>>NARRATOR:
The Florida Keys--

a world famous fishing
and diving destination.

>>It's the third largest
barrier reef in the world.

It supports, basically,
an annual econom

of about $6 billion a year.

But it also suffers
from significant use

from a regional population

on the order of
about seven million people

in the three-county
South Florida area.

>>NARRATOR: 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.

>>NARRATOR:
To better understand

how fish populations are doing,

a team of scientists
dives regularl

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.

>>NARRATOR:
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 of, you know,

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 nobody has been able
to capture before.

>>NARRATOR:
What will the divers find?

Are fish populations recovering
in South Florida?

♪♪

>>Major funding
for this program

was provided
by the Batchelor Foundation,

encouraging people
to preserve and protect

America's underwater resources.

>>NARRATOR:
Dry Tortugas National Park

is one of the lesser-known
jewels

in the national park system.

It is famous for its
19th-century Fort Jefferson,

a remote Union outpost
located on an island

70 miles west of Key West.

Most visitors come to the park
on a day trip to see the fort,

the thousands of birds that nest
on a nearby island each spring,

and to snorkel around the fort's
moat walls.

But only a few visitors
get to see

what makes up the vast majority
of the park.

>>97% or more of this park
is actually underwater.

That's what we're out here
to study.

>>NARRATOR: The park's
roughly 100 square miles

of magnificent underwater
resources

make up the westernmost part
of Florida's reef chain.

>>The living reef starts
about Key Biscayne,

which is about 30 miles north
of Key Largo,

and then runs at least
to the Dry Tortugas,

so about 270 kilometers
southwest

on the southwest Florida shelf.

>>NARRATOR:
The health of the reefs

and the fish that live there

has drastically declined
over the last half century.

With more and more people
arriving in South Florida,

fishing pressures
increase dramatically.

In the early years, no data
was collected on the fisheries.

It wasn't until the late 1970s

that scientists began to analyze
how fish populations were doing.

Now, each year,

researchers from various
organizations and agencies

"dive in" to count the fish
on the reefs.

>>What we're hoping,
more than anything,

is that this research
will give us some understanding

about how these resources
are doing.

When I say resources, in this
case, I'm talking primaril

about coral reef fish
communities,

particularly with an emphasis
on the exploited species

like snappers and groupers.

>>NARRATOR: To cover as large
of an area as possible

in Dry Tortugas National Park,

the highly skilled
science divers

have developed a unique method
to collect their data.

They spend one to two weeks
at sea

on a chartered live-aboard,
making multiple dives each day.

>>A regular sport diving
charter,

we typically tie to buoys.

We're moored, so the dive times
are very regimented.

With a group of divers like
this, we dive all day long.

We dive
with five teams of divers

rather than all the divers
getting off the boat at one time

and then getting back
on the boat at one time.

And we do that for a couple
of different reasons:

one is to get more dive sites in
during the day,

and the other one is that

the divers can each see
something different

and they get more ability
to count fish

in different locations.

>>NARRATOR: Captain Frank uses
a commercial charting program

to find the predetermined
dive sites.

>>The scientists can give me
a list of where they want to go,

and they give that to me
electronically,

we insert it into the computer,

it pops up what's called
a "wait-point" on the screen,

and then I can move the boat
to the wait-point.

I use the depth-sounder
to search around

for something interesting
near the wait-point--

be it a ledge, coral reef,
a pinnacle, something like that.

We don't want to just drop them
in sand;

sand isn't where we're going
to find our fish.

Team five against the wall,

team five, divers on the wall,
please.

>>It kind of works
like a factory.

Basically, we have five teams.

Each team consists
of four divers,

so two buddy pairs.

Captain Frank takes the boat
to the G.P.S. point.

>>Divers ready?

>>Yes.

>>Roger that.

We have a pinnacle in 60 feet
of water to the bottom,

40 feet of water to the top.

Go, divers, go.

>>Each buddy pair
has a dive flag,

and they descend
to their site

and they tie off the flag.

>>And then they swim
about 50 feet apart

and each of them
imagines a circle

with a radius of about 25 feet.

So ideally, those circles
will be touching

just at the very edge,

so they can still see
each other.

So if someone runs into problems
or something happens,

the other diver can offer
some assistance,

but they're far enough away that
the circles do not overlap,

so each sample then
is independent.

>>So then once the divers
are situated

and they've figured out
what their cylinders are,

they start counting fish.

It takes an experienced diver--

it takes a diver
who can identify fish--

and then what we do is we have
this extensive training program

that each fish diver
goes through

to standardize how they estimate
the sizes of fish

and whether or not they're able
to count the numbers of fish.

That sounds easy, like one fish,
two fish, red fish, blue fish.

Not so much, actually.

