The Everglades: A Symphony of Life

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is brought to you by Gary Wendt.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] The Everglades.

It's like a symphony of water.

- [Amber] Water has memory.

It has its spirits.

Water is life.

- [Cody] Florida is a crazy delicate system, and it's all connected here to water.

And us humans have a good way of screwing that all up.

- [Betty] We all need to get on the same page to heal this ecosystem so that we can all thrive along with this ecosystem.

(gentle music) (birds fluttering) (thunder booms) (traffic rumbling) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (birds chirping) (water trickling) (gentle music) - What I love about Shingle Creek is the diversity.

You come here and you see all this beautiful, natural Florida, the alligators and the snakes and the turtles and the wildlife.

I think there's just a nice joy in that, to connect with nature.

In Shingle Creek, it may not seem like very much, but it actually plays a very important role to the flow of water that does end up in the Everglades.

And it's just not too far from the hustle and bustle, and I think that's what just amazes me.

(traffic rumbling) (gentle music continues) I always had a love for animals in general.

I grew up in Florida.

I always had, like, you know, the swamps around me.

So yeah, I've always kind of had a thing for reptiles, and all the different turtles, of course.

Whenever a sick or injured reptile comes in, we work on them to make them better with the goal to get 'em back out in the wild.

- [Rehabilitator] Okay, ready to go.

- But with all the development in Florida, the biggest threat is roadways and vehicles.

(traffic rumbling) (gentle music) A lot of these females will use the same areas to nest again and again and again, and they'll come out to nest in an area that were their last lay season.

There's now development or a fence or some other obstacle that was not there before.

A lot of those conflicts are because people are moving into their space, so we have to learn how to coexist.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) This looks like a great spot.

(gentle music continues) All right, you guys ready?

(whimsical music) Today we're going to be releasing 18 baby peninsula cooters.

The mom was struck by a car.

She has some pretty extensive injuries, and a lot of times, it's better to get the eggs out of the female.

And they were incubated and hatched, and now they're ready to be returned to the wild as their mom had intended.

(whimsical music continues) Well, a lot of times, it's a little bit of a shock, 'cause they're like, "Oh, where am I?"

But then once they sense that water, then it's just go, go, go, go, go.

And there's a little bit of a current in the release spot, and so of course they're just like, you know, paddling away.

Once they got into it, they were good.

The area is beautiful, lots of food.

There's really no people around, so they have their best chance at a life to grow up and to be free again.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Water is very important here in Florida.

And all of this is one giant watershed, part of the greater Everglades.

(gentle music) - The Everglades is a very peculiar place as far as how it all works.

It's not always a traditional flow like you would see in a river, where you can actively watch the water moving.

(dramatic music) They call it a sheet flow, where it slides kind of across the landscape quite slowly, and it trickles not only at the surface, but also moves through that porous limestone below us.

Many, many years ago, we all got here and decided that we love South Florida, and we made a lot of changes.

- Since the beginning of humans moving to Florida, they've wanted to dry the land to be able to build and live and farm on it.

There's also, you know, the cry for flood control.

As development occurred, as land was put in for agriculture, as the Tamiami Trail got built, all of that changed from being a natural flowing river to a series of canals that are controlled by gates.

And it went from nature making that decision on her own to mankind making those decisions, and sometimes at odds with nature itself.

- When they built the canals, the levees, everything was changing.

Water's going this way and the water's going the other way.

It's not flowing north and south naturally.

- When we came in, we were able to channel the water in certain areas, which allowed us to build homes and businesses and provide irrigation for farming, but it definitely disrupted that flow of water.

(traffic rumbling) And it changed how animals use the landscape, it changed how the water moves, and so there are some great restoration efforts in the works right now, trying to restore some of that flow.

- You're out here on the Kissimmee River, the restored section.

All this vegetation was naturally came back on its own.

All we had to do was give it water.

(upbeat music) The Kissimmee River Restoration Project is one of the world's largest river restoration projects.

Oh, snowy egret.

I, as a child, knew the Kissimmee River as a manmade channelized canal.

The river, it was channelized by dredging canal that completely altered the path of the water and the ecosystem here in Florida.

Unfortunately, it dried out the surrounding floodplain to this meandering river, and that destroyed the environment surrounding the canal system itself.

(engine rumbling) (fan whirring) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Being out here on the Kissimmee River was a dream of mine.

