An assessment of the sportfishery on artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs off Port Aransas, Texas

The concept of using surplus World War II Liberty Ships for the construction of artificial reefs to increase the availability of sportfish off the Texas coast was originally suggested in 1974. It became a reality, under the guidance of the Texas Coastal and Marine Council, when three ships were sunk off Port Aransas in the winter of 1976. Since that time, the ships have rapidly become encrusted with algae, anemones, sea urchins, gorgonian coral and other attached marine life. These in turn have provided refuge and food source for a host of small invertebrates and fishes. In June of 1977, one and a half years after ·sinking the first ship, the Texas Coastal and Marine Council commissioned this study to evaluate the impact of the Liberty Ship reefs on sportfishing in the Port Aransas area. For a project such as the Liberty Ship reefs to be successful, there are two criteria: the ships must increase the supply of desirable sportfish and fishermen must be willing to utilize the new resource. The present study is an attempt to evaluate both aspects of the project. A user survey was conducted to determine the amount and type of recreational usage the Liberty Ships receive.A report to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in fulfillment of Contract No. IAC(76-77)-2149Submitted September 1977Marine Scienc

The icthyofaunal composition and trophic interactions of the artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs off Port Aransas, Texas

This study is an assessment of the biological effects resulting from the construction of an artificial reef consisting of three surplus Liberty Ships that were sunk off Port Aransas, Texas in 1976. ... Systematic monthly assessment of the Liberty Ship Reefs presented a unique sampling problem. Snagging problems made trawling and other methods of netting unfeasible while depth, turbidity and currents precluded diver transects, baited camera recorders, or hook and line assessments, at least during the winter sampling periods. Fish traps were proposed as a reliable and cost effective means of sampling in all types of weather and sea conditions. Fish traps allow concurrent sampling of open bottom areas and reef with the same ship, making possible a true comparison of the relative productivity of artificial reefs. They also allow consistent day-night sampling and seasonal replication without the inherent variations in skill that bias diver transects and hook and line assessments. This initial report describes the construction and deployment of traps and summarizes the data collected during January-February sampling cruises. These initial sampling cruises indicate that fish traps are a practical method of assessing the productivity of the artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs.Winter seasonal report submitted to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in partial fulfillment of IAC (78-79)--0869Submitted March 1978Marine Scienc

Species composition and ecological relationships of icthyofauna on artificial Liberty Ship reefs off Port Aransas, Texas : final report submitted to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in partial fulfillment of IAC (78-79)-0869

Submitted August 1978Five cruises were made to the Liberty Ship Reef off Port Aransas, Texas in June and July 1978. Collecting procedures, which included sampling by fish trap, hook and line, and long line, were relatively unchanged from previous trips. Increased diver participation allowed more reliable placement of the traps onto the deck of the ships. Diver observations of fish greatly supplemented other data collecting methods. Fishes collected or observed on the ship reef were divided into four ecological groups: 1) obligate reef fishes which are demersal and almost always associated with natural or artificial structures, 2) coastal pelagic species which are attracted to structures for orientation, 3) estuarine-dependent opportunistic species which exploit the reef for food and shelter but are not confined to that habitat, 4) typical continental shelf species which occur near the ship reef but are not actually associated with it. At this time of year the Liberty Ship reefs support a large and diverse fish fauna, composed of both predator and prey species, and appears to have many characteristics of a complete reef habitat with an abundance of catchable sportfish.Marine Scienc

Violeta Parra: Popular Educator

This study reexamines the work of Chilean folklorist Violeta Parra with the purpose of identifying her as a popular educator

Global 1968: Implications for Adult Education in Social Movements

May 2018 marked the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most revolutionary moments of the 20th Century. We will address the pedagogical aspects of the movements around the world

Dare to Know by Thyself (Sapere Aude): The Legacy of the Enlightenment and Post Enlightenment in Working-Class Adult Education

The Enlightenment and Post Enlightenment relationship to working-class adult education is examined in the case of the working class in Chile at the turn of the 20th century

Short rotation coppices along watercourses - an innovative combination of sustainable agriculture and water protection

PosterThe multiple advantages of short rotation coppices (SRC) such as sustainable energy wood production, income diversification, and ecological services are well known and investigated in various projects. Additionally, strips of SRC present an innovative instrument to buffer nutrient and pesticide contamination of watercourses induced by soil erosion. Through extensive management, provision of permanent plant cover, soil improvement, and long rotations, SRC-strips on arable land could help to achieve the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive (i.e., reduction of nutrient contamination of water bodies). In comparison to near-natural buffer strips, SRC also provides monetary benefits for farmers and therefore is a sustainable combination of agriculture production and water pollution control. SRC-strips represent a special form of agroforestry systems. From the aspect of erosion control and runoff reduction, strips should have a width of 12 - 18 m; therefore, the SRC-strips are small in comparison to conventional SRCs. This circumstance requires adapted planting strategies such as a reduced tree number (3.000 trees/ha), a rotation period of at least 10 years and manual harvest to optimise labour input and revenues. The project “Short rotation coppice along a watercourse” investigates the anticipated environmental advantages of SRC-strips. The study site, installed in 2011, is situated near Wolferschwenda in Thuringia on the edge of a field, slightly sloping towards the Bennebach stream. The experiment compares three management options for the buffer strip: cropland, grassland, and SRC (willow). Two main objectives of the project are (i) simulation of potential soil input by erosion on the study site under different crops and (ii) investigation of the retention capacity of SRC, grassland, and cropland. Intensive soil measurements carried out from 2012 until present show initial trends that SRC may be a more effective nutrient buffer than grassland. More detailed results are expected from irrigation experiments in spring 2014

Effect of dissociation pulse circuit inductance on the CuCl laser

The performance of the double-pulsed CuCI laser is improved by a decrease in the inductance of the dissociation pulse circuit. Higher efficiency is obtained due to a larger ground state copper atom population and lower optimum dissociation energy