A Brevard County Almanac
The Book - part 3 of first chapter
This book is also about chronicling my scientific journey. I did my PhD in coral reef fish ecology at the University of Miami. Most of my work was, alas, scuba diving in the Florida Keys and Bahamas, trying to understand coral reef fish, particularly grouper (such a hardship). Then we moved, my wife and I, to a place called the Maldive Islands, and then on to India, and I continued to study coral reefs and coral reef fish for about 10 years. We then moved to England, and I became, amongst other things, more aware of plastic pollution, helped develop a number of plastic projects around the world, and part of coming from England to Florida was to be able to do warmer-weather marine biology again. And, having never heard of it, nor knowing anyone here, we didn’t know anything about Titusville. But we decided to move here anyway.
In many ways, this book chronicles what it is that I experienced in these past eight years that we’ve been here, getting to know this place, learning about the ecology of the Indian River Lagoon. At the University of Miami, I imagine we mentioned the Indian River Lagoon; it would be strange not to, but Miami is far enough away, and my work was focused more on tropical marine biology. So, while I knew more about mangroves from the Florida Keys, I didn’t really understand much at all about oyster reefs. I had studied seagrass beds, but ones relatively different from those in the Indian River Lagoon. Moving here was very much a learning experience trying to understand a new place scientifically as well. Some of that is chronicled in this book, how we’ve tried to study it, the things that we’ve helped contribute to knowledge about this place, and also some things that I’ve learned from lots of other scientists and conservationists.
Because of this, the book is structured as a framework for exploring how to love and live out conservation commitments in a specific place. This learning process for me was about Titusville, its surrounding ecosystems, how I went about understanding it, what some of those things are, and what those places are. Section one is focused on habitats and ecosystems, so I go over the different habitats and ecosystems in the area, trying to look at a detailed exploration of each environment, trying to really understand well what this place is.
And then section two focuses on individual species. What are the actual creatures that inhabit these various ecosystems, trying to look at how I interacted with them, how I studied them, and what their role is in the local environment. Then I wanted to see this place through the eyes of a couple of explorers who came to Florida for the first time and experienced what was here long ago. I do this through some of the writings of John Muir and William Bartram.
Here at the Canaveral National Seashore, there’s a William Bartram trail where there’s a zebra butterfly that he was the first scientist to describe scientifically. But these were also people of faith, and interestingly, in their writings, they integrated that faith and their scientific observations, more of what we would call natural history now. In many ways, this book is natural history and is a return to that type of writing. It’s not an attempt to be a scientific paper.
I hope that I have integrated my faith and non-scientific thoughts alongside the scientific ones. At the end, I develop the beginnings of a sea ethic drawing on inspiration from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and explore some of the practical approaches to the Indian River Lagoon specifically moving towards a different way of thinking about the human-non-human interaction in this place. How do we love our place? Come with me on a journey to Northern Brevard County.
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