We're taking the same river channel every day, but every day it's different.

The wildlife, the alligators, the birds.

It's always an adventure every day.

When the river was channelized, there was just one big, giant canal, which was basically stagnant.

All the wildlife populations plummeted.

Wading birds didn't see any wetlands to forage in.

There was no habitat for fish, amphibians.

Yeah, it was devastating.

(explosion booms) (explosion booms) (explosion booms) The main process of restoration of the Kissimmee River is two parts.

There is the physical construction side of it, putting the dirt back into the canal with heavy equipment and back filling the canal, and the second part is getting the natural flow of water through the system.

We currently have all of the physical construction done of what we can restore.

Now we're evaluating the whole entire ecosystem.

(upbeat music continues) - All right, it looks like we got some veg here, some floating and some emergent.

- Okay, got it.

- We're gonna note some Pistia, some water hyacinth.

- Ooh, flat-sedge right here.

(gentle music) This job isn't, I would say, for everyone.

You gotta love getting out there and just getting dirty and chest deep in water, surrounded by alligators.

Ooh, I think I felt something big in there.

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, boy.

- Everyone's favorite project is our throw trapping.

- We'll see what kind of critters we get in here.

- [Brent] We lug around this large box and we toss it into wetlands to get an idea of the prey that's available for the wading birds.

- Oh, wow, and our turtle- - Oh, lots of shrimp, huh?

- Perfect.

We are looking at all the different critters that are out here on the Kissimmee River.

Ooh, apple snail, apple snail.

All right.

- That's a biter.

- Grab 'em, grab 'em, grab 'em.

- No, you can grab 'em.

(Allison laughs) - We'll actually measure and we'll weigh them, and that goes into a large database.

- Oh, look there, turtle.

- Oh, wow!

So it gives us an idea of what's out here, and through the years, we can see how the trends change.

- It's always different, so you never know what you're gonna get.

I've caught an alligator before.

(Allison yelps) What is it?

- Oh, wait, right, it's right by my hand.

- I know there's something in here.

Oh.

- Ah, I got it!

- There it is!

- It's at the side!

- Oh, look at that thing!

Today, we actually found one of the most cryptic and hard to find creatures, which is the greater siren.

- No way, look how huge he is!

- Oh, wow.

I'm hired as a herpetologist.

Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.

They're my favorite, so I get really excited when we find a giant aquatic salamander that can get up to almost two feet long and spend a lot of time just in the deep, dark environments of the wetlands.

I think we should call him Slippy.

- I think that's perfect.

- He's a Slippy.

- Whoa, whoa!

We really don't get to see 'em that much, but when we come across them, it's super exciting.

- So over the last three decades, there was no habitats that these greater sirens use, but we have seen a lot of young sirens, so we know that they're reproducing out there, so we have the right habitat.

There he goes.

The greater siren could be considered a great success story for the restoration.

- There's a blue heron.

Usually they'll find crawfish, little fishes, water bugs and beetles.

(upbeat music) The restoration, though it's not complete yet, is already seeing a lot of success.

- It was pretty much night and day.

Large flocks of ibis and egrets, wood storks, spoonbill.

The wading bird showed up by the thousands.

- [Researcher] Seeing it being converted back into a beautiful wetland is amazing.

- [Brent] The water starts here and makes its long journey all the way down to Florida Bay.

So, it's an important part of the entire system.

(upbeat music continues) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - You get to see some natural fishermen when you're out here on the lake.

Great blue herons, they're the best fishermen on this lake.

And I utilize that to catch fish out here every single day.

(gentle music) And the reason I picked right where we started was because I saw four great blue herons and a couple white egrets standing on that clump of grass.

So I started fishing on Okeechobee back when I was probably six or seven years old.

My dad was a bass fisherman and introduced me to it, and I just fell in love with it.

There's no other place like Lake Okeechobee.

It's the biggest lake in the state of Florida by a long shot.

But in the middle of the lake, I believe right now, is only about 13 feet at its deepest point, which is pretty nuts.

It's gonna sound crazy, but my three-year-old is named Lake.

I named him after this place.

It's where I met my wife, fishing against her out here.

I mean, I truly mean it when I say I love this lake.

(reel whirring) Little guy.

America's most targeted game fish right there.

It's large mouth bass.

If I'm out here on Okeechobee, nine times outta 10, I'm fishing for bass.

