Identical locations were filmed during the wet season and dry season around Taylor Slough along the Anhinga Trail. Video clips include a Great Blue Heron and American Alligator during peak dry season.
Jeff Kline, the Everglades National Park Fish Biologist, observes a large aggregation of Brown Hoplo, a nonnative catfish, in a canal adjacent to the park boundary.
We are hear at the L31W canal. It is a canal that borders Everglades National Park. And, what we see in this area is a large aggregation, a big school of these Brown hoplo catfish. These are an exotic catfish from South America. They were first found in Florida in 1995. And, in 2002 we first collected an individual in Everglades National Park. They got to Florida, not exactly sure if it was through the aquarium industry or if it was specialty food market, aquaculture industry, or people releasing them to create a place where they could catch fish that they would like to consume. It would be nice to remove them because of the proximity of the canal to Everglades National Park marshes and because the canal will overspill the marsh during the wet season. So, in the wet season, this will overflow and flood into the marsh and you know, these are not native to the marshes of Florida. In Everglades National Park, we are trying to preserve for the native and natural and having the exotic species is against what the national park is mandated. We are about 15 meters from the Everglades National Park boundary. So, very, very close.
The Everglades are often described as having only two seasons- the wet and the dry. Most hot summer days are punctuated by quenching afternoon thunderstorms that bring life-giving water to the park.
