CEI’s Dr Jocelyn Curtis-Quick and Skylar Millar attended the 66th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute conference in Corpus Christi Texas last week.
Jocelyn presented the research that her team and Island School class have been working on over the last two semesters – investigating the interactions between the Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus argus, and the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans. This work is of great importance as the potential displacement of lobster in condos could have large negative socioeconomic and ecological consequences for The Bahamas, and the greater Caribbean. Jocelyn also attended a special workshop that brought together scientists, restaurant affiliates and members from various commercial sectors to talk about getting lionfish in the market place. Lots of great ideas and discussion took place!
Skylar was awarded this year’s GCFI Student Travel Award to attend the conference and present the preliminary results of her Master’s thesis project with The University of the West Indies on the early life history of coral reef fishes. Her presentation highlighted some interesting initial trends we are seeing in settlement patterns of reef fishes across seasons and between different habitat locations around Eleuthera – so far it looks like many fish are settling in September and October on the reefs bordering the Exuma Sound!
It was a hugely successful conference and CEI looks forward to next year conference…in Barbados!
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