Tag Archives: Conservation

RSMAS Science Highlights of 2011

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RSMAS was a busy place for cutting-edge science this year. Here’s a look back at the top research studies that made headlines in 2011 and the latest science and education from Virginia Key and beyond.

Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s study of one hammerhead shark’s lone journey to New Jersey made headlines in early 2011 as did Dr. Lisa Beal’s ongoing research on the Agulhas Current and its link to global change change.

Coral reefs made news this year, including from a newly published study by Dr. Diego Lirman that showed Florida’s reefs cannot endure a ‘cold snap’ and from a study of Papua New Guinea reefs by Dr. Chris Langdon that suggests ocean acidification may reduce reef diversity.

 

Before the year closed, Dr. Shimon Wdowinski presented a new study at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco that showed tropical cyclones could trigger earthquakes.

RSMAS scientists and student were part of many new and ongoing research expeditions. Researchers and students from RSMAS joined an international team on a six-month field campaign in the Indian Ocean, known as DYNAMO. They are studying how tropical weather brews over the region and moves eastward along the equator, with reverberating effects around the entire globe. Follow the ongoing work from the scientists.

Meanwhile, it was a busy end of the year for Lisa Beal and her research team who embarked on a month-long expedition to the waters off of South Africa to understand how one of the world’s strongest ocean currents – the Agulhas Current – is both affected by climate change and also has an effect on climate change.

On the academic side of RSMAS life, the Masters of Professional Science program was in full swing this year and the newly acquired Broad Key Research Station welcomed its first cohort of students to study the coral reef ecosystems of the Florida Keys. Finally, joint degrees in law and marine affairs was launched at UM to provide students with a unique educational opportunity to tackle environmental issues.

As 2011 comes to a close, RSMAS faculty, researchers and students are looking forward to another busy and exciting year in 2012 filled with new scientific discoveries and educational opportunities.

Tell us about your research plans for 2012.

Oyster stuffing and other Thanksgiving traditions

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When you think of Thanksgiving dinner does turkey and green bean casserole or oysters and shrimp cocktail come to mind? What you may not realize is that early celebrations to give thanks for a bountiful harvest included oysters and seafood among its traditional dishes. Today, oyster stuffing, shrimp cocktail, crab and even smoked fish dip still have a place alongside (or inside) the traditional turkey and green beans on many dinner tables.

If your Thanksgiving menu includes seafood this year, choose sustainably.  There are several free sustainable seafood guides that can become your personal shopping assistant. The most popular, Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch Guide, is available as a smart phone app as is the Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone. Another reference guide is NOAA’s FishWatch Facts, which also provides information on the national standards that goes into sustainable seafood assessments.

What determines a fish’s sustainability is a complex formula that takes into account, among other things, current fish population levels and how effective management measures are in preventing overfishing and population declines. This assessment starts with good science.

Lucky for us, much of this good science is being done here at RSMAS. There are many RSMAS scientists working to collect the fishery population data and management that can be used to determine sustainability assessments.

If you want to learn more about how the science collection process works, check out the research being done by Dr. Jerry Ault and team in the Fisheries Ecosystem Modeling and Assessment Research (FEMAR) group and researchers studying fishery management, fish population dynamics and aquaculture.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

– Annie Reisewitz

Follow Annie on Twitter @annelore

Florida Sharks Breathe a Sigh of Relief

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“They will live to swim another day,” is how RSMAS graduate student Austin Gallagher summed up the move this week by Florida officials to ban several shark species from being fished out of state waters.

Science is critical to ensure effective environmental policies and Austin and Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, RSMAS’ resident shark expert and assistant professor at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy, demonstrated how to make that happen. Over the last year they supplied critical scientific data to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that revealed tiger and hammerhead sharks are quickly disappearing from Florida waters and needed protection before it’s too late.

Scientists estimate that northwest Atlantic shark populations have declined by over 80% in the last two decades. The reason why tiger and hammerheads are so vulnerable, according to Neil, is because of their low reproductive rates. They are slow to mature, not reaching maturity until around 10 years old, and only giving birth ever three years.

Neil points out that current tiger and hammerhead shark population’s levels are vastly different between Florida and the Bahamas. He believes this is due to the proactive conservation laws in the Bahamas, where shark fishing and longline fishing, which takes a large number of sharks as accidental bycatch very year, are banned.

Austin, a second-year Ph.D. student, said the new Florida law will also give a boost to sharks across the greater Caribbean and rest of the southeast Atlantic as well. In conjunction with the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program is studying which shark species are most vulnerable to overexploitation. He believes this new law demonstrates that the wildlife commission realizes the need to protect the ocean biodiversity.

The new measures, which goes into effective Jan. 1, 2012, prohibits the harvest, possession, sale and exchange of tiger sharks and great, scalloped and smooth hammerhead sharks harvested from state waters. RSMAS shark researchers showed how scientific information is critical to ignite government action.

Read more about this new shark law here.

– Annie Reisewitz
Follow Annie on Twitter @annelore