Trawling Field Trip

Matt King

Wilkie P.3

Purpose

• Pat O’Donnell is a marine biologist in Naples, FL who works for Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in the fakahatchee, faka union, and Pumpkin Bay’s.

• He is studying the effects of the everglades restoration project on the marine life.

Construction

• Roads cutting through the everglades bring gas into the water ruining its quality.

• The gasoline runoff can alter the water quality killing many fish because they can not adapt to the change.

Trawling

• This is how we collected data and measured the number of specific organisms that are in that specific area.

• Pat did random areas so it would be impossible for his data to be biased.

Watershed

• The focus of most of Pat’s research is the altering salinities throughout the year in these bays.

• He is looking to alter the flow of the water from the areas where people are living so that way the salinity will not change so drastically during the wet and dry seasons.

Conclusion

• Pat’s research is the main stepping stone into altering the flow of water and fixing the problem with his research on how the changes in salinity affect the fish populations.

• With his work over the last 7 years and continuing for a few more years he will have enough data to convince the people who can change things that the water flow needs to change so that the bays and canals aren’t too salty or not salty enough.