Environmental education about the Florida Bay ecosystem, and its linkage to Everglades restoration, is one avenue that can be used to inform Florida's 15 million residents and 40 million tourists of coastal resource issues. Video news releases, such as this one being filmed of Professor Bill Seaman, Associate Director of Florida Sea Grant, can be effective in reaching large regional audiences. Mangroves are flowering trees capable of tolerating periodic immersion and exposure to seawater. Mangrove communities are an integral part of south Florida's shoreline, as well as most tropical coastal regions of the world. Large concentrations of these trees act as buffers for coastal areas, protecting the shoreline from erosion due to tidal activity and severe weather.
Mangroves also harbor many forms of marine life such as invertebrataes and juvenile fishes.
These organisms, in turn, support large predatory fishes such as redfish, tarpon, and snook. Mangroves also serve as bird sanctuaries. As Associate Director of Florida Sea Grant, Dr. Seaman spends much of his time providing educational materials about these important marine habitats to the public. In recent years, a growing number of obsolete offshore oil and gas production platforms have been redeployed as artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico resulting in new opportunities for scientific study. A FAS departmental team field study, conducted off south Florida, resulted in the collection of much quantitative information about how fish species utilize these structures.