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Field guide to marine inhabitants
The purpose of this field guide
is to educate the users of Volusia County’s marine environment about
the diversity of organisms in its waters. The success of this field
guide depends on the enthusiasm of Volusia County’s fishers, divers,
and beach goers. We hope that this field guide encourages citizens
to further investigate what they encounter. This enthusiastic voyage
into marine science can be very beneficial not only to the marine
environment, but to the fisher or diver as well. For instance:
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Misidentification of a fish
can lead to hefty fines.
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Photographs of an odd
marine organism can lead to documentation of an organism’s range
extension (a modification of the known range of an organism).
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Identification of
non-native species is very important to our marine environment.
For example, photographs of the Indo-Pacific Lionfish allowed
biologists to confirm a non-native (invasive) population off of
Volusia County. This is important because non-native species can
often out-compete native species decreasing their populations.
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Most importantly we hope to
educate our children about the proper identification of
organisms and that in return this leads to more responsible
stewardship of our marine environment.
We have included a section named,
“Similar Species” that can be used to help take some confusion out
of identifying closely related species.
We would like to thank our hard working volunteers and interns that
have helped with the field guide. Their work is recognized as photo
credits or as credit to their work on the “Marine Inhabitant
Informational Pages”.
For more information or to submit your photograph of a Volusia
County marine inhabitant please contact:
Chad Macfie, Project Manager,
cmacfie@co.volusia.fl.us
(386-304-5544 ext 116)
Michael Brothers, Education Coordinator,
mbrothers@co.volusia.fl.us
(386-304-5544 ext 104)
