| The President’s Hoot by Richard H. Baker, Ph.D. March 2011 |
It is really gratifying to see an excellent research scientist such as Dr. Grant Gilmore, Florida’s foremost fish expert, step up to the plate and speak out in the February 19th guest editorial in the Press Journal, on the Oslo Road boat ramp dredge and fill project entitled “Want to catch fewer fish? ‘Improve’ Oslo boat ramp” (SEE: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/feb/17/grant-gilmore-want-to-catch-fewer-fish-increase/). In his editorial, he explained that paving the parking lot and dredging would cripple critical habitat for juvenile fish. At the same time, Dr. Gilmore recognized a former Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory (FMEL) scientist.
I am not sure many people know how important the
role of the FMEL scientists on Oslo Road was in conducting and instigating the
first interdisciplinary research on the Indian River Lagoon. FMEL is not
just a mosquito control research lab. These researchers were the
first to conduct long term integrated scientific studies on the
Florida east coast studying the interrelationships between insects,
vegetation, birds, fish, habitats, and even tides. The
laboratory is now part of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences.
Dr. Robert Harrington, quoted in the article, was one of the first FMEL
scientists (President of the American Society of Ichthyologists and
Herpetologists, the premier ichthyological society) and was hired to work on
the use of fish in controlling mosquitoes and who also was involved in some
basic studies of fish around mangrove swamps and impoundments. He was
responsible for building the FMEL “Boathouse” for his fish studies on tarpon
and other fish species. The Boathouse has been converted into a lecture room,
where FMEL and other scientists have provided courses on the wildlife and flora
of our native habitats for ORCA volunteers annually for at least 15 years.
In 1961, Dr. Harrington discovered that a small fish called Rivulus
was hermaphroditic-i.e., individuals having both ovaries and testes and can
produce and fertilize eggs that when laid will hatch. We now know Rivulus
normally and primarily live in the holes along the Indian River Lagoon made by
the Great Atlantic Land Crab. This reproductive process is important and
makes good sense if you are the only fish in a hole! There are also males
in some holes with only testes, but most individuals have both ovaries and
testes. His wife, Dr. Eleanor Harrington, also an FMEL employee, assisted him
in his work and was a strong and valuable PIAS board member for many years.
Earlier, Dr. Harrington contributed some of the evidence used and quoted by
Rachel Carson in her book Silent Spring(page 147)of the bad effects
of pesticides. In 1955, he and FMEL Professor Bill Bidlingmayer, observed
2,000 acres of saltmarsh treated with dieldrin at 1 lb/acre in an attempt to
eliminate sandfly larvae in St. Lucie County. The treatment was not done by the
FMEL, but they saw the carnage and decided to document it. By sampling,
they estimated that 20-30 tons of fish or 1,175,000 of at least 30 species,
including snook, were killed. No live specimens could be found. All
crustaceans were virtually exterminated including aquatic and fiddler
crabs. Dieldrin is now prohibited.
Dr. Maurice Provost, the founding FMEL director, hosted the first
interdisciplinary symposium on the Indian River Lagoon in 1972 at the
FMEL. Present were some of the most respected scientists on the planet
including Dr. Howard Odum (preeminent ecologist from the UF), Dr. William Odum
(University of Virginia and RSMAS/University of Miami, who provided evidence
for the value of mangroves to aquatic ecosystems), Dr. Eric Heald (RSMAS/U.
Miami, worked with W. Odum on mangrove ecosystems), Dr Sam Snedaker (RSMAS/U.
Miami, mangrove ecosystem scientist), Dr. Robert Gore (Harbor Branch Foundation
Marine Laboratory), Dr. Robert Harrington, Dr. Herb Kale (FMEL, nationally
recognized ornithologist, author of Florida’s Birds, who became Vice President
of Florida Audubon, and an ORCA trail is named after him), and many
others. The idea of Rotational Impoundment Management (RIM) may have come
out of this symposium. Dr. Gilmore, as a young scientist, was impressed
by the great scientists attending this symposium and their obvious concern for
the Indian River Lagoon and the future health of aquatic ecosystems on the
Florida east coast.
Dr. Gilmore believes that this FMEL sponsored symposium was responsible for
instigating Dr. Gore to write the 1973 proposal to the Smithsonian
Institution that started the Indian River Coastal Zone Study that ended up
developing the staff scientists at the Harbor Branch Foundation, later to
evolve into the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the Smithsonian
Marine Station. This became the largest long-term interdisciplinary
research program on the Florida east coast. Data and publications from
this study are still relevant today and influence present and future research
programs along this eastern coast of Florida. Many of the students and
post docs that participated in this study are respected world-renowned
scientists around the world today. This all started at the FMEL. This
previous and ongoing research is important to our community and nation today.
As a result of persons dedicated to fishing and Audubon’s goals, friends of
fisherman and previous Audubon board member, Joel Day, have raised funds in
honor of his memory to purchase Dr. Gilmore’s real-time live fish sounding
microphones. These are to be placed in the lagoon with amplifiers and speakers
into the future Audubon House to hear fish’s various sounds. Fish
species each have their own unique sounds, just like every bird species has
their different call or voice. If this is carried out, it will
be a first for a nature center, an opportunity for the public as well as
scientists to study and to hear the calls by various species of fish (like
snook, tarpon, and spotted seatrout) from the Lagoon.
Positive support for science is needed now more than ever in our community and state to protect our fragile commercial and recreational fishing and birding industry.