>trawl of rookery based sanctuary. <v Bernie Yokel>We had seven without a hitch. <v Bob Robinilski>Ready? <v Narrator>Each trawl must be precisely timed to last exactly two and one quarter minutes, <v Narrator>so the catch can be compared to other two and one quarter minute throws made <v Narrator>on previous night. <v Narrator>By this means, Bernie monitors the productivity of one unspoiled <v Narrator>piece of coastal wetlands. <v Bernie Yokel>Got a gallon? <v Bernie Yokel>very little variation, they're extremely

<v Bernie Yokel>consistent. <v Bernie Yokel>Come on down here Mr. pinfish <v Bernie Yokel>[unclear] Wow. <v Narrator>It was only in 1969 that two scientists, Dr. Eric Heald <v Narrator>and Dr. William Odom, first demonstrated that surplus leaves from the mangrove <v Narrator>trees form the food base for a magnificent web of animal life stretching <v Narrator>far out into the ocean. <v Narrator>Since then, many scientists have been exploring the myriad pathways of this food chain. <v Narrator>They are discovering a cat's cradle of intricate relationships. <v Narrator>Some strands are sent to our valuable sports and commercial fisheries.

<v Narrator>Others extend even to the beautiful coral reef on the edge of the continental shelf. <v Narrator>Still others with the help of fishing birds spin out of the water to sustain <v Narrator>terrestrial life. <v Bernie Yokel>Come on, Brian. Come up here. <v Bernie Yokel>What you're going to do is separate the material into three containers, one for fish, <v Bernie Yokel>one for crustaceans and one for the rest of the animasl.

<v Bernie Yokel>These animals are intermediate links in the food chain. <v Bernie Yokel>They're taking advantage of the grass as a source of food and protection <v Bernie Yokel>from larger predators and will support animals like <v Bernie Yokel>trout and red fish These animals must go to sea this fall. <v Bernie Yokel>This is especially true for the pinfish and the pink shrimp, <v Bernie Yokel>the pink shrimp. When he hatches from the egg out on [unclear] is <v Bernie Yokel>barely visible. And yet he undergoes a migration of <v Bernie Yokel>several hundred miles. He comes into these areas, grows rapidly because <v Bernie Yokel>food is abundant, and then moves back out to the same area again. <v Bernie Yokel>And it's a it's an awkward sort of life cycle. <v Bernie Yokel>And it's very much dependent upon the estuaries where it can find <v Bernie Yokel>in quantity of food that it requires. <v Narrator>The fantastic 200 miles round trip journey of the pink shrimp perfectly demonstrates how <v Narrator>life in the coastal wetlands and life in the open sea are interdependent

<v Narrator>on a more subtle plane. It also connects the work of widely separated human beings <v Narrator>out here in the region of [unclear] Few fishermen are aware of what biologists <v Narrator>are discovering about the migratory habits of pink shrimp. <v Narrator>Some might be surprised to learn that the pink gold they are mining may spend its <v Narrator>early life in the distant estuaries. <v Narrator>These men possess a different kind of expertize. <v Virgil Matthews>I think that's bad medicine, sharks. They cut up your webbing. <v Virgil Matthews>They might cut you if you'll be down there with 'em. <v Virgil Matthews>There's sharks and barracudas out <v Virgil Matthews>here. <v Virgil Matthews>[inaudible] you cut the net. <v Virgil Matthews>[unclear] <v Narrator>While sharks may annoy Captain Virgil Matthews, they present no realistic threat to

<v Narrator>the success of his operation. <v Narrator>Pink shrimp burrow under the family bottom by day. <v Narrator>And so he and his mate, Eugene Charles, fish at night without <v Narrator>discussion. They ready the trawl net for the drop. <v Narrator>The weather is marginal, the trawl begins and if the sea becomes turbulent, <v Narrator>the men will have to pull in their nets. <v Narrator>That will mean profit loss and more night to sea under the best <v Narrator>of conditions. Shrimp fishermen do not put into shore for two or three weeks at a <v Narrator>stretch. <v Narrator>The first drag is finished and the men will soon find out how well they picked their

