A R K Drifters Seek Answers to Bay Circulation by Alan Scott R esearchers are using devices called drifters to study how freshwater makes its way from Everglade sloughs, through Florida Bay, to the Atlantic Ocean.
Drifters resemble bright orange box kites with four small black buoys at each corner.
They sit about three feet under water and drift beneath the surface. Satellites track the position of each drifter approximately 4 times a day. In February of 1996, four drifters were released near the mouth of the Shark River where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The Shark River flows out of the Shark River Slough, the major freshwater drainage for the western half of the Everglades in Everglades National Park. Drifters that were placed a few miles out from the mouth of the Shark River tended to zig-zag off the Gulf coast, eventually making their way to the western edge of Florida Bay and out the Long Key viaduct.