MMC to host film screening of ‘Coastal Carnivores’ on Nov. 6

The School of Environment, Arts and Society (SEAS) will screen Coastal Carnivores Tues., Nov. 6, at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

On the southern tip of the Florida Everglades, Shark River meets the Gulf of Mexico to form an estuary that a number of predators, including alligators and bull sharks, call home. The documentary explores how these predators in the estuary will respond to changes in water flows caused by human activity and how they will continue to fulfill their role in the food web. Coastal Carnivores features interviews with a team of FIU scientists, including Mike Heithaus, executive director of SEAS.

“Predators are in trouble and we need to know how their large drops in numbers will affect ecosystems,” Heithaus said. “In some cases, healthy predator populations are important for healthy ecosystems that people rely on for food or recreation. In the Everglades, we don’t know a lot about the roles of the big predators that live there. In order to predict the outcomes of ecosystem restoration, we need to better understand the roles of these predator species and how they might change in response to freshwater flow changes or other ecosystem modifications.”

The film screening is part of the school’s Environmental Film Series. For a complete listing upcoming SEAS events, visit their Facebook page.

The event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and is followed by a panel-led discussion and Q&A session with the FIU research team. It is free and open to the public.