Bahia Honda, a subtropical gem in the Florida Keys, harbors numerous rare plants and animals. Photo © Susan Stein.

Where’s the Native Wildlife?

Miami blue butterfly on Bahia Honda in 2003. This species was last seen on the island in January 2010. Photo: J. Glassberg.

The Miami blue once extended from the Dry Tortugas in the south up along the Florida coasts to about St. Petersburg and Daytona. Its decline resulted from a variety of factors, most notably loss of habitat. On Bahia Honda, however, one of the most significant factors in its recent demise has been a flourishing population of non-native iguanas. These introduced reptiles, which can grow to a yard long, have developed a taste for the young shoots of the gray nickerbean (Caesalpinia bonduc), the host plant for the Miami blue’s eggs and larvae. These ill-tempered and voracious lizards appear to have literally eaten the Miami blues into oblivion on this island.

Iguana basking in gray nickerbean, the host plant for the endangered Miami blue butterfly. Photo © Susan Stein.

And Everglades National Park, one of the nation’s crown jewels, is the epicenter of an invasion of Burmese python, a non-native constrictor snake that research now documents has almost completely wiped out this sensitive ecosystems rabbits, raccoons, deer, and other small mammals. Although the endangered Florida panther may be too large or cautious to be caught and killed directly by these constrictor snakes, by consuming much of the panther’s food source the snake will almost certainly lead to further declines for this endangered large cat.

Stemming the Invasive Tide

Burmese python have nearly wiped out small mammals in portions of Everglades National Park. Photo: by Bob DeGross, National Park Service.

Trying to control these pests once they have established themselves is difficult, costly, and often futile. A far better approach, ecologically and economically, is to keep them out in the first place. One obvious place to start is to better regulate the import of species known to pose a risk to U.S. ecosystems. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under pressure from NWF and its partners, made a good start by banning the import of four species of large constrictor snakes that were deemed to present just such a risk.

Unfortunately, bowing to political pressure from a small but vocal lobby of reptile breeders, an additional five constrictor snakes that Fish and Wildlife considers to present an invasion risk, such as the reticulated python and green anaconda, were excluded from that import ban. National Wildlife Federation views the listing of these additional constrictors as “injurious species” under federal law to be a top priority in 2013.

The current system for assessing and limiting imports of invasive and potentially invasive species—designed before the days of lightening fast transcontinental shipping and dramatic expansion of the exotic pet trade—is too slow and unwieldy and badly in need to reform. Fortunately, with NWF support, bills introduced in the last Congress propose common sense reforms that would create a new screening system for evaluating the risk of invasion that species pose, and give the Fish and Wildlife Service greater flexibility and authority to make science-based decisions to prohibit or restrict trade in certain live animals. With the start of a new Congress, reintroduction and passage of bills such as Representative Slaughter’s (D-N.Y.) Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act is an imperative to better protect our nation from the onslaught of new harmful and costly invasions.

Packing up our campsite back on Bahia Honda in preparation for the long drive home is always bitter sweet. There’s next year’s visit to look forward to, sustained by memories of the snappers we caught this time, and paddles through the mangroves and over the clear waters. But the demise of the Miami blue butterfly on the island—one small but important strand of the key’s biological web—is emblematic of what we already have lost in this “American Paradise.”

How You Can Help

Donate today and help National Wildlife Federation continue to work for wildlife, including Miami blue butterflies and Florida panthers at risk from invasive species.

The Florida Keys did not suffer a direct hit from the 206 million gallons of Louisiana sweet crude that poured from BP’s broken well in the Gulf of Mexico. But the people who live along this 110-mile-long chain of islands experienced many of the feelings as their neighbors along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Panhandle.

“People were calling and asking how much oil we had, not did we have any oil,” said Deb Gillis, who owns three Islamorada motels. “Business just dropped. I’m sure the overall economy had something to do with the general drop in bookings but people really thought we got hit by the spill,” she added.

Tourism, the primary economic driver in the Florida Keys, took a brief hit.

Then Florida’s state and local tourism marketing machines kicked into high gear. Tourism trickled back. Many business owners in the Keys tried to forget their close call with economic disaster.

