WEBVTT 00:06.940 --> 00:09.243 >>NARRATOR: The Florida Keys-- 00:09.243 --> 00:14.414 a world famous fishing and diving destination. 00:14.414 --> 00:16.984 >>It's the third largest barrier reef in the world. 00:16.984 --> 00:19.553 It supports, basically, an annual econom 00:19.553 --> 00:21.221 of about $6 billion a year. 00:21.221 --> 00:23.724 But it also suffers from significant use 00:23.724 --> 00:25.959 from a regional population 00:25.959 --> 00:28.095 on the order of about seven million people 00:28.095 --> 00:31.031 in the three-county South Florida area. 00:31.031 --> 00:34.034 >>NARRATOR: As Florida's population has increased, 00:34.034 --> 00:37.471 the health of its coral reefs, which form the foundation 00:37.471 --> 00:39.973 for the state's large fishing industry, 00:39.973 --> 00:43.377 has drastically declined. 00:43.377 --> 00:46.780 With it, so have fish populations. 00:46.780 --> 00:48.982 >>Man loves to fish, catches too many fish. 00:48.982 --> 00:50.784 Therefore the numbers go down. 00:58.892 --> 01:00.227 >>NARRATOR: To better understand 01:00.227 --> 01:02.729 how fish populations are doing, 01:02.729 --> 01:06.166 a team of scientists dives regularl 01:06.166 --> 01:10.170 to conduct a census of the fish that live on the reef. 01:10.170 --> 01:12.372 >>The main reason that we're out here counting fish 01:12.372 --> 01:15.108 is really to try to get some better understanding 01:15.108 --> 01:18.178 of what's happening with these coral reef fish populations, 01:18.178 --> 01:21.915 and the best way to do that is to put divers in the water 01:21.915 --> 01:24.751 and actually have them go and count and size the stuff 01:24.751 --> 01:26.286 that they're seeing. 01:28.622 --> 01:30.490 >>NARRATOR: To collect this data 01:30.490 --> 01:33.193 in remote locations like the Dry Tortugas, 01:33.193 --> 01:36.196 scientists use a highly efficient 01:36.196 --> 01:38.498 and streamlined process. 01:38.498 --> 01:41.401 >>Go, divers, go! 01:41.401 --> 01:43.837 >>It's kind of like a paramilitary assault 01:43.837 --> 01:45.105 on marine resources 01:45.105 --> 01:47.007 because we're doing on the order of, you know, 01:47.007 --> 01:48.241 100 scientific dives a day, 01:48.241 --> 01:50.477 so the process of having a custom ship 01:50.477 --> 01:53.447 with a very skilled captain and crew with highly trained divers 01:53.447 --> 01:56.550 gives us great flexibility and latitude 01:56.550 --> 02:00.988 to sample large areas accurately and provide information, really, 02:00.988 --> 02:03.924 that nobody has been able to capture before. 02:03.924 --> 02:07.027 >>NARRATOR: What will the divers find? 02:07.027 --> 02:11.732 Are fish populations recovering in South Florida? 02:13.900 --> 02:16.670 ♪♪ 02:37.491 --> 02:39.726 >>Major funding for this program 02:39.726 --> 02:41.895 was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, 02:41.895 --> 02:44.731 encouraging people to preserve and protect 02:44.731 --> 02:47.000 America's underwater resources. 02:56.343 --> 02:58.378 >>NARRATOR: Dry Tortugas National Park 02:58.378 --> 03:01.214 is one of the lesser-known jewels 03:01.214 --> 03:03.250 in the national park system. 03:03.250 --> 03:07.554 It is famous for its 19th-century Fort Jefferson, 03:07.554 --> 03:10.791 a remote Union outpost located on an island 03:10.791 --> 03:13.427 70 miles west of Key West. 03:15.629 --> 03:20.000 Most visitors come to the park on a day trip to see the fort, 03:20.000 --> 03:24.037 the thousands of birds that nest on a nearby island each spring, 03:24.037 --> 03:28.909 and to snorkel around the fort's moat walls. 03:28.909 --> 03:31.178 But only a few visitors get to see 03:31.178 --> 03:34.581 what makes up the vast majority of the park. 03:34.581 --> 03:38.485 >>97% or more of this park is actually underwater. 03:38.485 --> 03:41.555 That's what we're out here to study. 03:41.555 --> 03:44.357 >>NARRATOR: The park's roughly 100 square miles 03:44.357 --> 03:46.827 of magnificent underwater resources 03:46.827 --> 03:52.099 make up the westernmost part of Florida's reef chain. 03:52.099 --> 03:53.800 >>The living reef starts about Key Biscayne, 03:53.800 --> 03:55.902 which is about 30 miles north of Key Largo, 03:55.902 --> 03:58.371 and then runs at least to the Dry Tortugas, 03:58.371 --> 04:01.241 so about 270 kilometers southwest 04:01.241 --> 04:04.077 on the southwest Florida shelf. 