Here is a short bio on Lionfish Research and Education Program intern Elizabeth Underwood:
I’m originally from Atlanta, GA and my passion for marine biology research really took off when I was a senior in high school and conducted a year- long research project on the behavior of the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. I graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Biology and also played Varsity soccer there. Davidson doesn’t offer a marine science program but they do have a great herpetology lab, so I spent the majority of my senior year conducting research on a variety of reptiles and amphibians. I focused primarily on the feeding ecology of diamondback terrapins living in the salt marshes of southeast United States and hope to have my research published in a journal in the next year.
To get my marine science research “fix” during college I participated in the School for Field Studies program on South Caicos the spring semester of my junior year, and had the time of my life. This is when my interest in lionfish research began and I haven’t looked back since. I spent a week this summer in Belize on a REEF lionfish collecting research trip, collecting hundreds of lionfish throughout the week and spending late nights on the back of the boat measuring, dissecting, and filleting the fish. Continue reading →
In an effort to reduce the amount of organic waste produced by the various branches at CEI that utilize the wet-lab facility, a Caribbean Spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) ranching project was initiated in mid-December 2012.
Mature wild-caught lobster were housed in one of the vacant holding tanks in the wet-lab and fed off-cuts, old dissection specimens and any other organic material that would have previously been discarded. Due to a lack of published information on ideal stocking densities and holding conditions, another objective of this study is to determine the optimal levels of the above mentioned parameters. A number of capture methods were tested. These include baited cages, pole-snares and by hand. The latter two methods have thus far been the most effective.While the primary focus of this project is waste management, a secondary focus is an attempt to capture Spiny lobster pueruli, pre-settlement. Pueruli refers to a life stage in the lobster between larvae and juvenile. These pueruli are then transported back to the lab, where they are also fed organic waste produced by the lab, chopped into a finer form than that which is given to the mature specimens. Continue reading →
Since May 2011, Christopher Haak, a PhD student (and avid fisherman) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, along with other scientists, has been trying to solve the mystery of where juvenile bonefish live, from settlement through the time they join adult populations on the flats. Exhaustive efforts to locate juveniles along the densely-developed coastlines of Florida were met with little success, leading researchers to the comparatively pristine shorelines of The Bahamas to continue their search.
For the past one-and-a-half years, they have scoured the coastlines of South Eleuthera, conducting 1000+ seine hauls, encompassing a broad range of coastal habitats. This project is funded by Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and based out of CEI. These efforts (with the help of South-Eleutherans; thanks Denny and Kelsey Rankin!) have succeeded in locating over 800 juvenile bonefish as small as one inch in length, and have revealed some intriguing trends. For example, contrary to what might be expected, juvenile bonefish do not appear to frequent the mangrove creek systems or expansive tidal flats commonly used by adults, preferring instead to remain along shallow, sheltered shorelines near deeper basins or channels.
Can you find the juvenile bonefish among the mojarra in the picture below?
Recently, students from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), hailing from Limestone, Maine, spent their 2 week J-Term learning about sea turtle research and conservation at CEI.While here they learned about how the Bahamas is a unique foraging ground for juvenile green sea turtles. The students traveled to Half Sound, located northwest of the Cape, on the Atlantic side of the island. This site provides a protected habitat with a small opening to the ocean, a seemingly ideal place for juvenile green sea turtles to forage.
For their research, MSSM students built on research conducted by Annabelle Brooks and The Island School Fall 2012 research group. During their field time they conducted habitat mapping and surveys of the sound- observing shoreline habitat, taking depth measurements, and noting bottom type. They also set up the first baited remote underwater video (BRUV) in the sound to capture footage of the possible predators in the sound. Boat surveys were conducted, where students did actual counts of sea turtles, and a seine net was set up in the mouth of the tidal creek, to capture and tag sea turtles. The tagging of sea turtles done at CEI is in partnership with the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research at the University of Florida, which aims to form a global database of sea turtle tagging data.
Over the holiday break, CEI Lionfish Research and Education Program Manager Dr. Jocelyn Curtis-Quick took a trip to the states to promote CEI lionfish research. She traveled to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) headquarters in Washington, D.C., and presented a talk entitled “Not on my reef,” discussing the threat of invasive lionfish to Caribbean marine ecosystems, and efforts to mitigate the problem. She also presented on other current CEI research, while highlighting the organizations’ goals of research, outreach, and education. Thanks Jocelyn!
The Aquaponics team has been busy harvesting lettuce throughout the holiday season. Before Christmas, Kristal Ambrose, Aquaponics technician, along with interns and other staff, harvested a total of 45 lbs. of lettuce, grown in the aquaponics grow beds at CEI. This lettuce is watered with the “waste” water from the tilapia tanks. The lettuce filters out nutrients, making the water suitable to be recirculated to the tilapia. This type of water recirculation system uses 98% less water than typical agricultural lettuce grow beds.