Nearly six months after the spill, the communications director of a major Keys attraction, who asked to remain anonymous, responded to an interview request writing, “The intense media focus on the Keys and the oil spill has finally died down. We honestly don’t think there’s anything positive about keeping the Keys-oil connection out there in public consciousness at this time. We’re concerned that additional stories might reinforce or rejuvenate the perception that the islands are in eminent [sic] peril from the Deepwater Horizon.”

Others in the community try to remember.

Father John Peloso

“Every Sunday we mention anybody who was affected,” said Father John Peloso, pastor of San Pedro Catholic Church in the Keys. “Every Sunday we still pray for people in the Gulf, people in the Panhandle. We don’t just pray for the people, which always comes first of course, we pray for the actual environment,” he added.

Trae Kerdyk, a senior at the Palmer Trinity School in Palmetto Bay, Florida when the spill happened said, “The fact that we go on living our lives the way we did before the spill shows that we have not learned our lesson.”

Now a college freshman Kerdyk added, “The Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have left a sour taste in many people’s mouths, but few have done anything proactive to ensure that there will not be another spill off of our coasts. It has been said many times, but the importance of breaking our addiction to oil cannot be stressed enough.”

Father Peloso, a Florida native spent some years as a professional hard hat diver before entering the priesthood. He camps in the Everglades, dives the Florida reefs, fishes in both salt and fresh water.

“When it hit, I was in a little bit of shock. I said ‘man I’ve been thinking about this since I was a kid growing up in the Everglades.’ The state of Florida is my backyard. I was angry. It was like how dare these people ruin my Florida,” he said.

Peloso concluded, “Philosophically, humanity and the earth live together like a marriage. And in a marriage you have to love and respect one another. That’s how closely and intimately humanity itself depends on the earth. And unless everybody starts being more aware of how to treat nature with love and respect these things are going to happen.”

Photo credit: USGS

Two corals were selected for the experiments: mustard hill coral (Porites asteroides), and mountainous star coral (Montastraea faveola).

Montastraea (see right) is of particular interest because it is one of the corals that populates the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) located in the northwestern Gulf, an area close to the BP oil spill. But both corals can be found throughout the Florida Keys NMS which was spared a direct hit and is the subject of much “what if” research.

“We chose the mustard hill because it is a brooder,” said Goodbody-Gringley. “It goes through internal fertilization and releases mature larvae into the water so the larvae are presumably able to settle and start forming into adult colonies immediately after release.”

“Star coral is a broadcaster. It releases sperm and eggs into the water column which then fertilize and the larvae develop in the water. Broadcasters are generally thought to be more fragile than the brooders because larvae have to develop in the water, so they’re exposed to the elements,” she said.

The team used concentrations of Corexit set by an independent panel of scientists who work with the EPA to determine ecologically relevant concentrations of the chemical — the concentration in sea water as days and months pass.

One experiment measured the settlement (larvae settling on a substrate to start growing) and survival (still living in the water column) of coral larvae after exposure to oil, oil-plus-dispersant and dispersant-alone.

“In both the oil-plus-dispersant and the dispersant-alone samples survival and settlement were extremely low,” said Goodbody-Gringley. “In fact, in the high concentrations that we used [to mimic the early days of an oil spill] we had 100% mortality,” she added.

Dr. Goodbody-Gringley points out baby Montastraea

A separate experiment was designed to mimic the effects of an oil spill and response with dispersant on coral larvae in the water column. A time frame of five days was used to represent the normal longevity of coral larvae in the water column. Water was added to the initial concentration each day to correspond to the continued dilution of the chemical. Measurements were then taken at the end of the five day period.

“These results actually mirrored the settlement results,” said Goodbody-Gringley. “We found lower survival in the presence of oil and much lower survival in the presence of dispersant.”

Pressed for exact percentages of mortality, Dr. Goodbody-Gringley would only say “extremely high.” About survival rates she said, “extremely low.”

The experiments are still proceeding through analyses in preparation for submission to peer review, which is why Dr. Goodbody-Gringley hesitates to quote actual numbers. The paper is expected to be submitted within a month or two, though (if accepted) might be published sometime in 2011.

