Bridging Science and Experience in the Everglades Fishery

 

Working in the Everglades means working at the intersection of ecology, culture, and uncertainty. The fishery of Everglades National Park is one of the most iconic in the world—yet it is also one of the most data-limited. Despite its global recognition and ecological importance, we have remarkably few formal studies describing basic population dynamics for many recreationally important species, particularly within Florida Bay. This gap presents a challenge for fisheries management, but also an opportunity to rethink how knowledge is generated.

Much of my work focuses on bridging two frameworks that have historically operated in parallel: Western scientific monitoring and the lived, place-based knowledge of fishing guides. Everglades fishing guides spend hundreds of days on the water each year, often returning to the same flats, channels, and shorelines across decades. Through this repeated exposure, they develop a fine-scale understanding of fish behavior, habitat use, seasonal patterns, and environmental change—insights that are difficult to capture through scientific monitoring alone.

In contrast, formal fisheries science in the Everglades is constrained by logistics, funding, and the sheer complexity of the system. Florida Bay is shallow, spatially heterogeneous, and highly sensitive to freshwater flow, temperature extremes, and habitat change. Long-term, fishery-independent datasets are rare, and many species targeted by recreational anglers have never been assessed using traditional population models. As a result, managers are often tasked with making decisions in the absence of robust quantitative benchmarks.

Rather than viewing this data limitation as a barrier, my research treats it as a call for integration. By working directly with the guide community, I aim to combine ecological monitoring with local ecological knowledge to better understand how Everglades fisheries are changing over time. This interdisciplinary approach recognizes guides not just as resource users, but as knowledge holders whose observations can help identify trends, generate hypotheses, and contextualize scientific findings.

This work involves surveys, collaborative discussions, and the co-development of indicators that reflect both ecological conditions and fishing experiences. Guides consistently raise concerns about seagrass loss, water quality, extreme weather, and shifting species composition—patterns that align with, and often precede, signals detected in scientific datasets. When paired with tools such as acoustic telemetry, habitat mapping, and environmental monitoring, these perspectives help paint a more complete picture of fish population dynamics in a rapidly changing system.

Bridging these frameworks is not about replacing science with experience, or vice versa. It is about acknowledging that no single approach can fully capture the complexity of the Everglades fishery. In a system where data are limited but observations are abundant, interdisciplinary collaboration becomes essential. By integrating guide knowledge with scientific methods, we can build more resilient, inclusive, and adaptive fisheries science—one that better reflects the realities of the Everglades and supports sustainable management for generations to come.