04:04.077 --> 04:05.479 >>NARRATOR: The health of the reefs 04:05.479 --> 04:07.247 and the fish that live there 04:07.247 --> 04:10.517 has drastically declined over the last half century. 04:10.517 --> 04:13.420 With more and more people arriving in South Florida, 04:13.420 --> 04:17.057 fishing pressures increase dramatically. 04:17.057 --> 04:21.862 In the early years, no data was collected on the fisheries. 04:21.862 --> 04:25.298 It wasn't until the late 1970s 04:25.298 --> 04:30.670 that scientists began to analyze how fish populations were doing. 04:30.670 --> 04:33.473 Now, each year, 04:33.473 --> 04:36.843 researchers from various organizations and agencies 04:36.843 --> 04:40.981 "dive in" to count the fish on the reefs. 04:40.981 --> 04:42.949 >>What we're hoping, more than anything, 04:42.949 --> 04:44.851 is that this research will give us some understanding 04:44.851 --> 04:46.653 about how these resources are doing. 04:46.653 --> 04:49.289 When I say resources, in this case, I'm talking primaril 04:49.289 --> 04:50.957 about coral reef fish communities, 04:50.957 --> 04:53.927 particularly with an emphasis on the exploited species 04:53.927 --> 04:57.397 like snappers and groupers. 04:57.397 --> 04:59.900 >>NARRATOR: To cover as large of an area as possible 04:59.900 --> 05:02.202 in Dry Tortugas National Park, 05:02.202 --> 05:05.172 the highly skilled science divers 05:05.172 --> 05:09.509 have developed a unique method to collect their data. 05:09.509 --> 05:11.878 They spend one to two weeks at sea 05:11.878 --> 05:16.817 on a chartered live-aboard, making multiple dives each day. 05:16.817 --> 05:18.218 >>A regular sport diving charter, 05:18.218 --> 05:19.853 we typically tie to buoys. 05:19.853 --> 05:24.958 We're moored, so the dive times are very regimented. 05:24.958 --> 05:28.094 With a group of divers like this, we dive all day long. 05:28.094 --> 05:30.997 We dive with five teams of divers 05:30.997 --> 05:33.400 rather than all the divers getting off the boat at one time 05:33.400 --> 05:35.101 and then getting back on the boat at one time. 05:35.101 --> 05:36.636 And we do that for a couple of different reasons: 05:36.636 --> 05:40.807 one is to get more dive sites in during the day, 05:40.807 --> 05:42.976 and the other one is that 05:42.976 --> 05:46.279 the divers can each see something different 05:46.279 --> 05:48.882 and they get more ability to count fish 05:48.882 --> 05:50.817 in different locations. 05:50.817 --> 05:55.422 >>NARRATOR: Captain Frank uses a commercial charting program 05:55.422 --> 05:59.092 to find the predetermined dive sites. 05:59.092 --> 06:05.632 >>The scientists can give me a list of where they want to go, 06:05.632 --> 06:07.234 and they give that to me electronically, 06:07.234 --> 06:09.669 we insert it into the computer, 06:09.669 --> 06:11.671 it pops up what's called a "wait-point" on the screen, 06:11.671 --> 06:14.207 and then I can move the boat to the wait-point. 06:14.207 --> 06:16.676 I use the depth-sounder to search around 06:16.676 --> 06:19.312 for something interesting near the wait-point-- 06:19.312 --> 06:23.283 be it a ledge, coral reef, a pinnacle, something like that. 06:23.283 --> 06:25.886 We don't want to just drop them in sand; 06:25.886 --> 06:28.521 sand isn't where we're going to find our fish. 06:35.195 --> 06:37.063 Team five against the wall, 06:37.063 --> 06:39.566 team five, divers on the wall, please. 06:39.566 --> 06:41.001 >>It kind of works like a factory. 06:41.001 --> 06:42.569 Basically, we have five teams. 06:42.569 --> 06:46.006 Each team consists of four divers, 06:46.006 --> 06:48.575 so two buddy pairs. 06:48.575 --> 06:51.211 Captain Frank takes the boat to the G.P.S. point. 06:51.211 --> 06:52.412 >>Divers ready? 06:52.412 --> 06:53.513 >>Yes. 06:53.513 --> 06:54.981 >>Roger that. 06:54.981 --> 06:57.284 We have a pinnacle in 60 feet of water to the bottom, 06:57.284 --> 06:59.019 40 feet of water to the top. 06:59.019 --> 07:02.822 Go, divers, go. 07:06.393 --> 07:09.229 >>Each buddy pair has a dive flag, 07:09.229 --> 07:11.798 and they descend to their site 07:11.798 --> 07:13.633 and they tie off the flag. 07:13.633 --> 07:15.201 >>And then they swim about 50 feet apart 07:15.201 --> 07:16.536 and each of them imagines a circle 07:16.536 --> 07:18.605 with a radius of about 25 feet. 07:18.605 --> 07:21.074 So ideally, those circles will be touching 07:21.074 --> 07:22.542 just at the very edge, 07:22.542 --> 07:24.210 so they can still see each other. 