Occasionally, you have
huge schools go through,

hundreds of fish,
and how many fish is that?

You can't count each one,
so you have to have a good eye

of how to estimate
abundances of fish.

>>We try to start with the most
commercially important species,

things like the big snappers
and the big groupers.

When we see them,
we count them immediatel

and we estimate their sizes
immediatel

because in many cases,

they tend to be a little
skittish towards divers

and are more likely
to swim off quickly,

and so we want to capture those
as immediately as we can

and then go through the rest
of the species

that we see in the area,

usually starting with the bigger
things that are left,

moving down
to the smaller species

because the smaller species are
much less likely to swim away.

Each diver takes down
a measuring stick,

which is called
an all-purpose tool.

It's sort of like a "T-stick"
that's about a meter long,

marked with ten centimeter
increments up the meter stick.

And then the "T" part is about
30 centimeters across

with a ruler that actually has
centimeters on it so we can see.

What we use that stick for is
to help us estimate the sizes

of these individual fish

because size structure
is very, very important.

Large fish tend to be
much older,

and the number of babies
that they make

is much, much larger
than smaller fish.

So knowing that there are
four fish is important,

but knowing that there are
four big fish is much different

than knowing that there are
four small fish.

>>Also, when divers go
in the water,

they're not just collecting
information about the fish,

because the fish aren't
acting alone;

they're responding
to their environment.

We're also collecting data
about the habitat

and the water qualit

and we're looking at that data
in relationship to any trends

that we see in the fish
populations

to see whether or not

it's actually something
happening to the habitat

that's changing the distribution
of fishes that we see.

>>It's important because
the coral reefs are actuall

the structures that allow
the nurturing and raising

of juvenile fishes

and allowing the larger fishes
to, say, hide from predators.

You probably have heard
of the integral web of life;

each thing has its place.

>>NARRATOR: Once the divers
are done counting,

it's time to head back
to the surface.

>>They meet at the center
where their flag is.

There is a G.P.S. attached
to the buoy itself

at the surface,
so we have the exact location

of where those two counts
occurred.

And after that,
they all come up together.

>>Roger, divers on the surface.

We'll go pick them up.

>>And then the boat
pulls around...

>>Recover divers.

>>...picks them up,
they get on board

and do it all over again,
five or six times a day.

>>26 feet, 20 minutes,
2,400 pounds.

>>So it's kind of a cool
process--

we're just constantly
dumping divers,

picking them up,

and within the course of a day,
we'll hit 25 sites,

and that's 25 sites
times four divers,

so that's a whole lot of dives

and a whole lot of hours
underwater that we get

by doing this kind of cruise.

>>NARRATOR: When a team
is back on the boat,

they enter the data recorded
on the dives.

>>The less glamorous side
of marine biology involves

entering and managing
all of this data.

After we get out of the water,
people need to come in,

sit in front of their computers
and enter their data,

double-check it to make sure
they've done it correctly.

At the end of the trip, it'll go
back to each individual agency,

they'll double-check it again

to make sure that the data's
been entered correctly,

and then it gets all collected
and put in a central database

where all the agencies
have access to it.

>>NARRATOR: Scientists
from four different agencies

and institutions are along
on this particular trip

to collect data.

They work for the National
Park Service,

the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration,

the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission

and the University of Miami

Rosenstiel School of Marine
and Atmospheric Science.

>>One of the things
that I first noticed

about this particular group
of divers

is the cooperation level
between different agencies,

both federal and state,
is very high.

In other places that I've been--

in other states
that we've worked in,

particularly
along the Gulf Coast--

it's very difficult to get all
those agencies working together

to make a mission like this gel

like this particular mission
does.

>>NARRATOR:
For many years,

the various groups were
counting fish independently,

often duplicating their efforts.

>>So we got together
and did a big meeting,

compared kind of the data
that we accumulated

through the years and decided
that it would be more efficient

to actually gather our forces
and our crews

and survey all together.

>>NARRATOR:
To streamline the process

and make the surveys
more efficient,

a formal protocol was devised
as a guideline.

>>Actually creating
the protocol document allowed us

to really critically evaluate
every single step

of the actual method,
from the training,

from the statistical design,

from the actual in-water taking
of the data

all the way to the proofing
and data analysis.

We want to be able to present
a united front

and have all the agencies agree
on what actually the trends are.

>>There's a beauty
in that process, too.

One is that we're now not doing
different kinds of things

and reporting different
information;

we're on the same page.

Secondly, by adding
this incremental effort

in a team process, we're getting
a more precise estimate

over a broader range of areas.

>>We've been able to cover
much more territor

in a much more efficient manner

so that we're getting
the best snapshot

of what is happening
on the reef over time.