<v Narrator>fishing ground. <v Narrator>The hall is a big room. At least one and one half times, though, a <v Narrator>large percentage are trash fish. <v Narrator>The shrimp landed here will contribute to the 100 million dollar catch <v Narrator>made annually along the coast of the United States. <v Narrator>Shrimp. Our most valuable seafood resource bring in more dollars to <v Narrator>the fishing industry than salmon and tuna combined. <v Narrator>Moreover, the shrimp boom creates related jobs. <v Narrator>More than half the fishing boats constructed in the United States are shrimp trawlers. <v Narrator>And in still another spin-off, Shrimp processing plants employ large workforces. <v Narrator>All of this employment is dependent upon the preservation of coastal wetlands. <v Narrator>Yet coastal wetlands continue to be destroyed, even while consumer demand <v Narrator>for shrimp is growing. <v Narrator>At the present time, the United States imports more shrimp than it is able to catch. <v Narrator>Ironically, this favorite food of Americans is being purchased from several protein

<v Narrator>hungry nations, including India and Mexico. <v Narrator>But the immediate concern of these highly skilled Americans is their own survival <v Narrator>and future. <v Virgil Matthews>Eight hours of work, twelve hours of sleep. <v Virgil Matthews>That takes up the [unclear]. <v Eugene Charles>It is alright for a single man, but it ain't so pretty good for married man. <v Virgil Matthews>[unclear] You know, you have 15, 20 days on the ?boat?, before you get back to the dock. <v Virgil Matthews>I think they want to do something to you, changes you. <v Virgil Matthews>It makes you think <v Virgil Matthews>[unclear] fishermen, always a fisherman [unclear] his blood, this won't get out.

<v Eugene Charles>I've been doing this ever since 1927, so <v Eugene Charles>I stop maybe a once in a while, but I wind right back up on the shrimp boat. <v Narrator>At dawn, the shrimp sorting is completed and the bottlenose dolphins know it. <v Narrator>They gather around the boat for the dumping of the trash fish, even the waste product <v Narrator>of this industry is returned to nature in the form that can be recycled into the food <v Narrator>chain. <v Virgil Matthews>[unclear] and with 30 minutes time, you have 50 or <v Virgil Matthews>20 other diving and <v Virgil Matthews>eating the fish and I don't understand how they do it from boat to boat. <v Eugene Charles>[unclear] I'm happy to see them survive.

<v Narrator>One hundred miles away, another creature that is dependent on coastal wetlands is <v Narrator>the comic old pelican. <v Narrator>Like, man, this fish eater feeds high on the food chain. <v Narrator>And it's survival or decline can be viewed as an indicator of problems that might <v Narrator>in time affect human populations. <v Narrator>In recent years, the brown pelicans failure to hatch young put it on the endangered <v Narrator>species list. <v Narrator>Reasons for its decline. Pesticide residues in eggs, contamination as <v Narrator>efficient eats and habitat destruction. <v Narrator>In this important remaining rookery or breeding place in southwest Florida, <v Narrator>Young are still being harassed and. <v Narrator>But a proposed real estate development nearby threatens to destroy the parent birds <v Narrator>fishing grounds. <v Bernie Yokel>The rookeries support an unknown number of birds.

<v Bernie Yokel>I've never really had an opportunity to count them. They have to be thousands that roost <v Bernie Yokel>there and probably thousands that nest there. <v Bernie Yokel>And they include endangered species like the brown pelicans. <v Bernie Yokel>And our hopes for the birds to give this area is charm <v Bernie Yokel>and attractiveness. They use the small fishes that surround those <v Bernie Yokel>mangrove islands as the food for both themselves and for their young. <v Bernie Yokel>Those birds are there because they can make a living there and they need to make a living <v Bernie Yokel>very easily and nearby in order to feed their young when they're nesting. <v Bernie Yokel>The big controversy that faces South Florida is how to develop <v Bernie Yokel>and keep the very things that make it attractive and salable intact. <v Bernie Yokel>You simply can't continue to tear up and <v Bernie Yokel>destroy the very essence of the attractiveness <v Bernie Yokel>of the area. The usefulness of the area and expect it to continue to function

<v Bernie Yokel>as a source of recreation, as a source of beauty. <v Bernie Yokel>The data that we and many others have come up with show <v Bernie Yokel>very clearly that these resources are necessary for Florida. <v Bernie Yokel>They urgently need to maintain their good game fishing, <v Bernie Yokel>their clean water and the populations of birds that give it color <v Bernie Yokel>and that authentic beauty. <v Bernie Yokel>We're not opposed to development. <v Bernie Yokel>We simply want to put development where it belongs. <v Bernie Yokel>And it does not belong in the wetlands. <v Bernie Yokel>The wetlands are too large a resource, too important a resource for <v Bernie Yokel>the public benefit to disrupt them. <v Bernie Yokel>They produce an annual benefit, an annual revenue. <v Bernie Yokel>And all we need to do to keep that revenue coming in. <v Bernie Yokel>And to maintain something unique and extremely beneficial. <v Bernie Yokel>If they leave it alone. <v Tour guide>They are beautiful and don't forget that most of the the real estate of the