07:24.210 --> 07:26.880 So if someone runs into problems or something happens, 07:26.880 --> 07:28.615 the other diver can offer some assistance, 07:28.615 --> 07:30.750 but they're far enough away that the circles do not overlap, 07:30.750 --> 07:32.953 so each sample then is independent. 07:32.953 --> 07:35.021 >>So then once the divers are situated 07:35.021 --> 07:36.790 and they've figured out what their cylinders are, 07:36.790 --> 07:38.558 they start counting fish. 07:42.062 --> 07:43.630 It takes an experienced diver-- 07:43.630 --> 07:46.066 it takes a diver who can identify fish-- 07:46.066 --> 07:48.735 and then what we do is we have this extensive training program 07:48.735 --> 07:50.203 that each fish diver goes through 07:50.203 --> 07:54.407 to standardize how they estimate the sizes of fish 07:54.407 --> 07:58.445 and whether or not they're able to count the numbers of fish. 07:58.445 --> 08:00.280 That sounds easy, like one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. 08:00.280 --> 08:01.481 Not so much, actually. 08:01.481 --> 08:04.084 Occasionally, you have huge schools go through, 08:04.084 --> 08:07.787 hundreds of fish, and how many fish is that? 08:07.787 --> 08:10.757 You can't count each one, so you have to have a good eye 08:10.757 --> 08:12.625 of how to estimate abundances of fish. 08:16.930 --> 08:20.100 >>We try to start with the most commercially important species, 08:20.100 --> 08:22.402 things like the big snappers and the big groupers. 08:22.402 --> 08:23.970 When we see them, we count them immediatel 08:23.970 --> 08:25.672 and we estimate their sizes immediatel 08:25.672 --> 08:27.374 because in many cases, 08:27.374 --> 08:29.075 they tend to be a little skittish towards divers 08:29.075 --> 08:32.178 and are more likely to swim off quickly, 08:32.178 --> 08:34.881 and so we want to capture those as immediately as we can 08:34.881 --> 08:36.950 and then go through the rest of the species 08:36.950 --> 08:38.952 that we see in the area, 08:38.952 --> 08:41.021 usually starting with the bigger things that are left, 08:41.021 --> 08:42.589 moving down to the smaller species 08:42.589 --> 08:45.425 because the smaller species are much less likely to swim away. 08:45.425 --> 08:47.527 Each diver takes down a measuring stick, 08:47.527 --> 08:49.129 which is called an all-purpose tool. 08:49.129 --> 08:53.233 It's sort of like a "T-stick" that's about a meter long, 08:53.233 --> 08:55.702 marked with ten centimeter increments up the meter stick. 08:55.702 --> 08:58.505 And then the "T" part is about 30 centimeters across 08:58.505 --> 09:02.275 with a ruler that actually has centimeters on it so we can see. 09:02.275 --> 09:04.344 What we use that stick for is to help us estimate the sizes 09:04.344 --> 09:06.046 of these individual fish 09:06.046 --> 09:08.481 because size structure is very, very important. 09:08.481 --> 09:11.251 Large fish tend to be much older, 09:11.251 --> 09:12.986 and the number of babies that they make 09:12.986 --> 09:15.088 is much, much larger than smaller fish. 09:15.088 --> 09:17.791 So knowing that there are four fish is important, 09:17.791 --> 09:20.293 but knowing that there are four big fish is much different 09:20.293 --> 09:23.096 than knowing that there are four small fish. 09:23.096 --> 09:24.931 >>Also, when divers go in the water, 09:24.931 --> 09:27.300 they're not just collecting information about the fish, 09:27.300 --> 09:30.303 because the fish aren't acting alone; 09:30.303 --> 09:33.073 they're responding to their environment. 09:33.073 --> 09:34.908 We're also collecting data about the habitat 09:34.908 --> 09:37.210 and the water qualit 09:37.210 --> 09:40.180 and we're looking at that data in relationship to any trends 09:40.180 --> 09:42.082 that we see in the fish populations 09:42.082 --> 09:43.383 to see whether or not 09:43.383 --> 09:45.618 it's actually something happening to the habitat 09:45.618 --> 09:49.189 that's changing the distribution of fishes that we see. 09:49.189 --> 09:50.890 >>It's important because the coral reefs are actuall 09:50.890 --> 09:53.126 the structures that allow the nurturing and raising 09:53.126 --> 09:54.828 of juvenile fishes 09:54.828 --> 09:57.330 and allowing the larger fishes to, say, hide from predators. 