(My OJ State Vacation .. Part 7 of 8)
The Everglades - River of Grass
July 25
The Everglades - River of Grass
July 25
The Everglades are an unique wetlands ecosystem stretching over 100 miles in Southern Florida. This vast 40000 sq. miles of shallow marshy estuary originally served to empty the waters of the Lake Okeechobee (which in turn was fed by the Kissimmee River) into the Gulf of Mexico. This River of Grass is as wide as 60 miles in some places and as shallow as 6 inches in some places. The Seminoles call it pah-hay-okee meaning "Grassy River", given the abundance of grasses (saw grass, wire grass, toothache grass) that grows in the marshland. Of course, early settlers did a lot of damage by draining vast tracts for use as farmland. This adversely affected the native habitat of its abundant flora and fauna and introduced non-native species. Now a massive conservation effort is underway to restore this ecosystem. Some 14 endangered species of fauna and flora are found there.
We had talked about this ecosystem in my Oceanography elective last semester in school. So I was looking forward to getting a live glimpse.
We took a 2 hour airboat ride through this river of grass. Airboats are flat bottomed, which means nothing gets caught - good for the shallow waters. Raised seats give a good view of the water. Its propeller driven - it looks like a giant enclosed fan at the back of the boat. Good thing the propeller is enclosed, imagine getting your fingers caught in it! The propelled air drives it forward, so airboats can’t go in reverse. It’s really noisy though and I wondered how this noise pollution was affecting the wildlife.
The mix of salt and freshwater means that both crocs and gators are found in the Everglades. We got to see only alligators though, on our ride - good thing as crocodiles are by nature more aggressive than gators. We must have seen some 40 to 50 of them - from a bunch of babies to a massive 12 footer male, who'd dug out his own private pond. He was soaking up the sun on a shallow grassy mound, and scurried into his pond as soon as our boat neared. There he lay waiting, just under the water, with just his enormous round eyes above the surface. The eyes watched and waited - is this friend, foe or prey. If we hadn’t seen him dive into the water, we would not have made him out - his colors (brown and green) was a great camouflage and blended so well with the colors of the marshy waters. It can hold its breath up to 15 min and stay submerged up to 2 hours. We came to an area with tiny baby gators - some 20 of them were swimming around. And we saw gators of various sizes in between. Basically there was no dearth of gators on our trip. The Everglades is home to multiple species of large wading birds - we saw several egrets and herons. They took wing and one dived down into the water - food? The saw grass prairie stretched on endlessly on either side of the slightly deeper canal we were traveling in.
A visit to the Everglades is not exciting like a rushing river (the endless sea of grass seems boring after a while) but it’s awe-inspiring in a different kind of way – an unique experience.
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"Here are no lofty peaks seeking the sky, no mighty glaciers or rushing streams wearing away the uplifted land. Here is land, tranquil in its quiet beauty, serving not as the source of water, but as the receiver of it. To its natural abundance we owe the spectacular plant and animal life that distinguishes this place from all others in our country." - President Harry S. Truman (dedicating the Everglades National Park in 1947).==============
To continue.. More on my OJ Vacation saga....
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