There are no sharks in Shark Valley. It's named for two nearby estuaries, the Shark River and the Little Shark River.

Bull sharks and Black Tipped Sharks swim in these rivers whose banks are lined with mangrove trees, but the only river in Shark Valley

is the Everglades trademark river of grass, a sawgrass marsh that comprises of freshwater ecosystem.

An entire food chain lives in the Everglades.

The plants provide food for the herbivores.

The herbivores provide food for the carnivores. Dead organic matter compost

itself back into a nutrient-dense foundation that sustains new plant life.

It is in its absolute purest form, a circle of life.

Susan Reese, former supervisory park ranger at Everglades National Park wrote.

Mangroves start the whole food web by dropping leaves into the water

and then the leaves are fed on by algae and bacteria.

Eventually the leaves break down. leaves are fed on by algae and bacteria.

Eventually the leaves break down, fall apart,

become this nice detritus soup that's fed on by the smaller organisms,

working their way up to the little crabs and shrimp and then the fish who feed the birds and

dolphins sharks everything else.

The biodiversity of the Everglades is astounding.

This is the basis of the protection of the area as a national park.

Not its breathtaking scenery, but its ecological diversity. The scenery is of course spectacular

covering a broad range of land and water scapes but it is a park dedicated

to conservation to the unique flora and fauna found in the everglades

and the symbiosis between them. The specific collection of plants and animals are only found in this one place, comprised

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