(Associated Press) Despite four decades of slogging through Everglades marshes and
mangroves, wildlife ecologist Frank Mazzotti had never experienced
anything like the aftermath of frigid January. The confirmed casualty
count so far:
• At least 70 dead crocodiles.
• More than 60 manatee carcasses.
• A bright-side observance of multiple frozen-stiff Burmese pythons, the scourge of the Everglades.
And also, perhaps the biggest fish kill in modern Florida history.
``What
we witnessed was a major ecological disturbance event equal to a fire
or a hurricane,'' said Mazzotti, a University of Florida associate
professor. ``A lot of things have happened that nobody has seen before
in Florida.''
The cold was simply brutal on many tropical plants
and animals. Toxic iguana-sicles dropping into the mouths of
unfortunate pooches was only the tip of the iceberg that descended for
two weeks on South Florida.
While scientists are still surveying
losses, it's already clear that the record chill wiped out shallow
corals in the Keys and devastated manatees. A preliminary assessment
that Everglades National Park scientists completed last week also
documented a broad and heavy toll on everything from crocodiles to
cocoplums to butterflies.
Dave Hallac, the park's chief of biological resources, summed up the impact in a word: ``substantial.''
Cold
spells, like hurricanes and fires, are part of the natural cycle in
South Florida, and scientists believe the system will recover -- but
some species will certainly rebound more slowly than others.
``I
wouldn't expect any catastrophic long-term kind of effects,'' said Luiz
Barbieri, chief of marine fisheries research for the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission. ``Most likely, this has happened
occasionally over thousands of years. The system has adapted to these
episodic mortality events.''
Still, mortality numbers like this haven't been seen in decades in the park.
A
record number of endangered manatees died from cold stress, most of
them -- more than 60 -- found in park waters stretching into the Ten
Thousand Islands on the Southwest Coast. More than 70 carcasses of
North American crocodile were counted, a significant hit to a species
removed from the endangered list only three years ago.
About 40
species of pineland plants suffered varying degrees of frost damage. On
some tree island, cocoplums looked like they were burned. Half of the
population of a caterpillar that morphs into the exceedingly rare
Florida leafwing butterfly died.
Then there were the literally countless dead fish -- from tiny pilchards to large snook and tarpon.
The
report -- compiled by Hallac and colleagues Jeff Kline, Jimi Sadle,
Sonny Bass, Tracy Ziegler and Skip Snow and based on aerial and water
surveys and reports from a host of other observers -- underplayed
actual losses. It's impossible to cover an area as vast as the park,
and carcasses can sink, float into thick mangroves and easily go
overlooked.
TAKING ACTION
While the park has experienced
colder days, January's chill was long and intense, punctuated with
overcast skies, rain and one sub-freezing plunge. Mazzotti called it a
``perfect storm'' that left literally no warm refuges.
The chill
was particularly dramatic in coastal waters. The park recorded
temperatures that hovered below 68 degrees, a cold-stress limit for
manatees, for 18 days; and below 60, the stress limit for snook, for 14
days.
``I'm really worried about the snook down here,'' said
Hallac. ``It was amazing to see how many of the large, more mature,
spawning-age fish were killed.''
The FWC has already closed snook
season until Sept. 1. After reviewing catch reports and samples taken
by scientists in coming months, the agency will decide whether to
extend the ban on keeping the popular fish or changing regulations to
protect any others, Barbieri said.
Cold-blooded reptiles and
tropical plants and fish fared the worst, but some Glades species
weathered the nasty weather well. Birds, for instance, emerged largely
unruffled, and some were observed scavenging fish.
Only one death
of an alligator, which reside happily in Louisiana, was reported.
Crocs, at the northern end of their range in South Florida, died by the
dozens, including one familiar to many anglers who fish Flamingo. The
13-foot, 450-pound croc, tagged as a hatchling in 1986, frequently
lurked near the Whitewater Bay boat ramp.
The cold did benefit
the park's battle to control exotic invaders. Frost slammed Old World
Climbing Fern, an aggressive vine that smothers natives. Other exotics,
from Asian swamp eels to the infamous Burmese python, also took hits
scientists intend to further study.
THE STRUGGLE AHEAD
Scientists
said recovery rates will vary among species. While snook, popular with
sports anglers, has gotten the most attention from the public, the cold
may have been more crippling to Goliath grouper, Barbieri said.
The
fish, which can grow to massive size, nearly disappeared from Florida
but had rebounded so well in recent years that wildlife managers had
begun considering lifting a ban on keeping them. Goliaths died in
massive numbers in the shallow Glades, considered a prime nursery. They
also grow far more slowly than snook, taking six years or more to reach
maturity, Barbieri said.
For some hard-hit areas and species,
other outside factors can hinder recovery. Everglades marshes and coral
reefs aren't nearly as healthy as they were hundreds of years ago.
Invasive plants, such as Brazilian pepper, weren't around to crowd out battered natives.
``If
you're totally healthy and get a cold or flu, it's not a problem. If
you've got diabetes and heart problems, it could be a lot more
serious,'' Hallac said. ``The park is in that kind of compromised
condition.''