It's a multi-billion dollar industry chasing that fish particularly right there.

(upbeat music) Basically, what made Lake Okeechobee what it is is the abundance of grass out here.

If you had to ask me how many bass are in this one clump of grass right here that I'm throwing into, there's probably 70 to 100 in there.

So this lake has tons of these small bait fish called shad.

They're making their way up into this grass in large numbers, and obviously, this makes for easy pickings for these bass, and they'll basically set up here first thing in the morning and gorge on the shad.

But what we're throwing through this grass, obviously these fish are, they're feeding on one certain thing, so you wanna do your best to match the hatch, as we say, the translucency and the colors of these small shad the best I can.

As beautiful and great as this place is, I hate to say it, but it's a shadow of its former self.

The grass that we have now is in a fraction of what we had.

On top of this merged vegetation, just the emergent vegetation, like, just the tall walls or hard lines have been removed.

High water is terrible for this whole system.

At a 17 foot lake, you gotta imagine, these round reeds here, all this grass is pretty much completely underwater, and they're dying off.

So, maintaining this grass and, you know, taking care of what's left and trying to add onto it is extremely important.

There's a lot of different things that go into the management of the water level of the lake.

The state itself is getting pulled from many different directions.

A lot of farming corporations pull water from here to water crops.

There's a lot of places in Palm Beach County that actually get their drinking water from this lake.

If the lake gets too low, they're unable to pull water.

If the lake's too high, it damages the lake.

If they discharge too much water to the coasts, people complain there's too much runoff.

So it's a very touchy system.

All the water moves through floodgates, and what they did was, instead of just opening the gates full till and making this mad rush of lake water heading to the salt water estuaries, they did this over the course of five, six months, they gradually drained the lake.

The lake came down low, it lowered at a slow rate.

The water essentially trickled to these estuaries where it didn't overwhelm them with fresh water.

That's the way it should be done.

(gentle music) Florida is a crazy delicate system, and it's all connected.

For what I do for my livelihood, relying on this lake, I want it to thrive to the best it can, but I want what's best for the entire ecosystem that is Florida, for the entire state.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (energetic whimsical music) (energetic whimsical music continues) (insects chirping) (insects chirping continues) (tense music) (tense music continues) (tense music continues) - We have an eye shine up ahead.

There's one up ahead to the right.

(tense music continues) (tense music continues) We've got an American alligator on the snare right now.

Daniel's got it.

He's working on tiring the animal out.

Gators tend to have a bit more fight in them than the crocs do.

When I think of the Everglades, the first thing that comes to mind is the American alligator.

They serve as an ecological indicator, which basically means that the health of the animal reflects the health of the environment.

So if you have healthy gators, you have a healthy Everglades.

We'll be putting electrical tape around their jaws, and this will ensure that we're safe when they're on the boat.

All right, great.

Oh, wow.

Got a lot of injuries on its tail.

This looks like this could have been a weird heal from a boat strike.

Its left his tail kind of kinked.

That is one of the dangers that canal animals face, is oncoming boaters, and we often see injuries like this.

We got 33.6.

(intriguing music) These metrics are used to calculate body condition, which is very important to look at to see, is it healthy?

231.4.

So next, most fun part is getting the weight.

Ready?

Three, two, one.

We got 49.

They are the largest predator within the marsh ecosystem, and they are really important to the environment.

And as adults, they create gator holes.

The alligators will dig holes which they will use during periods of dry time.

However, also, fish in the area can use these as reservoir when there isn't any other water in the marsh, which also creates a foraging place for wading birds.

So, this is the web tag, and then the pit tag is gonna go into his jowls.

It contains a unique numerical number, so if we recapture this guy again, we'll be able to identify him.

- Steady?

- Yep.

And that is how you catch an American alligator.

(intriguing music continues) Got one to the left.

Oh my goodness, there's even more to the right.

- [Researcher] Oh, there.

- The little ones have a lot of fight in them.

We have a sub-adult.

He or she is still too small to breathe.

A female.

(tense music) Unfortunately, down here in South Florida, they're still not that healthy.

They tend to be on the really skinny side.

They're not as abundant as they should be in a lot of areas.

And that is because of the fresh water flow down here.

They release too much water, then it becomes very hard for the alligators to hunt.

And so one of the things we're still really working on here is developing the correct timing and amount of fresh water flow released throughout the year.