<v Tour guide>Keys were made up of the mangroves. <v Tour guide>We're going out after the ocean, if you can hear me over there. <v Tour guide>Have any of y'all ever seen a large bird nest to build these nests above the telephone <v Tour guide>poles coming down from Homestead, great big nest on top of a poles. <v Tour guide>You know what kind of a bird that is? <v Tour guide>We southerns say the [unclear] is a cousin of American bald eagle. <v Narrator>How important the aesthetic byproducts of wetlands are to Florida can be expressed <v Narrator>concretely in dollars and cents. <v Narrator>Twenty six million people visit the state annually during this day. <v Narrator>They spend six and one half billion dollars. <v Narrator>What attracts tourists to Florida are her natural areas, places where people can enjoy <v Narrator>outdoor experiences and unique sights. <v Narrator>I'm one of the most unique sights found anywhere in America. <v Narrator>The nation's only living coral reef is located off the east coast of Florida. <v Narrator>It was a spawning ground for countless numbers of beautiful tropical sea animals.

<v Tour guide>We often see turtles down here on the [unclear] <v Tour guide>We occansionally see sharks and as I said before, we do see Barracuda. <v Tour guide>Although we have seen both, there's not been any reported attack of either one. <v Narrator>Like Pike's Peak or the Grand Canyon, the coral reef is one of America's treasures, <v Narrator>but probably few people who visit the reef are aware that its survival is linked to <v Narrator>the preservation of Florida's wetlands. <v Narrator>For unlike Pike's Peak or the Grand Canyon, the coral reef is not made of rock, <v Narrator>but it's composed of billions of tiny living animals. <v Narrator>And like all animal colonies, in order to survive, the reef, too, must eat. <v Narrator>Dr. Dennis Taylor of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences <v Narrator>tells how the coral reef is nourished, in part from sediments washed out <v Narrator>from the mangrove swamps.

<v Dr. Dennis Taylor>The mangroves are the start of what we would <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>call it, the tribal food system. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>What this essentially means is that the mangroves themselves produce plant <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>material which falls from the trees and <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>which is eventually decayed by microorganisms, usually fun and crunchy and <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>bacteria. And this decayed material then is <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>washed away in the water column. Column either compounds <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>dissolved in seawater or as part of. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>It's fair to say that the nutrients produced in mangroves <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>and in the bay system are not the total requirement <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>of the coral. They're a major portion of it in <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>his underwater laboratory. <v Narrator>Dr. Taylor measures the metabolism of a piece of coral to better understand <v Narrator>its food requirements. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>The animals that we're using are two corals, two types of brain coral. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>Most people do not know that they're an animal.

<v Dr. Dennis Taylor>They tend to regard them either as plants or colorful rock. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And in fact, they are many animals. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>They're a colony of many individuals. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And this is what usually forms what's referred to as a coral head or a coral colony. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>In each of these animals that live in this colony has living inside of tissues <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>very small microscopic algae or plants. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And these are a single cell plants. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And like all plants, they're capable of manufacturing food from sunlight <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>and carbon dioxide, which would get to be dissolved in seawater and the food <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>which they manufacture, they use for their own growth. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>They also are able to excrete and transport this food to the <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>animals. And the animal uses that for its nutrition and growth. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And both of these individuals form this association. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>They are very dependent upon food levels in the water as well. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>What the algae can produce is only a part of the food economy of a car, <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>and the remainder of it must come from either living plants

<v Dr. Dennis Taylor>or animals in the water or dissolved food, which is in the water itself, <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>comes from the coastal zone, coastal wetlands, so <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>that you see here on the fringes of the continental shelf. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>In Florida, at least, and throughout most of the Caribbean, a coral reef community <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>which exists on the edge of a much broader community. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And there are a series of food and nutritional interrelationships between corals <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>and the grass bed and the mangrove swamps. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>I think one of the things which you must remember in this area is that <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>it's an area of very high temperature, particularly in the summer. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And this also makes it a marginal environment. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>It's a very difficult life for an organism in the tropics because <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>it's continually under stress, mostly in temperature stress. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And this makes energy demands very high. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And if you enter interfere with the food resource in <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>an ecosystem such as this, even one aspect of it, the total effect, which