09:57.330 --> 09:59.365 You probably have heard of the integral web of life; 09:59.365 --> 10:01.101 each thing has its place. 10:01.101 --> 10:03.203 >>NARRATOR: Once the divers are done counting, 10:03.203 --> 10:05.772 it's time to head back to the surface. 10:05.772 --> 10:08.274 >>They meet at the center where their flag is. 10:08.274 --> 10:10.577 There is a G.P.S. attached to the buoy itself 10:10.577 --> 10:13.179 at the surface, so we have the exact location 10:13.179 --> 10:15.048 of where those two counts occurred. 10:15.048 --> 10:16.382 And after that, they all come up together. 10:16.382 --> 10:17.617 >>Roger, divers on the surface. 10:17.617 --> 10:18.852 We'll go pick them up. 10:21.654 --> 10:24.057 >>And then the boat pulls around... 10:26.259 --> 10:28.128 >>Recover divers. 10:33.766 --> 10:35.768 >>...picks them up, they get on board 10:35.768 --> 10:38.838 and do it all over again, five or six times a day. 10:47.981 --> 10:54.754 >>26 feet, 20 minutes, 2,400 pounds. 10:54.754 --> 10:56.256 >>So it's kind of a cool process-- 10:56.256 --> 10:58.024 we're just constantly dumping divers, 10:58.024 --> 10:59.893 picking them up, 10:59.893 --> 11:02.362 and within the course of a day, we'll hit 25 sites, 11:02.362 --> 11:05.064 and that's 25 sites times four divers, 11:05.064 --> 11:07.467 so that's a whole lot of dives 11:07.467 --> 11:09.736 and a whole lot of hours underwater that we get 11:09.736 --> 11:11.804 by doing this kind of cruise. 11:14.641 --> 11:16.843 >>NARRATOR: When a team is back on the boat, 11:16.843 --> 11:20.780 they enter the data recorded on the dives. 11:20.780 --> 11:22.815 >>The less glamorous side of marine biology involves 11:22.815 --> 11:24.751 entering and managing all of this data. 11:24.751 --> 11:28.588 After we get out of the water, people need to come in, 11:28.588 --> 11:31.291 sit in front of their computers and enter their data, 11:31.291 --> 11:33.326 double-check it to make sure they've done it correctly. 11:33.326 --> 11:35.061 At the end of the trip, it'll go back to each individual agency, 11:35.061 --> 11:37.063 they'll double-check it again 11:37.063 --> 11:38.932 to make sure that the data's been entered correctly, 11:38.932 --> 11:41.100 and then it gets all collected and put in a central database 11:41.100 --> 11:43.670 where all the agencies have access to it. 11:43.670 --> 11:46.139 >>NARRATOR: Scientists from four different agencies 11:46.139 --> 11:49.075 and institutions are along on this particular trip 11:49.075 --> 11:50.743 to collect data. 11:50.743 --> 11:53.413 They work for the National Park Service, 11:53.413 --> 11:56.416 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 11:56.416 --> 11:59.852 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 11:59.852 --> 12:01.854 and the University of Miami 12:01.854 --> 12:06.492 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. 12:06.492 --> 12:07.961 >>One of the things that I first noticed 12:07.961 --> 12:11.231 about this particular group of divers 12:11.231 --> 12:13.833 is the cooperation level between different agencies, 12:13.833 --> 12:17.270 both federal and state, is very high. 12:17.270 --> 12:18.538 In other places that I've been-- 12:18.538 --> 12:20.206 in other states that we've worked in, 12:20.206 --> 12:21.774 particularly along the Gulf Coast-- 12:21.774 --> 12:26.412 it's very difficult to get all those agencies working together 12:26.412 --> 12:28.514 to make a mission like this gel 12:28.514 --> 12:30.316 like this particular mission does. 12:30.316 --> 12:32.819 >>NARRATOR: For many years, 12:32.819 --> 12:36.022 the various groups were counting fish independently, 12:36.022 --> 12:39.025 often duplicating their efforts. 12:39.025 --> 12:42.128 >>So we got together and did a big meeting, 12:42.128 --> 12:44.097 compared kind of the data that we accumulated 12:44.097 --> 12:48.601 through the years and decided that it would be more efficient 12:48.601 --> 12:51.638 to actually gather our forces and our crews 12:51.638 --> 12:54.107 and survey all together. 12:54.107 --> 12:55.642 >>NARRATOR: To streamline the process 12:55.642 --> 12:57.610 and make the surveys more efficient, 12:57.610 --> 13:02.682 a formal protocol was devised as a guideline. 