One, two, three.

And so we can really use the alligators as a study animal to look at, are we doing a good job at releasing the correct amount of water, right amount of time?

He's chunky.

My god.

From the data that we learn, we get to advise other agencies to establish more natural conditions.

I love the alligators and I love doing work to conserve them.

It's great to know that the long term research will also conserve the entirety of the Everglades.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music continues) (exciting music) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) (exciting music continues) - People tend to refer to the Everglades as the River of Grass, as a slow flowing river.

The Miccosukee people, we call it Kahayatle, Because historically, as far as the eye could see, you could see the reflection of the sun over the water, like diamonds sparkling over the water, and that's why we call it Kahayatle.

But we've always known it to be a river.

- Back in the old days, when my ancestors came out, there was water everywhere.

Water was flowing from Kissimmee, Lake Okeechobee, all the way into the bay, nonstop.

(gentle music) We were told by our creator to never, ever leave the Everglades.

Our DNA is the Everglades.

(gentle music continues) (vehicle rumbling) - Our ancestors learn through the time to understand the movement of water, how it sustains life.

Because of our spirituality, we have a strong connection to not just water, but everything in the world, and we are raised to treat them as our relatives, to treat the water with respect.

But for us, that water flow has been disruptive.

And so today, you have a very unhealthy ecosystem.

(gentle music) (no sounds of explosions) (gentle music continues) The EAA Reservoir, right now, there's this big Everglades restoration project, building a reservoir and stormwater treatment area for multi billions and billions of dollars.

I know a lot of people are putting a lot of hopes on that reservoir to help restore the balance by making those reconnections to allow the water to flow as it historically did, but we're dealing with the Everglades half its size.

So basically, you have 100% of the water, and trying to put it into a system that is half its size.

We started seeing more periods of too much water, because our tree islands that we use for ceremony and planting are underwater most of the times of the year that we can't even use them to go plant our corn and our pumpkin and have our ceremonies on our island.

And the Miccosukees found refuge on those tree islands for their homes, a place to hide from the soldiers, to raise their kids.

And those are homes to the animals.

Even alligators need dry land.

They use vegetation to build their nest.

But the Everglades has lost 70% of its tree islands.

It's all a balance that needs to be maintained that is so out of balance.

(tense music) (tense music continues) (tense music continues) (Fiona panting) - Fiona, ready to work?

Ready to work?

Find it, find it!

(whimsical music) Find it!

Fiona, find it!

(Fiona sniffing) Today we're gonna be working with Fiona.

She's just over one-year-old.

She's in training.

We're trying to get her better at her scent skills, how to deal with the wind, different animals running across.

All these things kinda mess with the dog's brain.

Because eventually, we're gonna be using her out in the field for real to catch Burmese pythons.

Usually with these snakes, when you try to capture them, they feel more comfortable when they have something to grab onto.

So if you give them a leg or an arm, you know, as long as it's a small snake, it's safer for you and the snake, right?

They feel comfortable, you get to handle 'em.

If it's a big snake, you don't wanna give 'em your arm, (chuckles) you know?

(gentle music) So, down here in South Florida, exotic species are rampant, some of which are invasive, right?

When we say invasive, we mean it's an exotic species, and it's also causing a lot of problems in the environment.

The kind of poster child of that is the Burmese python.

It's this massive snake, right?

They can get over 16 foot long, and they decimate our native wildlife.

Mostly small, medium-sized mammals.

Things like raccoons, white-tailed deers, they're eating a lot of.

In some areas of the Everglades, we've found 90 to 99% of the wildlife have been wiped out.

And big part of that is the Burmese python.

- You know, snakes and my tribe, the relationship is rocky, you know?

Snakes are very taboo for us, but not only that, deer is the most important animal to the Miccosukee tribe.

It's not only for cultural, ceremony, but also as a food source.

We're hunters, so it's horrifying to even know that a giant snake is eating up your whole food source.

That really would kill the culture and really hurt us as a people.

(Fiona panting) - She's sniffing, she's working hard.

But yeah, it's hot today.

Through this training exercise, we'll hide this captive python in a snake bag.

Fiona.

Fiona will come through, she'll be able to kind of track down that scent, and hopefully get on it.

Once she finds it, she'll get rewarded.

She was sniffing good at first, but she's definitely losing focus a little bit.