<v Dr. Dennis Taylor>you could potentially have, is very large. <v Dr. Dennis Taylor>And this is another thing which we know very little about. <v Narrator>In reality, natural systems have no definable boundaries, even <v Narrator>as a mangrove leaf provides a food base for far flung life. <v Narrator>So the mangrove tree itself requires nutrition in order to manufacture its valuable <v Narrator>leaf crop. It uses dissolved nutrients carried from <v Narrator>inland water systems, which in accord with natural law, always flow seaward. <v Narrator>If this water is not diverted, it regularly enters the coastal wetlands, causing <v Narrator>mangrove trees to thrive and produce many leaves. <v Narrator>These, in turn, support large numbers of animals. <v Narrator>To better understand how mangrove trees vary and their capacity to produce leaves. <v Narrator>Dr. Sam Snedeker of the University of Florida has set up an ingenious experiment, <v Narrator>one that requires his crew to get their feet wet. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Then we have the new chamber for a large tree.

<v Dr. Sam Snedeker>I want you to get back completely rigged up and make sure it is sealed so that there are <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>no leaks in it and we have to work quickly in case it rains <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>and we will be able to seal the bag properly. <v Narrator>To find out how productive the tree is, these technicians must perform an awkward <v Narrator>operation. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker> I'm hooked under that limb down there. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Watch your heads out there. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Over this branch right here. <v Researcher>We can can roll it right back here and get it down on this side. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Yeah. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>[unclear] right, I got to get it over this branch here, though.

<v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Can you use the-. <v Researcher>I think I can get up-. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>No. Don't break- that's right. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>The chamber is rigged up so that the incoming air goes into the bottom <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>of the chamber and comes out the top. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>In addition, we take a sample of the air going in and sample of the air coming <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>out. We also measure the temperature and the air flow velocity. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>A sample of air that goes back to the instruments in the tent is used <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>to determine the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, going in, <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>the concentration in the air coming out and also the water vapor <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>from determining the difference between what goes in and what comes out, we're <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>able to monitor or actually measure photosynthesis and respiration

<v Dr. Sam Snedeker>and also the amount of transpiration that occurs simultaneously with those measurements. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Basically, if we know the metabolism of a tree, it's like knowing the metabolism <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>of a person. We know how healthy it is. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>There's a great difference in the metabolism of mangrove trees depending <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>on where they are. Some are very productive. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Some are less productive in terms of maintaining the health <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>of mangroves no matter where they are located. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>They need two things. They need a source of nutrients. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>From upland sources. Runoff, drainage from upland forest <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>areas, grasslands or whatever, and they also need a regular <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>normal pattern of tidal flushing. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>In other words, a a mechanism for bringing the nutrients through the plant <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>and carrying away waves. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>The source of nutrients almost exclusively comes from <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>further inland, it doesn't come from the oceans, but they occur from the upland system.

<v Dr. Sam Snedeker>But any type of barrier, for instance, a bulkhead which is set off with <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>stops, either of those flows. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>And we see situations in which the mangroves are severely altered and we might <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>expect that they are damaged in terms of their contribution to the downstream <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>estuary. The statement was made that if mangroves <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>are so important to fisheries, then all we need to do is to. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>You might say literally have mangrove farms where we raised mangroves <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>or the detritus to benefit the fisheries. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>We could then have very neat areas of residential development, other types of development <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>in mangrove. We have our mangrove farms producing detritus and <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>everything appears to be perfectly in balance. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>What we fail to remember in this regard is that <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>a mangrove farm in such a context would be a management enterprise <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>by man. It would be very expensive. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>You can look at the type of habitat here and see very easily that it

<v Dr. Sam Snedeker>is not amenable to heavy equipment, to farming machinery, to anything that we associate <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>with agriculture. Of course it can be done, but the cost would be tremendous. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>We can have the same product from two different systems, one cost man. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>It cost us economy. It's a work service. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>It has to be paid for with dollars and fossil fuels and natural resource. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Whereas the other extreme, we can have the very same product. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker>Absolutely free of charge. <v Dr. Sam Snedeker> demands economy, courtesy of nature. <v Narrator>Estuaries not only plant and harvest themselves, they also freely transport <v Narrator>their produce from lower to higher consumer on waters that are never still. <v Bernie Yokel>What you're seeing is a mangrove leaf with a little passenger, a swimming crab, <v Bernie Yokel>and they'll frequently cling. <v Bernie Yokel>These little crabs will cling to a piece of floating material <v Bernie Yokel>and use it as a raft to carry them about in the estuary. <v Narrator>But in the wetlands, water does more than transport food.

