Florida

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Tagging Lemons

The role of mangroves as vital nursery habitat for fish is nowhere more evident than in the tiny island of Bimini, off the coast of Florida. Female lemon sharks come to the sheltered lagoon waters to give birth, and the pups live amongst the tangled roots of mangroves, safe from the attention of predators, until they are about three feet long and have a better chance of survival in the open sea. A long-term research program in Bimini is revealing just how important mangroves are in the lives of these sharks, and I turned up right in the middle of the annual population census.
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Pilgrim at Key West

Writers need heroes—or at least this one does, and while looking at mangroves in Florida I decided to make a pilgrimage to the home of one of American literature’s most famous sons: Papa Hemingway. I wasn’t disappointed. . . Read more »
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The Path to Restoration

I was privileged to meet one of the leading experts in mangrove restoration in his home state of Florida. Robin Lewis has spent his working life fine-tuning methods for restoration former mangrove wetlands to full ecological functionality. As he explained and showed me, mangrove restoration is a lot more than just planting seedlings in the mud. . . Read more »
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Panthers and Airboats

As well as being a fabulous place to get to know mangroves, the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge is home to one of nature’s rarest big cats: the Florida panther. I talked about panther management with the leader of the recovery program while airboating around the Picayune Strand. That night, a panther showed itself, to the elation of one person and the frustration of another . . . Read more »