(gentle music) We also focus a lot on the hydrology of the Everglades, the water levels, the time of year that water levels come up and down.

How long is the area flooded for?

The exotic plants, exotic animals, the native wildlife, native plants, habitat restoration, you name it, it all comes down to hydrology.

One of the most interesting findings we've had is where you have a lot of flooding, the decline of wildlife is primarily because of the flooding, whether there are pythons there or not.

Whereas if you have an environment that's a healthy hydrology, right?

Normal amount of water level, right time of year, you're gonna have a lot of wildlife even though there's pythons there.

And that's what we're trying to do.

We want to make sure we get the water right in the Everglades such that all the species can survive, and that's gonna help bolster us from these negative impacts we have from the Burmese python and other environmental challenges we continue to face.

Fiona, find it.

Find it.

Oh, good girl.

Here, here, get your toy, get your toy.

You found it.

Go get your toy.

To train a python dog, it's the exact same thing as if you were to train a bomb dog, drug dog.

You have to kind of trick them.

So, you get whatever their favorite toy is, you make it smell like the python, and then you hide it.

So for them, it's a game of hide and seek kind of, right?

They don't want the snake.

They don't want anything to do with that.

They're after the toy.

- Yeah, what do you think?

She's seeing it and she's just not alerting, so we gotta work on that.

- Yeah.

(whimsical music) Once Fiona's fully trained, she's gonna be out here every single day, going out in different areas of the tribe's reservation, other parts of the Everglades, to try and sniff out pythons.

- [Interviewer] Do you have a favorite animal?

- It's hard to say, but sadly, it's snakes.

I'm a reptile person.

- [Interviewer] So you're really in a bind, man.

(chuckles) - Yeah.

(snake hisses) - Yeah, that's an angry snake.

That's what you're dealing with, Fiona.

(laughs) I'd be angry if I was in the bag.

(laughs) (whimsical music) (whimsical music continues) (whimsical music continues) (whimsical music continues) (whimsical music continues) - I always say, until you've been out there, and you've been out there on a boat, you'll never truly understand the magic of the Everglades.

(whimsical music continues) Where I'm doing my work, it's these beautiful mangrove estuaries and channels that are connecting all these different back bays where we have some fresh water coming in.

Then that opens into the Gulf of Mexico, where you have this blue turquoise water, which makes it a great place to study and learn more about sharks, 'cause they're not doing so great worldwide.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) Tail in, tail in.

(knife scraping) (researcher laughs) We have a lot of bait ready for catching some big sharks.

If I was a shark, I'd eat that.

- Mm-mm, mm-mm-mm!

- Head in.

Sharks are very important predators here in the Everglades ecosystem.

And it's a pretty diverse system.

We get a lot of different species of sharks here.

But we know there's at least 10 species using these waterways.

We have a lot of bull sharks.

We have a lot of lemon sharks.

We've had great hammerheads.

We've even caught the 10, 11 foot tiger shark, which is wild.

Buoy!

One of the only ways we can actually study sharks is we do have to catch the shark so that we actually use different types of fishing techniques.

Today we're drum lining.

- Thank you, Sara.

- And we're able to use those methods to bring the shark close to the side of the boat so that we can actually do our research.

Today we are targeting big sharks.

We are hoping to catch some of those large juvenile lemon sharks.

And I say juvenile, think more teenager.

They have the attitudes like teenagers.

They're just not sexually mature yet.

But when you pull 'em up, they're still sometimes five, six, seven feet long.

It feel sharky to you?

- Yeah.

- Let's see.

I'm hopping up.

Weight on.

- Weight on.

- Boo, no product.

No shark.

They're still waking up.

- Yeah.

- No scientific backing for that statement at all.

Shark populations here in Florida are doing very well.

We have a lot of the habitat shark species enjoy, such as those beautiful mangrove estuaries.

An estuary is an ecosystem in which fresh water and marine water meet.

The fresh water that's inland, from the rivers, from rain water, is flowing in, and the marine water is also coming in, and they're mixing together.

And that balance between the fresh water flow coming down, the marine water coming in and out with the tides, and the sharks that might be swimming in between those two regions is super important for maintaining that health of the Everglades ecosystem.

Yes, big.

- Yes, big.

- Ooh!

Something got a bite of that.

Sharks are biting.

(thunder rumbling) Weight on!