<v Narrator>It is as essential an element of life as it did tribal food chain itself. <v Bernie Yokel>What you need to understand. <v Bernie Yokel>Along with the capacity for these areas to <v Bernie Yokel>support food is an estuary, by definition, <v Bernie Yokel>is where the sea water and the freshwater get together. <v Bernie Yokel>And in southwest Florida, this wetland area where <v Bernie Yokel>sea and. Fresh water mix isn't <v Bernie Yokel>an especially useful region. <v Bernie Yokel>And over a long, long period of time, geologic time, this system <v Bernie Yokel>has developed. <v Bernie Yokel>Such that the fresh water moves off of the land through the marshes <v Bernie Yokel>very slowly and very shallow flows. <v Bernie Yokel>It's not river like, it's sheet like and it moves through the marshes <v Bernie Yokel>and all the time it's being processed. And because it moves slow, it can't carry much <v Bernie Yokel>dirt or silt. And when the water ultimately arrives

<v Bernie Yokel>in the estuarine area, in the mangrove areas, it's clean. <v Bernie Yokel>But then man felt that he needed living area and he's made <v Bernie Yokel>some very destructive changes. <v Bernie Yokel>He's built canals, drainage canal that takes the freshwater very quickly, <v Bernie Yokel>bypasses the marsh, bypasses the filtration and the <v Bernie Yokel>settling characteristics of the marsh and brings it into the estuary <v Bernie Yokel>almost instantaneously. <v Bernie Yokel>And the net result is that the the <v Bernie Yokel>fertilizers, the nutrients, the dirt, the silt <v Bernie Yokel>and all of this fresh water arrive in the in the estuarine <v Bernie Yokel>area very suddenly and it causes a great many problems. <v Bernie Yokel>It creates problems because nutrients wash off of agricultural areas or off of <v Bernie Yokel>lawns and come into these canals. <v Bernie Yokel>And they're not removed by the marshes, but they're brought down immediately into the <v Bernie Yokel>estuary and create big problems in the sense of of stimulating

<v Bernie Yokel>simple plants so that you have an overabundance of those simple plants and the system <v Bernie Yokel>gets out of balance. <v Bernie Yokel>For every change we may get, there's a penalty we have to pay. <v Narrator>Impeding the flow of freshwater into the wetlands can have a catastrophic effect on <v Narrator>animals too. The juvenile animals that inhabit wetlands are adapted <v Narrator>to life and water that is salty one day and fresh the next. <v Narrator>As these individuals mature, however, they require a more stable environment <v Narrator>and they move into the ocean. <v Narrator>Their departure makes the coastal wetlands safe for the next generation of young. <v Narrator>But, man, by interfering with the normal flow of freshwater into estuaries, often <v Narrator>create sailing conditions that adult fish and marine predators find comfortable. <v Narrator>They therefore remain in awe or enter these nursery zones and prey upon the young. <v Narrator>Well, such a situation may temporarily delight fishermen in the long run, it will <v Narrator>severely cripple their sport.

<v Biologist>Boy, is that a nice trout <v Biologist>How many of those trout did you catch? <v Narrator>The survey of fishermen is being conducted by Everglades National Park biologists <v Narrator>to determine if adult fish and predators are indeed beginning to invade <v Narrator>coastal nursery zone. <v Biologist>Did you release anything out? <v Fisherman>Everything [unclear] catfish, shark. <v Biologist>Ok now slow up a little bit for me, please. <v Biologist>You got, you released one shark? <v Fisherman>Killed one shark. <v Gary Davis>Our task in this, is first to document. <v Gary Davis>What's going on, to define this is really what's happening. <v Narrator>Biologist Gary Davis of Everglades National Park discusses the long <v Narrator>range implications of man's manipulation of water systems with Tom Schmidt <v Narrator>and his team of biological technicians. <v Gary Davis>What I'm asking you, do you see the kind of change that we're seeing, <v Gary Davis>for instance, with the trout, you're just talking about you saw a lot of big trouts.

<v Biologist>The trout look like they're getting over. <v Tom Schmidt>Third and fourth then. <v Gary Davis>They're catching fewer fish, because [unclear] so instead of an estriol system where we <v Gary Davis>get a lot of fresh water flowing into the system now we're starting to get increase on <v Gary Davis>these kind of a coastal marine thing where we have more [unclear] animals involved. <v Gary Davis>So we're catching fewer, but they're larger. <v Biologist>We do have fishermen that are going just for sharks, <v Biologist>but there is so many released, do you think this will ?affect? <v Biologist>The number of predeators [inaudible]. <v Gary Davis>Seems to be a trend we're losing that the nursery ground where we have the <v Gary Davis>young fish being produced, they're being replaced by the larger predators, <v Gary Davis>the adult redfish, the barracuda and sharks that you're talking about. <v Gary Davis>So it is still a productive area. But in a different sort of way, instead of having the <v Gary Davis>nursery zone, we're losing that. <v Gary Davis>And in the long run, we're going to lose the whole fishery. <v Gary Davis>We control the flow of water into the park, through the gates to any canal. <v Gary Davis>And the other water delivery systems.