13:02.682 --> 13:04.951 >>Actually creating the protocol document allowed us 13:04.951 --> 13:07.754 to really critically evaluate every single step 13:07.754 --> 13:10.223 of the actual method, from the training, 13:10.223 --> 13:12.091 from the statistical design, 13:12.091 --> 13:15.461 from the actual in-water taking of the data 13:15.461 --> 13:18.698 all the way to the proofing and data analysis. 13:18.698 --> 13:21.834 We want to be able to present a united front 13:21.834 --> 13:26.306 and have all the agencies agree on what actually the trends are. 13:26.306 --> 13:27.974 >>There's a beauty in that process, too. 13:27.974 --> 13:30.777 One is that we're now not doing different kinds of things 13:30.777 --> 13:32.879 and reporting different information; 13:32.879 --> 13:34.447 we're on the same page. 13:34.447 --> 13:36.316 Secondly, by adding this incremental effort 13:36.316 --> 13:39.285 in a team process, we're getting a more precise estimate 13:39.285 --> 13:41.254 over a broader range of areas. 13:41.254 --> 13:43.823 >>We've been able to cover much more territor 13:43.823 --> 13:45.258 in a much more efficient manner 13:45.258 --> 13:47.226 so that we're getting the best snapshot 13:47.226 --> 13:49.729 of what is happening on the reef over time. 13:49.729 --> 13:51.898 >>I'm really excited about this because it's turning out to be 13:51.898 --> 13:55.034 kind of the hallmark, if you will, 13:55.034 --> 13:57.403 of a way that a cooperative program can produce information 13:57.403 --> 14:01.507 that's relevant to scientific decision-making, 14:01.507 --> 14:03.109 but also stands as a model, 14:03.109 --> 14:05.078 not only in Florida, but Puerto Rico, 14:05.078 --> 14:07.747 the Papahânaumokuâkea National Marine Monument-- 14:07.747 --> 14:09.849 that coral reef reserve 14:09.849 --> 14:11.884 in the northwestern Hawaiian islands 14:11.884 --> 14:13.186 and throughout the Pacific, 14:13.186 --> 14:15.722 so it's very exciting and making a difference. 14:18.257 --> 14:20.126 >>All righty, guys, you guys ready? 14:20.126 --> 14:21.794 Hello? 14:21.794 --> 14:22.962 >>Yes! 14:22.962 --> 14:24.964 >>Team 4 ready? 14:24.964 --> 14:26.432 >>Yes! 14:26.432 --> 14:29.569 >>Roger that, Team 4 is ready, 14:29.569 --> 14:31.637 diving a site called "Jerry's Kids." 14:31.637 --> 14:35.675 "Jerry's Kids" first discovered in 2002 by the spree. 14:35.675 --> 14:39.011 >>NARRATOR: So how do the scientists know where to dive 14:39.011 --> 14:41.447 to count the fish? 14:41.447 --> 14:43.616 >>We have a kind of collage habitat map 14:43.616 --> 14:46.085 for the whole Dry Tortugas National Park. 14:46.085 --> 14:50.590 It's broken up into little grid-cells, 200 by 200 meters. 14:50.590 --> 14:53.993 Each cell is classified as to a type of habitat; 14:53.993 --> 14:57.597 a lot of it is not reef, so that's just not sampled at all. 14:57.597 --> 14:59.899 So if it's sand or sea grass or something like that, 14:59.899 --> 15:01.334 we don't bother with it. 15:01.334 --> 15:03.636 >>NARRATOR: For this particular study, 15:03.636 --> 15:07.940 scientists are only interested in sampling coral reef habitats 15:07.940 --> 15:11.844 because this is where most of the fish can be found. 15:11.844 --> 15:15.448 >>The strategy is to try to place samples strategicall 15:15.448 --> 15:17.049 in high-density areas-- 15:17.049 --> 15:19.786 much like if I were to go sample the U.S. population, 15:19.786 --> 15:21.454 I wouldn't spend a lot of time in the Mojave Desert, 15:21.454 --> 15:22.789 because there aren't that many people. 15:22.789 --> 15:24.023 But I'd identify places like cities-- 15:24.023 --> 15:26.993 New York, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, et cetera-- 15:26.993 --> 15:28.528 where those would be 15:28.528 --> 15:30.296 because those are places I need to get more information from. 15:30.296 --> 15:32.398 >>NARRATOR: Scientists have categorized, 15:32.398 --> 15:34.667 or "stratified," the reef 15:34.667 --> 15:38.871 into eight different types of habitats they want to study. 15:38.871 --> 15:42.875 >>There's very complex spur- and-groove fore-reef habitats, 15:42.875 --> 15:45.344 and then there's little patch reefs that occur. 