The Florida Keys - a world famous fishing
and diving destination.

It s the third largest barrier reef in the
world.

It supports, basically, about an annual economy
of about 6 billion dollars a year.

But, it also suffers from significant use
from a regional population on the order of

about 7 million people in the three-county
South Florida area.

As Florida s population has increased, the
health of its coral reefs which form the

foundation for the state s large fishing
industry - has drastically declined.

With it, so have fish populations.

Man loves to fish, catches too many fish,
therefore the numbers go down.

To better understand how fish populations
are doing, a team of scientists dives regularly

to conduct a census of the fish that live
on the reef.

The main reason that we re out here counting
fish is really to try to get some better understanding

of what s happening with these coral reef
fish populations, and the best way to do that

is to put divers in the water and actually
have them go and count and size the stuff

that they re seeing.

To collect this data in remote locations like
the Dry Tortugas, scientists use a highly

efficient and streamlined process.

Go divers Go!

It s kind of like a paramilitary assault
on marine resources because we re doing

on the order, you know, of 100, scientific
dives a day so the process of having a custom

ship with a very skilled captain and crew
with highly-trained divers gives us great

flexibility and latitude to sample large areas
accurately, and provide information really

that no one has been able to capture before.

What will the divers find?

Are fish populations recovering in South Florida?