- Weight on!

- Sharks!

- Sharks!

(exciting music) Nurse!

- Male.

Grab that head.

But when we catch a shark, it's hooked, and once it's secured, we're able to then do our full scientific workup as we measure the shark.

Tag.

We tag the shark, which is essentially a fancy earring on their dorsal fin.

Perfect.

I collect a fin clip and fecal swab, and I also will collect blood.

All right, going for blood.

And that blood, I'm then able to use it as whole blood, but also, I separate it into plasma and red blood cells, and all of those different components of the blood will be analyzed separately using chemical analyses to figure out generally the diet and where the sharks are eating and spending their time.

(water splashes) Oh, okay.

If we know what they're feeding on... Hook cut.

Or we know generally where they might be feeding in the Everglades ecosystem, that's really important information when we're looking at how restoration efforts might impact where sharks are spending their time.

(gentle music) So we started our fishing day in coastal habitats, and then we moved in into those mangrove islands.

And that's where we are hoping to catch some of those juvenile lemon shark.

Mangrove habitats, not just for sharks, but for a lot of fish, are important nursery areas.

Mangroves are one of the few tree species that are salt water tolerant, so their roots will actually go into the water.

It's a great hiding place if you're a smaller fish and a smaller shark, which means that juveniles of these species will spend their time in these mangrove habitats, avoiding predators and finding prey.

If we know why they're making the choices they make, we can better understand how to protect the habitats.

Guys, guys.

Shark.

- Shark.

- Lemon!

- Lemon!

- All right.

Juvenile.

Get over that second dorsal.

Oh, okay.

Ready?

- Yep.

- Okay.

Are you good?

- Yeah.

- Tag.

(gentle music) - [Researcher] You want me to get blood for you?

- Yes, please.

Small needle.

Tag number, 421.

I expected bull sharks to be the most common species, but there are so many lemon sharks that are calling this part of the Everglades home.

Let me know when you're ready to flip over.

- You got it.

- Female.

- Female.

- Beautiful.

Needle.

- Coming up.

- You're just a girl.

- Needle please.

- When we as humans change the way that water is flowing in the Everglades, it impacts the habitat.

Going for blood.

Got it.

When you have too much fresh water going in one area or it's too salty another, it changes what sort of animals can spend their time there.

We're hoping to restore it back to that natural flow, not just for the sharks, but for us.

Hook out.

- [Rehabilitator] Good job, everyone.

- Good release.

- That's part of being in the Everglades.

You never know what you're gonna see.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) - Turtle, turtle, turtle!

Green turtle.

10 feet out, five feet out, under the bow, right in front of you, right in front of you.

I think it's right up in front of you.

Over here.

I lost it when it went this direction.

(laughs) I lost it.

Yeah, it was booking quick.

(chuckles) (gentle music) Right now, we're in Biscayne Bay National Park.

This is a beautiful shallow bay just south of Miami, and it's sort of the end of the Everglades and the outflow of the water from the Everglades.

It's a huge seagrass dominated bay where we get a lot of, you know, nursery grounds for different fish and invertebrate species, as well as a great place for sea turtles as well.

We're gonna be searching in a really nice seagrass patch right here, just off the channel.

We're looking for green, loggerhead sea turtles, whatever we can find.

So when we do find that turtle, we'll give chase, we'll stay with it until we can get close enough to where we can hop off the boat, grab the turtle.

- Florida has the biggest sea turtle populations in the U.S.

We have loggerheads and greens and hawksbills and Kemp's Ridleys all in one place.

There's different resources supporting those animals.

We have nesting beaches for all of the species.

Green turtles eat sea grass, and loggerheads are consuming crabs, lobsters, conch, some fish.

And healthy sea turtle populations really do reflect healthy resources.

- One of the things that we've seen in some areas of Florida Bay is that if the water gets too stagnant, it can actually turn an anoxic, where there's no oxygen in the water, and seagrass will actually die.

And so the fresh water flow from the Everglades has a huge impact in a bay like this.

Turtle, turtle!

Right here.

Just barely moving.

We got a loggerhead right here.

Keep an eye, Glenn.

Let's right at about one o'clock, coming up.

(gentle music) Let's try to get the jump as quick as we can.

These are far stronger animals than we are, and they're obviously a little better swimmers than we are as well.

- How deep are we?

Four, five?

- Four foot.