15:45.344 --> 15:47.513 >>NARRATOR: Since it would be impossible to surve 15:47.513 --> 15:51.117 every single location within these vast reef habitats, 15:51.117 --> 15:53.886 a computer chooses random G.P.S. points 15:53.886 --> 15:56.422 where the scientists will dive. 15:56.422 --> 15:59.459 >>We run a random number generator routine to pick. 15:59.459 --> 16:01.928 So say, for instance, I have a habitat 16:01.928 --> 16:05.798 with 50 sites in it total, and I want ten of them: 16:05.798 --> 16:08.568 from numbers one through 50, it'll pick ten numbers. 16:08.568 --> 16:12.505 So then those get tagged onto that grid cell, 16:12.505 --> 16:15.374 then we create the sampling map. 16:15.374 --> 16:17.276 So the idea by doing that is 16:17.276 --> 16:20.313 we're getting a fairly good estimate of fish abundance 16:20.313 --> 16:22.615 in each habitat throughout the entire region. 16:22.615 --> 16:24.617 >>So we get an unbiased estimate of what's going on, 16:24.617 --> 16:27.587 which is extremely important for scientific credibility. 16:27.587 --> 16:30.356 >>NARRATOR: This approach to fisheries management 16:30.356 --> 16:35.161 is called "fishery-independent sampling" 16:35.161 --> 16:37.330 because scientists evaluate living fish populations 16:37.330 --> 16:40.500 instead of counting the fishermen's catch. 16:40.500 --> 16:43.503 >>Rather than going and counting fish on the dock, 16:43.503 --> 16:45.471 what we're doing is going in the water 16:45.471 --> 16:48.174 and counting what's left after the take. 16:48.174 --> 16:50.510 Historically, the focus was more on yield, 16:50.510 --> 16:52.178 meaning removal from the fisheries, 16:52.178 --> 16:53.412 as much as thinking forward about, 16:53.412 --> 16:55.548 "how do we sustain the resources?" 16:55.548 --> 16:58.217 So more contemporaneous fishery management 16:58.217 --> 17:00.620 has thought critically about what we're leaving in the water 17:00.620 --> 17:02.922 rather than what we're taking out. 17:02.922 --> 17:05.124 We began to realize in most of the important fisheries 17:05.124 --> 17:06.726 that there were massive reproductive declines-- 17:06.726 --> 17:08.361 stocks were collapsing when, in fact, 17:08.361 --> 17:10.329 we thought they should sustain themselves. 17:15.368 --> 17:18.504 >>NARRATOR: Worldwide fisheries have declined drastically, 17:18.504 --> 17:20.540 with some estimates predicting 17:20.540 --> 17:23.109 that if business continues as usual, 17:23.109 --> 17:28.481 most major fish stocks will be depleted by 2048. 17:28.481 --> 17:32.518 Florida, too, has seen the numbers of its fish decline 17:32.518 --> 17:34.620 over the years. 17:34.620 --> 17:37.490 >>To some extent, it's death by a thousand cuts. 17:37.490 --> 17:40.493 The fishery has been very long-term. 17:40.493 --> 17:42.295 You know, they have been catching reef fishes, 17:42.295 --> 17:45.097 technically, from the reef since Flagler's railroad, 17:45.097 --> 17:48.367 which basically reached Key West in, I think, 1912. 17:48.367 --> 17:51.804 It intensified significantly in the pre-war years, 17:51.804 --> 17:53.806 1930 up through 1940. 17:53.806 --> 17:56.208 After 1950, it was, "Katie, bar the door!" 17:56.208 --> 17:58.844 Along with air conditioning and access to South Florida, 17:58.844 --> 18:01.514 reef fishing was a very popular destination 18:01.514 --> 18:03.249 for a lot of folks. 18:03.249 --> 18:06.385 And so the take, if you will, has been significant. 18:06.385 --> 18:08.721 >>NARRATOR: Florida's population has increased 18:08.721 --> 18:11.724 exponentially since World War II. 18:11.724 --> 18:14.393 >>We're about 20 million people in the state now. 18:14.393 --> 18:17.463 By 2020, we're talking about 40 million people. 18:17.463 --> 18:19.865 >>NARRATOR: And it's not just the commercial fishing industr 18:19.865 --> 18:22.802 that's putting pressure on marine stocks. 18:22.802 --> 18:26.272 In 2001, Floridians owned roughly a million 18:26.272 --> 18:31.377 registered recreational boats, most of which are outfitted 18:31.377 --> 18:35.348 with the latest technology to find fish. 18:35.348 --> 18:37.450 >>I grew up in Miami and grew up fishing with my famil 18:37.450 --> 18:39.118 since I was about five years old, 18:39.118 --> 18:41.020 and we used to go out on charter boats 18:41.020 --> 18:42.955 and would come back with an incredible catch-- 18:42.955 --> 18:44.924 very diverse, very large fish, 18:44.924 --> 18:47.293 a couple of groupers, a couple of snappers. 18:47.293 --> 18:49.629 Our freezer was always stocked. 