Images

Scientists pull a seine net through a blocked-off section of a man-made ditch to estimate fish abundance.

Technician processes fish samples brought in from mangroves.

Scientists explore mangroves in a beach environment, Cape Sable, FL.

Sampling juvenile common snook following passage of Hurricane Wilma October 2005.  Storm surge from hurricane is hypothesized to have facilitated recruitment of this sportfish to presumptive Tarpon Bay nursery grounds in the following 18 months.

Seining for fish in open water necessitates closing the seine quickly to avoid fish escape.  Closing the seine around a pole offshore accomplishes this objective in sampling.

Scientists close off a center bag seine prior to pursing net to recover fish sample.

Employee holds a sheepshead, a juvenile fish of recreational importance captured in a mangrove-lined tidal creek.

Mudflats (open water in background) derived via erosion and habitat conversion from former mangrove forests often have a band of mangroves adjacent to the creek bank.  Here a researcher accesses a mudflat at high tide to make measurements.

Lift nets buried in the forest floor and deployed at high tide permit the estimation of fish density within flooded forests.

Scientist displays juvenile tarpon captured in a tidal pond.

A male, white-tailed deer that had recently lost an antler, foraging in the wet
prairie at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Florida.

Sampling fish within the intertidal zone of a mangrove forest requires setting a block net at the interface between forest and river at high tide, then retrieving the net at low tide.  Here researchers await high tide to set the nets seen in the boat. 

Setting block net across an intertidal rivulet draining a hurricane-derived mudflat.  Net is retrieved at low tide to obtain an estimate of fish catch.  Fish density was found to be greater in waters draining natural tidal forests than in waters from mudflats formed as a result of landfall of a Category 5 hurricane on Cape Sable, Everglades National Park i

Scientists clear a lift net to capture intertidal fish in mangrove forest.

Scientist releases mangrove diamondback terrapins held briefly for tagging.