Mangroves are conspicuous components of tropical and subtropical ecosystems around the globe. Because they occur along marine, estuarine, and riverine shorelines, a wide variety of fishes can be found among their inundated root systems. As a result, these habitats probably play a variety of roles in the lives of associated fishes —feeding areas for some, daytime refugia for others, and nesting or nursery areas for yet more. Questions, therefore, regarding the contribution of a given mangrove habitat to the diversity, productivity, and stability of broader fish communities and their exploited components must be carefully qualified. Unfortunately, mangroves have only recently received focused attention from the international scientific and conservation communities as potentially important fish habitats —habitats which are rapidly shrinking worldwide.

OBJECTIVES

The intent of this symposium is to provide an oral and written forum for the exchange of ideas, approaches, methods and pertinent data on the linkages between mangrove forests and the fishes and fisheries associated with them. A core of international experts will be invited to lead discussion on the major issues and questions raised.

Objectives:

• To characterize the present state-of-knowledge, identifying critical information gaps, and charting a course for future research.
• To gauge, and ultimately advance, the current understanding of fish utilization of mangrove habitats and their importance in the systems that they occupy.
• To publish submitted papers on this topic in a special issue of the peer-reviewed Bulletin of Marine Science.

SUGGESTED THEMES

Suggested manuscript/presentation themes include, but are not limited to:

• Historical, economic and regional perspectives on mangroves as fish/fisheries habitat.
• Tools and techniques for quantifying fish use and/or fish movement among the prop roots.
• Ecological field investigations on the structure, function and/or dynamics of mangrove-fish assemblages and/or their component species.
• Mangrove wetland restoration and fish assessment/monitoring.
• Conservation and management of mangroves and associated fisheries resources.
• Fishing cultures (artisanal, subsistence, semi-industrial, for-hire, etc.) and their dependence on mangrove resources.
• Do mangrove habitats enhance coral reef fish populations?
• Integration of natural science knowledge into a management framework to conserve mangrove and fisheries resources.
• Future approaches and challenges to conserving fishes and mangroves jointly.

SYMPOSIUM VENUE AND DATES

The “First International Symposium on Mangroves as Fish Habitat” will be held at the Auditorium of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) in Virginia Key, Florida, from April 19 to 21, 2006. Virginia Key is an 82-acre barrier island located off the Rickenbacker Causeway in the City of Miami, and has been home to the Rosenstiel School since 1953. Today, the school has a faculty of over 100 scientists in all major disciplines of marine science, and offers curricula in applied marine physics, marine policy, marine and atmospheric chemistry, marine biology, fisheries, marine geology and geophysics, and meteorology and physical oceanography. Adjacent to the Rosenstiel School are laboratories of the US Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories (AOML), and the Southeast Fisheries Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Also on Virginia Key are the Miami Seaquarium, and MAST Academy, the maritime and science technology high school of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.