<v Gary Davis>And the trick is to manage the system so that we recreate the natural flow of water <v Gary Davis>through the slough into the estuary in this coastal zone. <v Gary Davis>It's a matter of balancing the quality of the water, the quantity of <v Gary Davis>the water and the timing, the seasonality of when it flows. <v Gary Davis>This whole system is balanced to a marked wet and dry season <v Gary Davis>and by our artificial manipulations, we extend the wet season halfway <v Gary Davis>through the dry season. <v Gary Davis>See, we're going to defeat that balance. <v Gary Davis>And there are a lot of things that are key to this timing, the shrimp that come up from <v Gary Davis>[unclear] on the ground has come into the estuary that has the right water levels and the <v Gary Davis>right conditions. <v Gary Davis>We have to balance the water flow and the systems for the wading birds that feed on the <v Gary Davis>edge of the slope so it doesn't dry out early enough for them, so concentrates <v Gary Davis>the fish they can eat. They don't have food for their young. <v Gary Davis>So they can't feed the young and the young die. <v Gary Davis>And that's what's happened over the last 10 years with the oyster population. <v Gary Davis>Same thing is true of when we raise the water levels.

<v Gary Davis>We have to be careful with things like alligators out in the slough system because <v Gary Davis>the alligators are building nests. They lay their eggs and then the water level rises <v Gary Davis>through the rainy summer season. <v Gary Davis>And we'll flood those nests if we flood it too high. <v Gary Davis>The alligators have figured out over the years about how high they have to build those <v Gary Davis>nests to keep the eggs afloat. <v Gary Davis>So we have to balance the quality, quantity and timing <v Gary Davis>so that we don't mess up all the ecological <v Gary Davis>systems that have been matched to that water flow, the natural unimpeded <v Gary Davis>water flow. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Guess what. <v Mrs. Kushlan>What? <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>I think that's it. <v Narrator>Dr. Jim Kushlan is a biologist who is studying the nesting habits of wild <v Narrator>alligators. Unarmed, he and his wife Maryland's slosh <v Narrator>through the swamps of the Everglades, searching for nestlings to capture and tag. <v Narrator>Together, they also collect data on drowned out nests. <v Narrator>With this information, Kushlan will recommend to the engineers who manage four

<v Narrator>critical locks called the S12 structures, how best to <v Narrator>release the park's quota of fresh water for unless the water enters the park in <v Narrator>a manner that imitates natural runoff. <v Narrator>Many animals will fail. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>But the larger ?male? is probably the one that lives in a pod just on the other side of <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>that hammock there. <v Narrator>A mother alligator is unusual in the reptilian world, like a bird

<v Narrator>or a mammal. She will defend her nest and come to the aid of a baby in distress. <v Narrator>An irate alligator is an animal to be respected. <v Narrator>Nonetheless, the Kushlan's carry out their work, armed only with their own sharp senses. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>So the little one side on the net. So that means that probably in the Grantham place <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>around here, we would have to go looking for. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>There's one over here.

<v Mrs. Kushlan>A little one? <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>After they hatch them, the mother and the little one go off some distance from the <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>nest itself. And she has a dent in the march and you can see right here, it <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>goes down. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Good, five or six feet. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>And there was a little one that was right here. What they do is they stay in this murky <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>vegetation, rather than going out in the middle of a pond where they can get eaten by <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>fish or whatever. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>So they're little and probably in this area here. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>And they're very good at keeping hidden. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>This is the nest by itself. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>It's- what <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>happened in this particular nest, apparently. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Here's an egg that didn't hatch. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>No development at all at.

<v Dr. Jim Kushlan>This nest was was put down a little bit too low, and when the water level came back up <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>after the rainy season began, it drowned out some of the eggs. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>So that's why there's only a few eggs scattered around the nest and others in the nest <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>that didn't hatch out. And it's very critical for <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>the animal to be able to predict the water level and how much water is <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>in the area. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>What happens is that the alligator is a very sensitive indicator <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>of water conditions. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Its entire lifecycle is geared to the rising and falling of water levels. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>And this in turn is is geared to the changes in discharge. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>So that by opening up, say, the [unclear] structures north <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>of the park at the wrong time of year, alligators who had built <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>their nests at a low level because of low water levels would have <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>their entire nesting season wiped out.