Besides being used in the dining hall, the harvested lettuce was handed out to CEI employees, as well as community members throughout South Eleuthera, making for a joyous holiday season for all.
While CEI will be welcoming a new bunch of Spring interns in January, one intern is already at CEI, getting off to an early start in the Sustainable Aquaculture Program.
Tom Keet, from South Africa, attended Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, SA. He just finished his undergraduate degree in Aquaculture, and is putting to use what he learned in the CEI wet lab. Tom heard about CEI while researching sustainable aquaculture projects, and decided to apply for a spring internship.
Tom is helping to establish a pilot study on the feasibility of culturing spiny lobster in the lab. With his knowledge of aquaculture systems and his strong work ethic in the field, Tom is a valuable addition to team CEI. While here, Tom says he plans to enjoy his time working in the ocean, strengthen his experience in aquaculture, and fish in his free time. Tom plans to head back to South Africa in June to pursue a Master’s degree in Aquaculture.
Isobel Flake, research assistant for the Lionfish Research and Education Program, has been working on a research project during her time at CEI. Here she describes her research:
Like many programs at CEI, the Lionfish Research and Education Program is constantly occupied with fieldwork, data entry, the Island School research class, and miscellaneous other projects. With so little excess time, the program rarely has the chance to get involved with local communities. For this reason, I decided to focus my efforts on community outreach and education by creating lionfish signs for my independent project. Ideally posted in 19 locations across the island, I plan to have these signs posted at community gathering areas such as docks, marinas, and/or community centers. The signs offer information including history of the lionfish invasion in the western Atlantic, why they pose such concerning threats, and what people can do to help. The goals for this project are not only to increase awareness, but also to encourage local consumption of the tasty invasive.
Wading in the middle of the tidal flats of northeast Grand Bahama, the untrained eye wouldn’t even begin to recognize the magnitude of life hidden among the cryptic maze of creeks and mangrove cays… but that’s not the case for Greg Vincent, Jason Franklin and the rest of the H2O Bonefishing crew who miraculously navigate this mangrove labyrinth and interpret the slight intricacies at the water’s surface to point out unseen schools of fish all around. It is this often unrecognized magnitude of life and diversity that the CEI Flats Ecology & Conservation team, guided by the volunteered resources and experience of H2O Bonefishing, seeks to understand and protect. This past week, Dave Philipp, Aaron Shultz, Brian Shultz, and Ian Rossiter of the CEI Flats team, along with Jeff Koppelman from the Fisheries Conservation Foundation (FCF), Karen Murchie from the College of Bahamas (COB), and others from the Bahamas Initiative [a joint venture between CEI, FCF, and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT)] have ventured out into the Grand Bahama flats ecosystem with hopes of capturing and tagging 500+ bonefish (Albula vulpes). So why are we going to so much effort to tag these bonefish? As any sports angler will tell you, bonefish are the fish to catch in the Bahamas. So much so, that the revenue generated toward the Bahamian GDP by catch-and-release bonefishing has been estimated to be over $140 million (that’s a lotta bones… get it). Despite their value, we know very little about the natural history of this species. We don’t know its home range, migration patterns, spawning location/timing/behavior, etc… Without this knowledge, any conservation effort toward this valuable species is really just a shot in the dark. That’s where the tags come in. Continue reading →
After visiting the Blue Ocean Film Festival as finalists in September, Ian Rossiter (Flats Team intern) and Brendan Talwar (Shark Team intern) submitted their film to the Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous Marine (World Festival of Underwater Images) in Marseilles, France. After a few weeks, they received an email announcing their first award, granted by the French Federation of Film and Video. With this exciting announcement came the news that winning films would be shown across the world at small film festivals everywhere.The first venue to showcase the winning films was the Miami Underwater Festival from November 30 to December 2, 2012, where the Story of Sharks was shown to young audiences at the Miami Science Museum. On the same weekend, the video was shown to the Bahamian Minister of the Environment at the Cape Eleuthera Institute/Island School Research Symposium. The next step is submission to a few more festivals around the Bahamas and United States before distribution online. (Photo of Brendan (L), Ian (R), and their mentor, Didier Noirot).
biology research really took off when I was a senior in high school and conducted a year- long research project on the behavior of the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. I graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Biology and also played Varsity soccer there. Davidson doesn’t offer a marine science program but they do have a great herpetology lab, so I spent the majority of my senior year conducting research on a variety of reptiles and amphibians. I focused primarily on the feeding ecology of diamondback terrapins living in the salt marshes of southeast United States and hope to have my research published in a journal in the next year.
To get my marine science research “fix” during college I participated in the School for Field Studies program on South Caicos the spring semester of my junior year, and had the time of my life. This is when my interest in lionfish research began and I haven’t looked back since. I spent a week this summer in Belize on a REEF lionfish collecting research trip, collecting hundreds of lionfish throughout the week and spending late nights on the back of the boat measuring, dissecting, and filleting the fish. Continue reading 
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