Freshwater Bayou, Louisiana, junction with a fur company canal. 



The Everglades area was inspected by Dr. Graham in cooperation 

 with River Basin personnel to plan studies on the effects of larger fresh- water 

 discharges into the Everglades from the proposed Central and Southern Florida 

 Floodway Project on the productivity of the Everglades estuaries, with special 

 regard to their value for the young stages of the pink shrimp. Recent releases 

 of young stained pink shrimp have shown that they contribute to the highly val- 

 uable Tortugas shrimp fishery adjacent to Key West. 



Preliminary studies by Dr. Aldrich of water releases into the 

 Caloosahatchee River strongly suggest that the amount of discharge has a pos- 

 itive long-term effect on the occurrence of red tide. 



Issuance of drilling permits A meeting was held in Houston in September 



concerning the possibility of prompt issuance of blanket permits by the Corps 

 of Engineers for drilling wells in estuarine waters to minimize delay in ob- 

 taining permits. Attending were representatives of the Corps of Engineers, 

 the Texas Game and Fish Commission, the Geological Survey, several major 

 oil companies, and Service personnel from both Bureaus. Subsequently, an 

 ad hoc committee of Service and Texas Game and Fish Commission biologists 

 met twice at the Galveston Laboratory and formulated a set of special condi- 

 tions for normal operations and spoil disposal that might be attached to blan- 

 ket permits. 



Maintenance dredging Maintenance dredging of the Intracoastal Canal and 



connecting channels poses a problem of spoil disposal. Unfortunately, spoil 

 was not well placed from the standpoint of water circulation during the initial 

 dredging of many of these channels. The Corps of Engineers has cooperated 

 by furnishing a vessel and crew to inspect sections requiring heavy mainte- 

 nance dredging, and on-the-spot inspection of spoil disposal plans were made 

 along sections of the Intracoastal Canal adjacent to Galveston Bay and in the 

 Laguna Madre. 



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