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Research Programs, Sharks

Shark Expedition Update #4

Shark Update Morgans Bluff
NOAA Fisheries biologist Dr. John Carlson (left) and Stony Brook University SoMAS biologist Mark Bond (right) affix an archival satellite tag to a subadult lemon shark. Credit: Kelcee Smith, NOAA Fisheries.

Morgan’s Bluff: The expedition continued in Morgan’s Bluff on the north side of Andros from May 30th through June 2nd. While sawfish weren’t found in this area, seven more lemon sharks were sampled, bringing the total to 26 genetic samples. NOAA scientist Dr. John Carlson fitted a subadult female lemon shark with a satellite archival tag, which will yield information on movement of this demographic as well as the efficacy of the tag in shallow water.

 

 

Shark Update Fresh Creek
Left to right: First mate Joey Salomone, CEI intern Ian B., NOAA Fisheries biologist Kelcee Smith, and Stony Brook University SoMAS biologist Mark Bond alongside a Caribbean reef shark. Credit: Kelcee Smith, NOAA Fisheries

Fresh Creek: The team returned to Nassau before heading back out to Fresh Creek on Andros’ east side. Fresh Creek lived up to its name’s reputation by being quite fresh, and at a glance, devoid of lemon or nurse sharks. Lemon sharks were spotted outside the mouth of the creek on flats south of the AUTEC U.S. Navy base. Fishing for lemons turned out to be a fruitless effort, so the team headed out to deeper water to try and tackle another project goal: satellite tagging great hammerheads. In deeper waters the team caught several Caribbean reef sharks and silky sharks, but no hammerheads yet.

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Lionfish, Research Programs, SCUBA

Update from SFU visiting lionfish researchers

Through perseverance and teamwork, the SFU team, stationed at The Cape Eleuthera Institute, has made great progress in gathering biological samples to assess the effects of the lionfish predation and other stressors on food webs of local reefs. So far they have sampled 7 out of 16 sites, catching over 300 different fish of different species. The structure and complexity of some sites greatly complicates the sampling effort, so as with any other fishing activities, “some days are better than others”.

It is important to note that their sampling effort is completely non-destructive (yay!)… But what does this mean? Well, they bring the fish up to the boat, fin-clip them, let them recover in floating cages hanging from the boat for 20 min, and then release them back to their home. Continue reading →

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Conch, Lionfish, Outreach

Conch Fest 2013

This past weekend, CEI participated in Conch Fest, the Homecoming celebration for the settlement of Deep Creek, where several CEI staff call home. The focus of this year’s booth was to promote the National Conchservation Campaign, as well as to serve lionfish samples as an alternative to conch.

Deep Creek Middle School students gathered around the CEI booth for a lionfish sample. They had to answer trivia questions on conch and lionfish to get a taste!
Deep Creek Middle School students gathered around the CEI booth for a lionfish sample. They had to answer trivia questions on conch and lionfish to get a taste!
CEI staff Claire Thomas, Meredith Lemon, and Jocelyn Curtis-Quick posing by the CEI booth, ready to cook some lionfish!
CEI staff Claire Thomas, Meredith Lemon, and Jocelyn Curtis-Quick posing by the CEI booth, ready to cook some lionfish!

On Friday night, we served up fried lionfish, fresh out of the fryer. We gave away over 100 samples! Dozens of people came up saying “no you can’t eat that, it’ll kill you!” The truth is, lionfish do have venomous spines, but the meat is healthy and delicious, and once the fish is filleted it can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Educating the community on the truth behind handling and eating lionfish was a priority for the researchers who came out to volunteer at the fest. Continue reading →

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Conch, Flats, Lionfish, Research Programs, Sea turtles, Sharks, Student Research

Spring 2013 CEI/IS Research Symposium was a success!

Students standing by their scientific poster during the Symposium poster session
Students standing by their scientific poster during the Symposium poster session

This past Saturday, CEI and IS hosted their Spring 2013 Research Symposium. The event consisted of research presentations and poster sessions, where Island School students got the chance to present their semester’s worth of work to staff, community members, visiting scientists, and representatives from some Bahamian NGO’s, including Save our Bays. After giving brief presentations that discussed everything from the purpose of the research to data analysis and interpretation, IS students had the chance to attend their first poster session as

Students engaging a visitor, answering questions on their research.
Students engaging a visitor, answering questions on their research.

young scientists. After working on the posters all semester, students were proud to showcase their effort, and share what they learned with those that were interested. The Symposium culminated with keynote speakers Dr. John Tiedemann (Monmouth University) and Dr. Mark Hixon (University of Hawaii), addressing the students and motivating them to continue their critical thinking as they move on to college.

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Conch

Queen Conch Research Update

This past semester, researchers, students, and volunteers have been busy surveying South Eleuthera’s shoreline, looking for queen conch juveniles. Under the direction of CEI researcher Claire Thomas, survey methods were implemented to identify essential queen conch nursery habitat.

Island School students perform a walking transect, identifying and marking juvenile queen conch on Sunrise Beach.
Island School students perform a walking transect, identifying and marking juvenile queen conch on Sunrise Beach.