<v Dr. Jim Kushlan>So that. Well, we have to. What we're trying to understand here is <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>why an alligator builds a nest at a certain location in a certain depth of water, <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>a nest of a certain size in order to correlate this with water conditions <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>so that when the time comes to actually regulate water, we'll know what not <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>to do. <v Mrs. Kushlan>I am gonna take him back to the boat. <v Mrs. Kushlan>

<v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Fifty five grams <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Total lenght, eleven even. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>[unclear] five and one quarter. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Nose to eye, 5/8ths. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>That looks like a [unclear] blue, yellow, gray, brown.

<v Dr. Jim Kushlan>We'll let him go right where we found him. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>Right over where we found that other that one juvenile, a mother is probably <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>very close nearby and what the rest of her clutch. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>We just back off and <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>let her take things their own way. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>It's it's really her home. <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>And we don't like to intrude on it much more than we have to get the information we <v Dr. Jim Kushlan>need. <v Narrator>Even world biologist like Jim Coastland are trying to figure out ways to reverse <v Narrator>the damage a man has inflicted on wetlands systems. <v Narrator>Man continues to try to dominate nature with little concern for long <v Narrator>range effects. <v Bernie Yokel>The vessel in the background is a large dredge

<v Bernie Yokel>that is used by the Deltona Corporation to <v Bernie Yokel>move sediments from the bay bottom and <v Bernie Yokel>pile it up on the inshore areas to create living <v Bernie Yokel>area. This is done usually on mangrove <v Bernie Yokel>areas that have been prepared, and consequently the dredge <v Bernie Yokel>moved the sediments on top of the old mangrove. <v Bernie Yokel>The effect of this kind of development is, <v Bernie Yokel>in my view, not in the best interest of Florida, are <v Bernie Yokel>of the public resources. <v Bernie Yokel>It takes bottom sediments that are oftentimes quite <v Bernie Yokel>healthy and productive themselves and pile them on top of mangroves <v Bernie Yokel>that are productive and useful in their own right. <v Bernie Yokel>And as a consequence, you deal a very severe one two punch to the

<v Bernie Yokel>environment. You deprive of habitat, which is very necessary for the support <v Bernie Yokel>of the animal life. You deprived of the source of food afforded <v Bernie Yokel>by the grass beds and by the mangrove. <v Bernie Yokel>Secondarily, after the bay bottoms are piled in <v Bernie Yokel>upon the mangroves, they become residents locations <v Bernie Yokel>such as those that you see in the background here. <v Bernie Yokel>And so an extremely productive unit is replaced by <v Bernie Yokel>man's presence, which serves as a source of pollution. <v Bernie Yokel>And so you deal the environment, yet another stroke <v Bernie Yokel>and cause problems that derive from sewage products, <v Bernie Yokel>from the fertilizers that are put on on the lawns. <v Bernie Yokel>From the organic matter that comes away from these houses and <v Bernie Yokel>sometimes in the form of lawn cuttings and shrubbery clipping.

<v Bernie Yokel>And a whole host of ways, the man tends to complicate <v Bernie Yokel>and disrupt. <v Bernie Yokel>This area by his very presence. <v Bernie Yokel>I'm convinced that that people can live close by these areas and <v Bernie Yokel>can make good use of the natural benefits that come <v Bernie Yokel>from them. But you can't you absolutely can not cut <v Bernie Yokel>off the sources of production and the means of supporting <v Bernie Yokel>the animals that that give it substance and value. <v Narrator>Unfortunately, as waterfront property becomes more scarce, it also becomes <v Narrator>more desirable. Developers find no lack of buyers for the wetland acreage. <v Narrator>They continue to dredge, drain and destroy. <v Narrator>But of late, public recognition of the importance of preserving wetlands has halted <v Narrator>some dredge and fill operations, at least temporarily. <v Narrator>Construction workers who have lost jobs as a result of these building moratoriums have

<v Narrator>rallied to support land developers and labor leaders from as far away as Washington, <v Narrator>D.C., appear at hearings to urge that construction work be resumed. <v Robert Georgene>If this project had not been stopped, six or seven hundred men <v Robert Georgene>would be on the job today. <v Narrator>At this hearing this Friday AFL-CIO leader, Robert Georgene <v Narrator>makes his case before the arbiters of the conflict, an Army Corps of Engineers <v Narrator>pannel and the depression we now find ourselves in. <v Robert Georgene>We must encourage, not discourage, responsible, needed <v Robert Georgene>development. <v Narrator>Support for the development project arrives by the bus load <v Narrator>boosters are brought in from distant points to swell the audience. <v Speaker A>I am proud to speak on behalf of the International Union of Operating Engineers. <v Speaker A>We all want to preserve and protect the mangroves. <v Speaker A>The shellfish.

