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OCTOBER 7, 2014 INDIAN RIVER COUNTY COMMISSION ADDRESS R. GRANT GILMORE, JR., PH.D., SENIOR SCIENTIST, ECOS COUNTY CONSTRUCTION PLANS: Your efforts at Oslo Road are to increase human use of the boat ramp and road thru paving the road, constructing a parking lot and water holding pond. You said you did not want larger boats, just more boats and a paved road and parking lot, removal of little over an acre of mangrove habitat and dredging 300 cu yds of sediment to a depth of 3 ft out to 210 ft from the present ramp. I know of no other location in Florida where a critical fishery nursery site, essential fish habitat, has not been negatively impacted by increased human use, even if it is by more small power boats. RESEARCH DISCOVERIES; The four fishery species that routinely use Oslo are the most valuable inshore fishery species in Florida waters. They are the spotted seatrout, red drum (redfish), snook & tarpon. During my 27 year tenure at Harbor Branch I and my team of students and research assistants captured, weighed and measured many fish from this wonderful productive Lagoon. We made many discoveries that have been blatantly ignored by this Commission. I never captured young of the year snook or red drum in all those collections in the vicinity of Harbor Branch. They did not settle there or at many other locations examined over the years throughout the Lagoon. But we found very special locations where they did settle, typically no more than two or three of these species at the same location. Oslo is the only site I have found that attracts all four of our major fishery species as critical nursery site. WHAT IS A CRITICAL NURSERY SITE: It is hard for even an experienced fisherman to understand how valuable and rare these sites are as he can put his boat in and travel to many locations to catch an adult snook or trout. However, I cannot put my boat in and go to many locations to capture one inch snook or trout. These locations are very rare. What are these small young predators looking for? Two needs are primary: (1) They are looking for a place where they can escape predation — particularly from their parents: (2) and a place where they can find sufficient prey to grow rapidly so that they can fend for themselves in the deeper water further offshore. Dredging the shoreline bottom deeper than a few inches even a few feet from shore eliminates trout and redfish nursery habitat along the shore. U , f Ir,(3.ip I96