18:49.629 --> 18:53.132 And over time, personally, as I look back on those photos, 18:53.132 --> 18:55.468 same charter boat, same location, 18:55.468 --> 18:59.872 the fish tended to get smaller and much less diverse. 18:59.872 --> 19:01.407 So personally, within my lifetime, 19:01.407 --> 19:04.243 I've definitely seen the impact of fishing pressure 19:04.243 --> 19:06.412 on the resources here on the keys. 19:06.412 --> 19:08.147 >>The closer you are to population areas-- 19:08.147 --> 19:10.583 of course, like Miami and the keys-- 19:10.583 --> 19:14.420 the declines have been more drastic than, say, here 19:14.420 --> 19:17.223 because this is a remote area, 19:17.223 --> 19:20.159 but across the board, it's declined. 19:20.159 --> 19:23.095 >>NARRATOR: And over-fishing hasn't been the only cause 19:23.095 --> 19:27.133 for the decline in fish populations. 19:27.133 --> 19:29.969 Pollution, coastal development and a number of other factors 19:29.969 --> 19:35.608 all have had a negative impact on Florida's reefs. 19:35.608 --> 19:41.414 In the 1990s, scientists made a disturbing discovery. 19:41.414 --> 19:43.616 >>70% of the snapper-grouper complex 19:43.616 --> 19:45.718 in the Florida coral reef ecosystem, 19:45.718 --> 19:48.187 population levels were below the size considered sustainable 19:48.187 --> 19:50.623 by state and federal mandate. 19:50.623 --> 19:54.126 And that sent a real shockwave through the system. 19:54.126 --> 19:56.228 That conclusion led to reall 19:56.228 --> 19:58.664 a series of strong management actions 19:58.664 --> 20:01.901 that were required by law to try to repair the system, 20:01.901 --> 20:03.736 if you will. 20:03.736 --> 20:06.739 They involved, of course-- which were habitual over time-- 20:06.739 --> 20:11.177 but size limits and bag limits, typical fishery controls. 20:11.177 --> 20:13.913 >>NARRATOR: The decline in numbers also contributed 20:13.913 --> 20:17.016 to the creation of "marine protected areas" 20:17.016 --> 20:19.585 along the Florida reef chain. 20:19.585 --> 20:23.089 >>Marine protected areas give our resources a chance to rest; 20:23.089 --> 20:25.024 I think that's the best way to describe it. 20:25.024 --> 20:26.992 They're free from fishing pressure, 20:26.992 --> 20:29.428 free from environmental pressure. 20:29.428 --> 20:34.166 It allows things to grow without these everyday assaults on them. 20:34.166 --> 20:38.037 So I think given time, just about everything can recover. 20:38.037 --> 20:40.139 And that's what I think our coral reefs really need, 20:40.139 --> 20:41.974 is time to recover, 20:41.974 --> 20:43.976 and a little bit of care from us on the land side 20:43.976 --> 20:46.579 to try and ensure that that can happen. 20:46.579 --> 20:48.214 >>It's like a bank, you know? 20:48.214 --> 20:50.382 You're banking your fish, I guess. 20:50.382 --> 20:54.220 It takes time. 20:54.220 --> 20:57.289 >>NARRATOR: Today, there are several marine protected areas 20:57.289 --> 21:00.860 inside and around Dry Tortugas National Park. 21:00.860 --> 21:03.362 One of the major goals of the fish counts 21:03.362 --> 21:07.500 is to compare the size and abundance of fish populations 21:07.500 --> 21:12.338 inside and outside of those areas over time. 21:12.338 --> 21:13.572 >>We would expect to see-- 21:13.572 --> 21:15.574 in places where you close an area to fishing-- 21:15.574 --> 21:20.045 we'd expect to see higher numbers and larger individuals, 21:20.045 --> 21:22.414 particularly of the exploited species. 21:22.414 --> 21:24.416 In this case, it would be things like the snappers and groupers. 21:24.416 --> 21:26.452 There's also evidence from other places that suggests 21:26.452 --> 21:29.822 that even diversity can increase in these areas as well. 21:29.822 --> 21:32.758 >>NARRATOR: While most of the marine protected areas 21:32.758 --> 21:36.061 in the Dry Tortugas region are still relatively new, 21:36.061 --> 21:39.632 one area that was established in 2001 21:39.632 --> 21:43.402 has already shown positive signs of recovery. 21:43.402 --> 21:45.171 >>We would have expected a recover 21:45.171 --> 21:47.439 with release of fishing mortality, 21:47.439 --> 21:49.408 but technically, what we were expecting 21:49.408 --> 21:52.711 would take about a decade to get the response we expected. 