The large estuaries of the 

 Florida Everglades were once fed by 

 millions of gallons of fresh water 

 from the Kissimmee River-Lake Okee- 

 chobee and Big Cypress drainages. 

 Over the last 80 to 90 years more 

 than 1,500 miles of canals have been 

 constructed to drain, divert, reroute 

 and store this freshwater in "con- 

 servation areas". This has been done 

 to replenish groundwater withdrawal 

 by Miami and the populous Gold Coast. 

 Freshwater depletion has intensified 

 because of the prolonged lack of 

 significant rainfall from hurricanes 

 over the past decade. The result of 

 this depletion has been a lowering 

 of overall Everglades water levels 

 by nearly six feet. Accompanying 

 this has been a drastic reduction 

 in characteristic marsh and man- 

 grove communities, and disappear- 

 ance of native soil due to oxida- 

 tion and fire. Fisheries in the 

 Ten Thousand Island area of Florida 

 Bay are clearly experiencing decline. 

 Hypersalinity is now common near- 

 shore and once-abundant commercial 

 and sport fisheries for redfish and 

 sea trout have undergone substan- 

 tial declines. 



additional freshwater diversion this 

 problem could become a major afflic- 

 tion. 



In the north-central gulf area, 

 water-dependent agriculture poses a 

 unique and substantial threat to 

 thousands of acres of low-salinity 

 marsh habitat. Rice growers in Ver- 

 milion Parish, Louisiana, concerned 

 that saline water from Vermilion Bay 

 will enter their fields, have proposed 

 a series of permanent barriers to 

 saline inflow. However, these bar- 

 riers would cut off tidal exchange 

 and segregate between 3,000 and 9,000 

 acres of low salinity marsh from the 

 Vermilion Bay estuary. This impor- 

 tant nursery habitat and area of 

 productivity would be lost. Also 

 lost would be millions of pounds of 

 commercially and recreationally im- 

 portant white shrimp, blue crabs, 

 menhaden and other estuarine-depen- 

 dent fish and shellfish. Thousands 

 of tons of plant detritus and dis- 

 solved organic matter, upon which 

 Louisiana's estuarine food webs are 

 based, would be lost from the estua- 

 rine system. 



Apalachicola Bay in the north- 

 east Gulf of Mexico is remarkably 

 free of pollution and supports thriv- 

 ing oyster, shrimp, and crab fish- 

 eries. Proposals to dam the Apala- 

 chicola River at several locations 

 have been staunchly opposed because 

 of the potential degradation of and 

 alteration to freshwater inflows. 

 However, farms and rapidly growing 

 cities annually pump hundreds of 

 millions of gallons of water from the 

 headwaters of the river. This water 

 use may result in much more damaging 

 long-term impacts to the estuary than 

 would the proposed water projects. 

 Oyster beds are now being lost from 

 intrusion of oyster predators and 

 parasites upstream in the bay. With 



To wrap up, the maintenance 

 of our Nation's estuaries is of vi- 

 tal concern because of their impor- 

 tance to living marine resources 

 productivity, and maintenance re- 

 quires inflows of suitable quality 

 and quantity. Because of the NMFS 

 responsibility for managing living 

 marine resources, our impact assess- 

 ment divisions and research elements 

 have much to gain from these proceed- 

 ings. We need additional research 

 into freshwater inflow alterations 

 and their impacts on the estuarine 

 environment. We also need much more 

 of the kind of information exchange 

 which is occurring at this symposium. 

 Finally, we need to assure that our 

 information is adequately applied in 



21 



