Swordfish Vertical Distribution and Habitat Use in Relation to Diel and Lunar Cycles in the Western North Atlantic

The vertical movement patterns of eight Swordfish Xiphias gladius from 109- to 249-cm lower jaw fork length in the western North Atlantic were studied utilizing pop-up archival transmitting tags. Deployments ranged from 120 to 151 d. Swordfish demonstrated significant differences in depth and temperature distributions between daytime and nighttime periods. Individual Swordfish behavior was characterized by occupying surface waters of less than 100 m during the night and depths greater than 400 m during daytime hours, vertical movements between the surface and depth occurring during crepuscular hours. The maximum depth recorded was 1,448 m (one of the deepest recorded depths for the species). Daytime surfacing behavior was seen in all tagged Swordfish, a rare finding for Swordfish in tropical latitudes. A dominant diurnal period of 1 cycle/d was found from a power spectral density analysis of five of the tagged Swordfish, a novel method for determining periodicity in the behavior of tagged animals. Regression analysis indicated a significant positive relationship between depth and fraction of the moon illuminated, supporting anecdotal and vessel logbook information from local Swordfish fisheries indicating changes in depth in relation to lunar phase

Water

Meta-analysis can be a powerful tool for demonstrating the applicability of a concept beyond the context of individual clinical trials and observational studies, including exploration of effects across different subgroups. Meta-analysis avoids Simpson's paradox, in which a consistent effect in constituent trials is reversed when results are simply pooled. Meta-analysis in critical care medicine is made more complicated, however, by the heterogeneous nature of critically ill patients and the contexts within which they are treated. Failure to properly adjust for this heterogeneity risks missing important subgroup effects in, for example, the interaction of treatment with varying levels of baseline risk. When subgroups are defined by characteristics that vary within constituent trials (such as age) rather than features constant within each trial (such as drug dose), there is the additional risk of incorrect conclusions due to the ecological fallacy. The present review explains these problems and the strategies by which they are overcome

Bolinao, Northern Philippines : participatory planning for coastal development

Meeting: International Workshop on Community - Based Natural Resource Management, 10-14 May 1998, Washington, DC, USIn IDL-3134

Human dimensions of marine reserve policy-applications in Bimini

This paper discusses the importance of including sociocultural and economic variables in the design of a particular marine resource management strategy. Marine reserves, a type of marine protected area (MPA) that commonly excludes all extractive activities, have become an increasingly popular tool for resource management. We focus on the case the small islands of Bimini, Bahamas, located next to the Gulf Stream on the northwestern edge of the Grand Bahama Bank and about 88 kilometers from the coast of southern Florida, U.S. A portion of the marine waters surrounding North Bimini is one of five sites proposed, in January 2000, to be a marine reserve by the Bahamian government. The case of Bimini illustrates the inextricable linkages between human activities and the marine environment, and the need to consider human behavior as a key factor in the design of protected areas. The following themes are reviewed: marine reserve policy with focus on sociocultural and economic variables; historical, socioeconomic and cultural factors of the Bimini Islands; Bahamian interest in a Bimini marine protected area; standard socioeconomic parameters useful to marine reserve policy; and finally, our research interests