>>I'm really excited about this
because it's turning out to be

kind of the hallmark,
if you will,

of a way that a cooperative
program can produce information

that's relevant to scientific
decision-making,

but also stands as a model,

not only in Florida,
but Puerto Rico,

the Papahânaumokuâkea
National Marine Monument--

that coral reef reserve

in the northwestern
Hawaiian islands

and throughout the Pacific,

so it's very exciting
and making a difference.

>>All righty, guys,
you guys ready?

Hello?

>>Yes!

>>Team 4 ready?

>>Yes!

>>Roger that, Team 4 is ready,

diving a site called
"Jerry's Kids."

"Jerry's Kids" first discovered
in 2002 by the spree.

>>NARRATOR: So how do the
scientists know where to dive

to count the fish?

>>We have a kind of collage
habitat map

for the whole
Dry Tortugas National Park.

It's broken up into little
grid-cells, 200 by 200 meters.

Each cell is classified
as to a type of habitat;

a lot of it is not reef, so
that's just not sampled at all.

So if it's sand or sea grass
or something like that,

we don't bother with it.

>>NARRATOR:
For this particular study,

scientists are only interested
in sampling coral reef habitats

because this is where
most of the fish can be found.

>>The strategy is to try
to place samples strategicall

in high-density areas--

much like if I were to go sample
the U.S. population,

I wouldn't spend a lot of time
in the Mojave Desert,

because there aren't
that many people.

But I'd identify places
like cities--

New York, Chicago,
Miami, Baltimore, et cetera--

where those would be

because those are places I need
to get more information from.

>>NARRATOR:
Scientists have categorized,

or "stratified," the reef

into eight different types
of habitats they want to study.

>>There's very complex spur-
and-groove fore-reef habitats,

and then there's little
patch reefs that occur.

>>NARRATOR: Since it would be
impossible to surve

every single location
within these vast reef habitats,

a computer chooses
random G.P.S. points

where the scientists will dive.

>>We run a random number
generator routine to pick.

So say, for instance,
I have a habitat

with 50 sites in it total,
and I want ten of them:

from numbers one through 50,
it'll pick ten numbers.

So then those get tagged
onto that grid cell,

then we create the sampling map.

So the idea by doing that is

we're getting a fairly good
estimate of fish abundance

in each habitat
throughout the entire region.

>>So we get an unbiased
estimate of what's going on,

which is extremely important
for scientific credibility.

>>NARRATOR: This approach
to fisheries management

is called "fishery-independent
sampling"

because scientists evaluate
living fish populations

instead of counting
the fishermen's catch.

>>Rather than going
and counting fish on the dock,

what we're doing
is going in the water

and counting what's left
after the take.

Historically, the focus
was more on yield,

meaning removal
from the fisheries,

as much as thinking forward
about,

"how do we sustain
the resources?"

So more contemporaneous
fishery management

has thought critically about
what we're leaving in the water

rather than
what we're taking out.

We began to realize in most
of the important fisheries

that there were massive
reproductive declines--

stocks were collapsing
when, in fact,

we thought they should
sustain themselves.

>>NARRATOR: Worldwide fisheries
have declined drastically,

with some estimates
predicting

that if business continues
as usual,

most major fish stocks
will be depleted by 2048.

Florida, too, has seen
the numbers of its fish decline

over the years.

>>To some extent,
it's death by a thousand cuts.

The fishery has been
very long-term.

You know, they have been
catching reef fishes,

technically, from the reef
since Flagler's railroad,

which basically reached Key West
in, I think, 1912.

It intensified significantly
in the pre-war years,

1930 up through 1940.

After 1950, it was,
"Katie, bar the door!"

Along with air conditioning
and access to South Florida,

reef fishing
was a very popular destination

for a lot of folks.

And so the take, if you will,
has been significant.

>>NARRATOR: Florida's
population has increased

exponentially
since World War II.

>>We're about 20 million people
in the state now.

By 2020, we're talking
about 40 million people.

>>NARRATOR: And it's not just
the commercial fishing industr

that's putting pressure
on marine stocks.

In 2001, Floridians owned
roughly a million

registered recreational boats,
most of which are outfitted

with the latest technology
to find fish.

>>I grew up in Miami and grew
up fishing with my famil

since I was about
five years old,

and we used to go out
on charter boats

and would come back
with an incredible catch--

very diverse,
very large fish,

a couple of groupers,
a couple of snappers.

Our freezer was always stocked.

And over time, personally,
as I look back on those photos,

same charter boat,
same location,

the fish tended to get smaller
and much less diverse.

So personally,
within my lifetime,

I've definitely seen the impact
of fishing pressure

on the resources here
on the keys.

>>The closer you are
to population areas--

of course, like Miami
and the keys--

the declines have been
more drastic than, say, here

because this is a remote area,

but across the board,
it's declined.