- Okay.

He's turning to the right.

Towards the back.

- Right in front of you, right in front of you, coming up on the corner.

But what we've been doing today is what we lovingly call the sea turtle rodeo.

One of the most efficient and, really, the best ways to capture sea turtles in water.

I lost it.

- Under the boat.

- Where is it?

- Under the boat.

- Under the boat.

- We give a quick chase, can jump on the turtle, and get it to the surface quickly.

There's no nets involved, so there's nothing that's gonna be keeping the turtle stuck underwater.

These are air breathing animals, so if they got tangled up in a net and we didn't get there fast enough, there could be problems for that turtle.

That's it right here, right here.

- Where, Derek?

- It's over here, about 10 o'clock.

- Over there?

- Yeah.

It's coming at you.

Right on it.

See it?

(gentle music continues) All right, we got it?

All right, I'm going down.

(exciting music) (exciting music continues) All right.

Great jump.

- She was, like, down, and I just had to, like, twist up 'cause she was under my feet.

I felt my feet hitting the air.

- The great thing about this rodeo technique, it's the best thing for the animal, but it's obviously a lot of fun as well.

(laughs) So this is a nice sub-adult, very healthy loggerhead sea turtle.

All of the sea turtle species that we're working with are threatened or endangered.

- 52.5.

- [Derek] So we wanna know where they're going largely for conservation and management.

- [Researcher] Nice.

No squeezing.

12.9.

- [Researcher] 12.9.

- I know.

(gentle music) - Yep.

Good stick, good stick.

- I'm like a vampire, I guess.

- Nice.

- (laughs) Got it.

Pull it up a little.

Okay.

Okay.

So I got two little tissue samples.

- From these samples we're collecting, the tissue samples, we're gonna get an idea of what it's been feeding on.

And so what she's doing right now is kind of coring down right to the bone of the carapace, or the shell, and so we can actually get diet for potentially the last 10, you know, maybe 15 years.

We're gonna get some great information on where it's moving.

- So this is a mini satellite tag, and we'll take this and deploy it on the turtle once we clean her spot.

- One of the most interesting questions, you know, that I'm excited to continue looking at is, you know, investigating the movements and where these animals are going, what they're doing in these areas where they are.

And by using these satellite tag technologies, we can get a better understanding of how this area is used by sea turtles.

Is it just a stop over, or is it a place that these animals are spending years at a time?

And allows us to hopefully help provide conservation and management strategies to help protect these endangered species.

A lot of the sea turtle changes that we're seeing is really looking at the last 30 and 40 years of conservation efforts.

Turning the Everglades to a more natural state By returning some of this flow, it can really help benefit the ecosystem as a whole.

As those seagrasses start to rebound, the sea turtles that are foraging on it are gonna rebound as well.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) - The Miccosukee Tribe through the years has been advocating for the water in the Everglades ecosystem, because we've had the knowledge from our ancestors and we grew up here.

- This is my home, my land.

Yeah, I wouldn't wanna live anywhere else.

That's why I'm still here fighting for whatever I can save.

- [Betty] And it's still been a long, hard battle, because different groups want different things.

- We don't need different groups, we need one big group, because it's all the same water.

If you spill something in the water in Orlando, it's gonna end up here on Okeechobee or down in the Florida Keys, which is crazy to think about, but it is all one big system and it's all connected, so we gotta take care of it.

- People should care about restoration, not just for the animals, but for us.

We are all part of the ecosystem as humans, and I think that's something we all have to remember.

When nature is in balance, we benefit.

- When we say restoration, what we mean is you get the water flowing to the right location, the right depth, right time of year, such that you can support all the species that used to survive there.

It's possible.

It's gonna be difficult, but you have a lot of smart and dedicated people putting all their resources into this.

- There's nowhere else like it in the world, and there's plenty of resources out here for everybody.

And it would be such a shame just to lose all of it to stubbornness or greed.

- We have the ability as people to come together for a common cause, and that's where I see the hope.

People being the problem can turn around and be a part of the solution to see a healed Everglades.

(music crescendos, ends) (gentle music) (birds chirping) - You ready for release?

She's like, "Yes, please."

(chuckles) Today we've got some really good news.

The mother of the 18 baby turtles we released is now completely healed, and she's ready to go back to the wild herself.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is brought to you by Gary Wendt.

(upbeat music) (bright music)