ABSTRACT
CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 393
Goliath Grouper............................................................................................................................ 395 Ten Thousand Islands Estuary ..................................................................................................... 395
Methods.................................................................................................................................................. 397 Results .................................................................................................................................................... 399
Goliath Grouper Habitat Description........................................................................................... 401 Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 402 Conclusions and Research Needs.......................................................................................................... 405 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................. 406 References .............................................................................................................................................. 406
The overall goal in managing and monitoring an estuarine ecosystem should be a “healthy” system. Ecosystem health and ecosystem integrity have been variously defined as synonyms of each other and as synonyms of stability, sustainability, resilience, balance, and productivity (Simberloff, 1998; Jordan and Smith, Chapter 30, this volume). A healthy ecosystem is one that also supports reasonable human uses through the long term (Simberloff, 1998). To maintain a healthy estuarine system or to restore a degraded system to a stable and functioning state, it is essential to be able to measure that system’s health. When managing or restoring an estuary to a better condition, it is important to understand its present state, what the current trends are in the ecosystem’s status and how long it will take to achieve a healthy system (Simberloff, 1998).