>>NARRATOR: And over-fishing
hasn't been the only cause

for the decline
in fish populations.

Pollution, coastal development
and a number of other factors

all have had a negative impact
on Florida's reefs.

In the 1990s, scientists made
a disturbing discovery.

>>70% of the snapper-grouper
complex

in the Florida coral reef
ecosystem,

population levels were below
the size considered sustainable

by state and federal mandate.

And that sent a real shockwave
through the system.

That conclusion led to reall

a series of strong
management actions

that were required by law
to try to repair the system,

if you will.

They involved, of course--
which were habitual over time--

but size limits and bag limits,
typical fishery controls.

>>NARRATOR: The decline
in numbers also contributed

to the creation
of "marine protected areas"

along the Florida reef chain.

>>Marine protected areas give
our resources a chance to rest;

I think that's the best way
to describe it.

They're free
from fishing pressure,

free from environmental
pressure.

It allows things to grow without
these everyday assaults on them.

So I think given time, just
about everything can recover.

And that's what I think
our coral reefs really need,

is time to recover,

and a little bit of care from us
on the land side

to try and ensure that
that can happen.

>>It's like a bank, you know?

You're banking your fish,
I guess.

It takes time.

>>NARRATOR: Today, there are
several marine protected areas

inside and around Dry Tortugas
National Park.

One of the major goals
of the fish counts

is to compare the size and
abundance of fish populations

inside and outside
of those areas over time.

>>We would expect to see--

in places where you close
an area to fishing--

we'd expect to see higher
numbers and larger individuals,

particularly of the exploited
species.

In this case, it would be things
like the snappers and groupers.

There's also evidence
from other places that suggests

that even diversity can increase
in these areas as well.

>>NARRATOR: While most
of the marine protected areas

in the Dry Tortugas region
are still relatively new,

one area that was established
in 2001

has already shown positive signs
of recovery.

>>We would have expected
a recover

with release of fishing
mortality,

but technically,
what we were expecting

would take about a decade to get
the response we expected.

Surprisingly, in 2004,
we saw a recover

of a number of the important
exploited reef fishes:

snappers, groupers,
black grouper, red grouper,

mutton snapper,
yellowtail snapper, et cetera.

Abundance was going up,
but also,

we were getting a higher number
of mature fishes,

which is the sure signal
for the future

to say that we're getting,
if you will,

that recharge of the system

that in essence is ensuring
long-term sustainability.

>>NARRATOR: Protecting marine
habitats from fishing pressures

not only benefits
the immediate area,

but it may also have
spill-over effects

that help to repopulate regions
that are still open to fishing.

>>Because of where
the Dry Tortugas sits

relative to the rest
of the Florida Keys--

kind of at the very start
of the Gulf Stream,

the Gulf Stream is moving
from here to the east,

and then up to the North
around the Florida keys--

so there's a good deal
of evidence that suggests that

reproduction that occurs here
in the Dry Tortugas

actually will seed
the rest of the Florida keys.

So in that sense,

it could actually be a very,
very important place

for the rest of the keys.

>>NARRATOR:
Surprisingly,

the concept of marine
protected areas

is still a relatively new idea.

Worldwide, only 0.8%
of the oceans are protected

from human pressures,

even though the oceans cover
70% of this planet.

Compare that to 12% of Earth's
land mass that is protected

in the form of national parks
and preserves.

>>Marine spatial planning

took a long time
to get off the ground.

I think now,
especially with results

like what we're seeing
here in the Tortugas,

it's becoming a much more
accepted tool

for fisheries management.

And so we're hoping that it can
be used in the future.

It'll be used to ensure that
the resources are available

for all of our children.

I have a three-and-a-half
year old

and I want her to be able
to go fishing and diving

as much as I had a chance
to do when I was a kid.

♪♪

>>NARRATOR:
After ten days at sea,

the boat heads back to port
in Key West.

In their quest
to better understand

Florida's reef fish populations,
the 25 scientists on board

conducted a total of 858 dives
on 238 dive sites--

spending a cumulative 455 hours,
or 19 days, underwater.

All the data collected
on this trip and others like it

will give managers the tools

to hopefully make better,
more informed decisions

about Florida's fisheries
in the years to come

and to ensure gems
like Dry Tortugas National Park

will be around for future
generations to enjoy.

>>This really is
a beautiful place.

This isn't scientist's park,
this isn't fishermen's park,

this is people's park
who live in Oklahoma.

And if we don't preserve it,
then in the future,

we've really lost the point
of making it a park.

This is everyone's park.

>>Major funding
for this program

was provided
by the Batchelor Foundation,

encouraging people
to preserve and protect

America's underwater resources.