Although Florida's Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission continues to monitor acid rain levels within the boundaries of the Sunshine State, it has found that other pollutants are of greater regional concern to the surface water chemistry.

According to Commission Chemist Homer Royals, good water quality is essential for the survival of fish, desirable aquatic plants, and, yes, even us humans.

Among critical water quality challenges that should be addressed in Florida are the millions of gallons of treated sewage discharged annually into its water systems that are enriched in both nitrogen and phosphorus.

The agricultural industry pumps water containing fertilizer and pesticides from pastures and crop lands. Developers alter watersheds and wetlands by fill operations, paving, and construction. Storm drains discharge nutrient-rich runoff and toxic chemicals from lawns and streets into Florida's waters.

Royals and others test state waterways for nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfate and chloride. Other important parameters studied, which are also of interest to bass fishermen, include pH, specific conductivity, chlorophyll, and water clarity.

"We investigate natural and man-made influences on our surface waters," said Royals. "We've discovered that the large river systems of the St. Johns and lower Kissimmee have been greatly altered by upland development.

"Canals have been dug, flow patterns modified, and marshes drained," he continued. "Many tons of high nutrient, salt, animal waste, and low oxygen content water is being diverted into these systems."

In panhandle networks like the Apalachicola and Escambia rivers, Royals said that alterations to the river to accommodate barge traffic, in addition to industrial discharge, has negatively affected bass populations.

"Our lakes, once fed with waters filtered through expansive areas of vegetation, are now drainage basins for roads and parking lots."

Sewer plants and industrial dischargers find lakes or their tributaries to be convenient dumping sites, while homeowners wanting lush lawns don't realize the same fertilizer that greens grass will green a lake, causing undesirable changes to plant and fish populations.

"Nutrient loading into a system invariably leads to the production of algal blooms which, in turn, result in a loss of rooted native aquatic vegetation, a buildup of organic sediments, and a subsequent loss of spawning and nursing areas," Royals emphasized.

Effects of poor water quality caused by the factors outlined by Royals are varied and complex. For example, direct effects on fish populations are most obviously expressed as massive fish kills.

These fish kills may result from acute toxicity, or may be the indirect result of disease and parasite problems. Commonly, large numbers of fish are killed as the result of oxygen depletion caused by dense algal blooms. Indirectly, degraded habitat may also displace game fish and, ultimately, may result in poor reproduction of such sensitive species as largemouth bass.

Since living things can only survive within very narrow sets of chemical and physical conditions, these parameters being monitored by the Commission to maintain healthy sport fisheries certainly deserve the enthusiastic endorsement and cooperation from the bass fishing community throughout Florida and the nation.