“The survival of larvae is particularly important because this is the one time in the coral’s life when a new coral will be formed,” she said. “Without this critical stage a reef can’t maintain itself. Eventually the reef would die if there is no reproduction happening.”

Photo Credit: Belinda Serata

It’s not in the Guinness book but on Oct. 11, 2008 volunteers and scientists from Hawkwatch International set a world record for logging the most peregrine falcons ever seen in a single day, 638.

The count took place during the 10th-annual raptor migration count at Curry Hammock State Park on Little Crawl Key in the Florida Keys; the last year before funding disappeared; five years short of having data that provides reasonably precise estimates of population trends, according to researchers.

Raptors that migrate through the Keys come from as far away as New England, Canada and the Midwest. Eight species are counted (others are “noted”): osprey, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, broad-winged hawk, American kestrel, merlin and peregrine falcon.
To discover changes in population trends will require at least 10-15 consecutive years of data, according to Ernesto Ruelas, postdoctoral fellow and Raptor Population Index project manager for the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA). Hence the disappointment at losing 2009 and the excitement over HMANA restarting the count for 2010.

“The importance of the Curry Hammock site, and the Florida Keys in general, is it’s the last point on the Atlantic seaboard where you can track the migration before the birds head off to Cuba, the Yucatan Peninsula, the West Indies and Central and South America,” said Ruelas.

Though no oil flowed onto the shores of the Florida Keys and South Florida — an estimated 206 million gallons of oil were pushed into the Gulf of Mexico — trend analyses of raptor migration will become especially important.

“In 2004 and 2005 we started to consolidate the data and develop tools for analysis,” said Ruelas. “Right now we can use long-term data to figure out how populations are doing, but to find the causes why populations are going up or down requires further research. In many cases we can connect the dots with other sites and data sets to understand population trends.”

The connect-the-dots approach will include postulating about food sources, especially those impacted by the spill. Ospreys, of course, feed on fish. Merlins, small falcons sometimes called pigeon hawks, will attack shore birds like sandpipers. Migrating raptors feed on birds or small mammals, supplementing their diets with reptiles and frogs, which populate coastal wetlands and offshore islands.

If over the next five or so years, migration counts continue and show a marked decrease, one might conclude the oil spill has claimed victims from hundreds, even thousands of miles distant.

The first one highlights the projected devastation in Louisiana, where winds from the southeast are forecast to bring devastation in the coming days:

And now here’s NOAA’s new map, tracking the southeast arm of the spill as the Gulf’s loop current pulls it towards the Florida Keys — and possibly beyond to the East Coast:

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

Two alarming new pieces of evidence that the BP oil spill is spreading well beyond the Gulf Coast. The first is this photo from NASA, showing a plume of oil being pulled far to the south, apparently by the Gulf’s loop current. Scientists had warned that was the first step towards the oil washing up in the Florida Keys — and that ultimately, the oil could reach the East Coast.

And now tar balls are reportedly washing up on Florida beaches:

Coast Guard officials have found nearly two dozen tar balls on Key West shores but have not determined if they came from the Gulf of Mexico’s massive oil disaster.

If so, it could indicate oil has been in the gulf’s powerful loop current for several days and could hurt Florida’s coral reefs and wildlife in the Keys and up the Atlantic coast. [...]

Anyone who sees a tar ball is asked to call the Coast Guard at 1-800-424-8802. Oiled shorelines can be reported to 1-866-448-5816.

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

Photo via Flickr’s NASA Goddard Photo & Video

USF Oceanographer Ernst Peebles says computer models show the surface oil has been picked up by the loop current. It flows north from the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf, then curves east and then south into the Florida Keys.

“We saw evidence in mathematical models that the surface oil was starting to become entrained into the loop current and then there was also satellite evidence of the same thing,” Peebles said.

“And there have been scattered reports of observed oil further south, including one made by our own captain,” he said.

Scientists say that once the oil reaches the Keys, it could get caught up in the Gulf Stream & carried up the East Coast. To watch how the oil is getting picked up by the Gulf loop current, go to USF’s animation page & click play.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.