Queen conch populations are declining in Eleuthera. Past research has shown that protection of adult conch alone is not adequate to protect the whole population, as juveniles and adults utilize different habitat types. Adults are generally found in deeper water in sandy areas, whereas juveniles will be in shallow water, most often in seagrass beds, where they graze on detritus and algae. To ensure that protection is sufficient, juvenile populations also have to be protected.

A juvenile queen conch coming out of its shell.
A juvenile queen conch coming out of its shell.

The government of the Bahamas, along with the Bahamas National Trust, are interested in creating a Marine Protected Area, or No-Take Zone, off the waters of South Eleuthera. The CEI Queen Conch Research Program aims to identify hot spots of juvenile queen conch, through their shoreline surveys, to inform officials of an important place to protect. In the summer, during queen conch mating season, SCUBA transects will be done to identify aggregations of adult queen conch. This information is also important, as breeding grounds are another essential habitat in the queen conch life cycle.

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Lionfish, Sharks, Sustainable Systems

CEI Symposium, a chance to highlight work done this spring

Last week, our second CEI Symposium kicked off with the first night of presentations by Liz Underwood on lionfish reproduction sites, Skylar Miller discussing larval lionfish recruitment, Maddy Young on flats ecology, and Melissa Dick on mangrove cultivator pots. The second night yielded interesting presentations by Peter Wilson on the oceanic whitetip shark expedition, Lauren Horton on stingray physiology, Will Urmston presenting on the best medium to plant microgreens in, and Kristal Ambrose presenting on her beach plastic research.

CEI hosts a large variety of research projects and this symposium is a great way to showcase the hard work done by the interns for the past five months. Nice job everyone!

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Sharks

Shark Expedition Update #3

CEI Shark Intern Ian B. handling a juvenile lemon shark.
CEI Shark Intern Ian B. handling a juvenile lemon shark.

On May 25th, researchers from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center Panama City Lab, along with CEI Shark intern Ian Bouyoucos, departed from Nassau via seaplane to Andros. They spent the next three days at the Flamingo Cay Rod and Gun Club exploring the west side of Andros. The focus of this leg of the expedition is to 1) take genetic samples from lemon and bonnethead sharks, and 2) to find the critically endangered smalltooth sawfish (a cartilaginous fish, closely related to stingrays).

Smalltooth sawfish populations have declined by over 90% in no small part due to their susceptibility to accidental capture in gill nets. Andros is one of the few places outside of the U.S. where smalltooth sawfish are found. NOAA researchers plan on outfitting these sawfish with archival satellite tags to learn more about their movement patterns.

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Lionfish

Lionfish/Lobster experiments

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A still from the lobster/lionfish camera.
A still from the lobster/lionfish camera.

The lionfish program trials for their lobster lionfish displacement experiment are well underway. After many hours of work, all three “lobster cams” are now up and running which was only possible with the help of several staff from different departments around CEI.

Fishermen have given accounts that lionfish are invading their lobster traps, and it is affecting their income. To test if lionfish are capable of displacing lobster from their habitat, infrared cameras were set up to film the interactions of behaviors that occur between lionfish and lobster through both day and night. We already have many hours of footage and have seen some exciting behaviors.

Click on the link below to checkout some sample footage (This link downloads a .avi video file so please check your recent downloads after clicking):

lobster/lionfish video

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Conch, Flats, Lionfish, Sea turtles, Sharks, Student Research

Parents Weekend Spring 2013

This past weekend, the CEI and Island School campus had many visitors eager to hear about CEI research- Island School parents! Parents attended presentations given by IS students on current research projects that the students have been working on since they arrived in March. Research presentations discussed during the event included:

  • The abundance and distribution of sea turtles in Half Sound
  • Effects of longline capture on shark physiology
  • Competitive interactions between lobsters and lionfish
  • Identifying ideal nursery habitat for juvenile queen conch
  • Effects of climate change on bonefish and other mangrove species
  • The relationship between herbivore abundance on patch reefs and proximity to mangroves
  • Assessing settlement of post-larval lionfish
Parents Weekend Spring 2013
SP’13 IS students posing for a group picture after research presentations.

Each presentation was followed by a question and answer session, where students demonstrated their extensive knowledge on the background and applications of their study. Parents also got the opportunity to learn about all of the research happening at CEI, and to meet with research advisors.

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Sharks

Shark Expedition Update #2

Shark on the line On May 19th we made the crossing home to Eleuthera after a two week journey to Cat Island. We successfully deployed over 20 satellite tags from Microwave Telemetry on oceanic whitetips, with a number of confirmed pregnancies and confirmed non-pregnant females caught and tested with an ultrasound from UNF’s Brenda Anderson. Hopefully with this new data we can pinpoint critical habitats for oceanic whitetip reproduction.

With the first leg of the expedition complete, we are all very excited to move on to the next phase of the research cruise. The first stop is Nassau, where an outreach event with our P1080242(1)partners at BREEF and Stony Brook University are hosting marine biology students around the city for shark education lectures and even a trip to see Caribbean reef sharks. Hopefully we can generate awareness in the Bahamas and let people know how incredibly valuable the new shark sanctuary can be for the region. Continue reading →

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