<v Speaker A>And all those wonders of nature with which this area has been so generously <v Speaker A>endowed. <v Speaker A>But in our zeal not to choke out the mangroves, have <v Speaker A>we not choked out the most important of all, lifelong. <v Speaker A>The human being. <v Speaker B>Any man that would selflessly put 1000 men out of work so that he <v Speaker B>could catch a tarp or a snook isn't much of a man in my book. <v Narrator>For those who oppose this development, also address themselves to economic issues. <v Speaker C>First and very important is that the mangrove wetlands are some of the most productive <v Speaker C>natural areas on earth. <v Speaker C>The complex animal food chains that result from our list lead upward <v Speaker C>to the higher levels where we find the animals that are important to man as food, <v Speaker C>recreation and to satisfy aesthetic needs.

<v Speaker D>Based on a public study by the National Marine Fisheries Service. <v Speaker D>Eighty five percent of the commercial fish and shellfish harvested from South Florida <v Speaker D>waters consists of species that are dependent upon entering habitat during <v Speaker D>some phase in their life cycle. <v Speaker D>The majority of the Southeast region's recreational fish species are also after <v Speaker D>independence. Combined, these species support fish and turf industry, conservatively <v Speaker D>estimated to be worth about 600 million dollars annually to local <v Speaker D>and state economies. <v Speaker E>We can preserve this productive ecosystem and thus maintain the excellent sport and <v Speaker E>commercial fishery and abundant bird life of the region for the benefit of many <v Speaker E>succeeding generations. <v Speaker E>Or we can dredge and bulldoze this mangrove wilderness into a subdivision for the short <v Speaker E>term economic gain of a private corporation and its employees. <v Bernie Yokel>The difficult part of the defense of these areas is

<v Bernie Yokel>the fact that that a developer can repeatedly request permission <v Bernie Yokel>to make alterations to dredge, to fill. <v Bernie Yokel>And he only has to get permission once. <v Bernie Yokel>And that area then is destined for change. <v Bernie Yokel>If he succeeds in getting his permit, then that area is lost. <v Bernie Yokel>It's a very frustrating thing for the conservationists because he has to win every time <v Bernie Yokel>to protect an area. <v Bernie Yokel>Time after time, their requests come in and time after time you've got to win <v Bernie Yokel>or those areas are lost and they're lost permanently. <v Bernie Yokel>And that's something that can be put back. It's an irreplaceable loss. <v Bernie Yokel>And it's a loss of resources to you and to me and to everybody <v Bernie Yokel>who enjoys the benefits that come <v Bernie Yokel>by every year. Just as sure as there is a year you get these <v Bernie Yokel>benefits. These are the things that disturb me about

<v Bernie Yokel>our land management policy. <v Narrator>Our land management policies regarding coastal wetlands are not defined. <v Narrator>A recent court directive to the Army Corps of Engineers mandates that the Corps <v Narrator>consider impact on wetland ecosystems before granting dredge permanence. <v Narrator>Responsibility still lies with the public to express its will. <v Narrator>This estuary, Rookery Bay Sanctuary, was safe from development only <v Narrator>through the action of a group of citizens when lots of this region seemed imminent. <v Narrator>They rallied public support, raised money and purchased the land. <v Narrator>Then they donated it to the National Audubon Society to manage. <v Bernie Yokel>This area is not threatened, nor is the sanctuary threatened <v Bernie Yokel>seriously by any developmental changes. <v Bernie Yokel>We've actually seen some improvement in water quality since we've been here, <v Bernie Yokel>and it come as a result of keeping people informed

<v Bernie Yokel>of what some of the problems were with with water quality and <v Bernie Yokel>getting their cooperation. <v Narrator>Keeping people informed is the beginning. <v Narrator>But more important, we need to develop a long range management plan <v Narrator>for these critical areas. <v Narrator>Our most precious assets are those resources that are self renewable. <v Narrator>Our wetlands conserve us and our great grandchildren and great grandchildren. <v Narrator>Or we can destroy these wellsprings of unending supply <v Narrator>to benefit a limited segment for a brief time. <v Narrator>In the words of Henry David Thoreau. <v Narrator>Man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave <v Narrator>alone. <v Narrator>The wetlands demand nothing more of us. <v Host>The preceding program was made possible by a grant from the Florida legislature

<v Host>and was administered by the Florida State Department of Education.