21:52.711 --> 21:56.182 Surprisingly, in 2004, we saw a recover 21:56.182 --> 21:59.919 of a number of the important exploited reef fishes: 21:59.919 --> 22:02.321 snappers, groupers, black grouper, red grouper, 22:02.321 --> 22:05.357 mutton snapper, yellowtail snapper, et cetera. 22:05.357 --> 22:07.760 Abundance was going up, but also, 22:07.760 --> 22:09.695 we were getting a higher number of mature fishes, 22:09.695 --> 22:11.697 which is the sure signal for the future 22:11.697 --> 22:13.699 to say that we're getting, if you will, 22:13.699 --> 22:15.801 that recharge of the system 22:15.801 --> 22:19.738 that in essence is ensuring long-term sustainability. 22:19.738 --> 22:23.108 >>NARRATOR: Protecting marine habitats from fishing pressures 22:23.108 --> 22:26.011 not only benefits the immediate area, 22:26.011 --> 22:28.747 but it may also have spill-over effects 22:28.747 --> 22:32.885 that help to repopulate regions that are still open to fishing. 22:32.885 --> 22:35.454 >>Because of where the Dry Tortugas sits 22:35.454 --> 22:37.022 relative to the rest of the Florida Keys-- 22:37.022 --> 22:40.593 kind of at the very start of the Gulf Stream, 22:40.593 --> 22:43.028 the Gulf Stream is moving from here to the east, 22:43.028 --> 22:45.264 and then up to the North around the Florida keys-- 22:45.264 --> 22:48.467 so there's a good deal of evidence that suggests that 22:48.467 --> 22:52.171 reproduction that occurs here in the Dry Tortugas 22:52.171 --> 22:53.973 actually will seed the rest of the Florida keys. 22:53.973 --> 22:55.307 So in that sense, 22:55.307 --> 22:56.709 it could actually be a very, very important place 22:56.709 --> 22:58.410 for the rest of the keys. 22:58.410 --> 22:59.545 >>NARRATOR: Surprisingly, 22:59.545 --> 23:02.882 the concept of marine protected areas 23:02.882 --> 23:05.317 is still a relatively new idea. 23:05.317 --> 23:09.922 Worldwide, only 0.8% of the oceans are protected 23:09.922 --> 23:11.857 from human pressures, 23:11.857 --> 23:17.429 even though the oceans cover 70% of this planet. 23:17.429 --> 23:22.534 Compare that to 12% of Earth's land mass that is protected 23:22.534 --> 23:25.771 in the form of national parks and preserves. 23:25.771 --> 23:27.339 >>Marine spatial planning 23:27.339 --> 23:29.742 took a long time to get off the ground. 23:29.742 --> 23:33.612 I think now, especially with results 23:33.612 --> 23:35.748 like what we're seeing here in the Tortugas, 23:35.748 --> 23:37.683 it's becoming a much more accepted tool 23:37.683 --> 23:39.718 for fisheries management. 23:39.718 --> 23:43.355 And so we're hoping that it can be used in the future. 23:43.355 --> 23:46.292 It'll be used to ensure that the resources are available 23:46.292 --> 23:47.660 for all of our children. 23:47.660 --> 23:49.128 I have a three-and-a-half year old 23:49.128 --> 23:50.796 and I want her to be able to go fishing and diving 23:50.796 --> 23:52.898 as much as I had a chance to do when I was a kid. 23:55.768 --> 23:58.771 ♪♪ 24:33.238 --> 24:35.941 >>NARRATOR: After ten days at sea, 24:35.941 --> 24:39.044 the boat heads back to port in Key West. 24:46.986 --> 24:49.088 In their quest to better understand 24:49.088 --> 24:53.292 Florida's reef fish populations, the 25 scientists on board 24:53.292 --> 24:59.465 conducted a total of 858 dives on 238 dive sites-- 24:59.465 --> 25:07.306 spending a cumulative 455 hours, or 19 days, underwater. 25:07.306 --> 25:11.744 All the data collected on this trip and others like it 25:11.744 --> 25:13.779 will give managers the tools 25:13.779 --> 25:17.516 to hopefully make better, more informed decisions 25:17.516 --> 25:21.020 about Florida's fisheries in the years to come 25:21.020 --> 25:26.158 and to ensure gems like Dry Tortugas National Park 25:26.158 --> 25:30.396 will be around for future generations to enjoy. 25:30.396 --> 25:32.431 >>This really is a beautiful place. 25:32.431 --> 25:36.769 This isn't scientist's park, this isn't fishermen's park, 25:36.769 --> 25:39.271 this is people's park who live in Oklahoma. 25:39.271 --> 25:42.708 And if we don't preserve it, then in the future, 25:42.708 --> 25:46.045 we've really lost the point of making it a park. 25:46.045 --> 25:48.313 This is everyone's park. 26:22.781 --> 26:25.484 >>Major funding for this program 26:25.484 --> 26:28.020 was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, 26:28.020 --> 26:31.056 encouraging people to preserve and protect 26:31.056 --> 26:35.056 America's underwater resources.