Designing marine fishery reserves using passive acoustic telemetry

Marine Fishery Reserves (MFRs) are being adopted, in part, as a strategy to replenish depleted fish stocks and serve as a source for recruits to adjacent fisheries. By necessity, their design must consider the biological parameters of the species under consideration to ensure that the spawning stock is conserved while simultaneously providing propagules for dispersal. We describe how acoustic telemetry can be employed to design effective MFRs by elucidating important life-history parameters of the species under consideration, including home range, and ecological preferences, including habitat utilization. We then designed a reserve based on these parameters using data from two acoustic telemetry studies that examined two closely-linked subpopulations of queen conch (Strombus gigas) at Conch Reef in the Florida Keys. The union of the home ranges of the individual conch (aggregation home range: AgHR) within each subpopulation was used to construct a shape delineating the area within which a conch would be located with a high probability. Together with habitat utilization information acquired during both the spawning and non-spawning seasons, as well as landscape features (i.e., corridors), we designed a 66.5 ha MFR to conserve the conch population. Consideration was also given for further expansion of the population into suitable habitats

Estimating Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) home ranges using acoustic telemetry: implications for the design of marine fishery reserves

Marine reserves (MRs) may function as a vital tool in the conservation and management of marine resources if source populations are managed for the benefit of those downstream. Consequently, it is critical to evaluate the home range of marine animals to ensure that MRs are large enough to protect source populations. We used acoustic telemetry to study movements of adult queen conch (Strombus gigas) within aggregations at two sites in the Florida Keys from June 1997 through July 1998. A total of 68 conch were tagged and tracked for up to one year. Latitude and longitude of each conch were recorded biweekly and data used to estimate the minimum speed, degree of site fidelity, and home range of each animal. Conch showed significantly greater displacement/ time during the summer. There were no significant differences in movement rate, site fidelity, or size of home range between males and females. Mean home range was 5.98 ha. Based on estimated home ranges of the aggregations, the size and location of the existing reserves at these two sites were inadequate to protect the conch aggregations should the fishery reopen

Search for Lorentz Violation in km

Kilometer3-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube, ANTARES, and the proposed Km3Net neutrino observatory in the Mediterranean have measured, and will continue to characterize, the atmospheric neutrino spectrum above 1 TeV. Such precise measurements enable us to probe new neutrino physics, in particular, those that arise from Lorentz violation. In this paper, we first relate the effective new physics hamiltonian terms with the Lorentz violating literature. Second, we calculate the oscillation probability formulas for the two-level vμ-vτ sector. Finally, we comment on some of the challenges and outlook for this analysis.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1505858)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1505855)Science and Technology Facilities Council (Great Britain

Translocation as a strategy to rehabilitate the queen conch (Strombus gigas) population in the Florida Keys

Queen conch (Strombus gigas) stocks in the Florida Keys once supported commercial and recreational fisheries, but overharvesting has decimated this once abundant snail. Despite a ban on harvesting this species since 1985, the local conch population has not recovered. In addition, previous work has reported that conch located in nearshore Keys waters are incapable of spawning because of poor gonadal condition, although reproduction does occur offshore. Queen conch in other areas undergo ontogenetic migrations from shallow, nearshore sites to offshore habitats, but conch in the Florida Keys are prevented from doing so by Hawk Channel. The present study was initiated to determine the potential of translocating nonspawning nearshore conch to offshore sites in order to augment the spawning stock. We translocated adult conch from two nearshore sites to two offshore sites. Histological examinations at the initiation of this study confirmed that nearshore conch were incapable of reproduction, whereas offshore conch had normal gonads and thus were able to reproduce. The gonads of nearshore females were in worse condition than those of nearshore males. However, the gonadal condition of the translocated nearshore conch improved, and these animals began spawning after three months offshore. This finding suggests that some component of the nearshore environment (e.g., pollutants, temperature extremes, poor food or habitat quality) disrupts reproduction in conch, but that removal of nearshore animals to suitable offshore habitat can restore reproductive viability. These results indicate that translocations are preferable to releasing hatchery-reared juveniles because they are more cost-effective, result in a more rapid increase in reproductive output, and maintain the genetic integrity of the wild stock. Therefore, translocating nearshore conch to offshore spawning aggregations may be the key to expediting the recovery of queen conch stocks in the Florida Keys