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The Matheson History Museum presents “Finding Florida: Crossing the Suwannee River in the 1800s; Early Ferries, Bridges & Trestles”

Ken Sulak

Press release from the Matheson History Museum

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Settlers traveling into Florida in the early-to-mid-1800s encountered a nearly trackless longleaf pine wilderness and the necessity of crossing the Suwannee River or its tributaries – the Withlacoochee or Alapaha rivers. The history of settlers, pioneer families, and river crossings is intertwined with the history of Florida. Join historian and fish biologist Dr. Ken Sulak as he shares about this fascinating piece of Florida’s past.

DATE: Saturday, February 24
TIME: 4 p.m.
COST: Free with registration

In-person registration: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/events/65876-finding- florida

Zoom registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__hDDIGQeRNaZb2jPr3SkFg

Kenneth Sulak, Ph.D.

Kenneth Sulak is a research fish biologist who retired in 2016 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Dr. Sulak has a master’s and doctoral degree from the University of Miami School of Marine Science, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

From 1985-1994 he was Director and Senior Fish Biologist at the Atlantic Reference Center, Huntsman Marine Science Centre, New Brunswick, Canada. He has conducted international research as a NATO Fellow in England, a U.S. National Academy Exchange Scientist to Russia, and Chief Scientist aboard a large number of oceanographic research cruises.

Ken has published extensively on marine fish community ecology and sturgeon life history and conservation. He has 50 years of experience researching fish ecology in coastal rivers, estuaries, and the deep-sea in the Atlantic, Arctic, East Pacific, and Indian oceans. The last 25 years he spent as a fish ecologist for the USGS.

His gulf sturgeon research filled critical gaps in knowledge of life history, population biology, and habitat requirements in coastal rivers and the Gulf of Mexico, facilitating conservation of this species. Offshore research focused on deep-reef fish communities off the U.S. east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, and on yellowfin tuna attracted to oil rigs. Ken led four years of intensive USGS research on the impacts of the BP oil spill upon the Gulf of Mexico shelf-edge reef fish communities. Sulak is a founding member of the North American Sturgeon and Paddlefish Society.

For the past two decades Ken has also paddled into the past, researching the history of North Florida early settlers, their river crossings, and their impact on the Suwannee River ecosystem. A series of historical articles are being published, and public lectures continue to be presented on topics from ecological and early settler research.

This event is sponsored in part by Visit Gainesville/Alachua County, FL; The City of Gainesville; and by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of the Arts and Culture, and the State of Florida.

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