By Casey Dresbach, SRC Intern The pH of the ocean is changing incrementally, as a result of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. As shown in Figure 1, a proceeding decline in seawater pH has been induced by ocean acidification and will continue over the next hundred years. The ocean is expected to decline an average […]
By Leila AtallahBenson, SRC Intern On top of whales being majestic giants that are exciting to watch, they are also an important animal for marine ecosystems. They enhance primary productivity in nutrient lacking areas and ocean surfaces, and their carcasses provide habitat and energy sources for deep-sea species1. In both these instances, whales fix […]
By Shannon Moorhead, SRC Intern On Saturday March 5th, the SRC team was joined by students and faculty from Felix Varela Senior High School- and what a day it was! When I arrived at Crandon Marina, I was afraid that questionable weather would keep us inshore, but our trip leader settled on a location: Soldier […]
By Dana Tricarico, SRC Intern The term “ecotourism” has been widely used since the late 1980s and has become a major niche in not only the tourism sector itself, but also in tourism studies (Weaver and Lawton, 2007). Traditional approaches to conserving biodiversity in ecologically important areas have proved to be ineffective due to conflicts […]
By Grace Roskar, SRC Intern Bottom-trawls are a type of fishing gear that can be destructive towards the seabed and its associated organisms. A fishing vessel tows large trawl nets that trap marine animals as they are dragged across the ocean floor. With heavy ropes, chains, or bars, the fishing gear disturbs the seabed while […]
By Laura Vander Meiden, SRC Intern A recent study has found that if current rates of plastic introduction into the ocean continue, by 2050 approximately 99 percent of all seabird species will have ingested plastic. The study, published in September of 2015, uses a computer model based upon an analysis of data provided by past […]
By Hannah Calich, SRC Graduate Student When people think of fisheries they tend to think of species-selective fisheries, such as swordfish or tuna fisheries. However, many fisheries do not focus on a particular species and will harvest most of the fish they catch; these are known as indiscriminate fisheries (McCann et al., 2016). While indiscriminate […]
By Kevin Reagan, SRC Intern As the ocean becomes more of a “hot topic” in the media and public forums, planners and designers of marine reserves must increasingly factor in socio-economic factors alongside biological principles when discussing policy. The human aspect that is usually responsible for the initial need for conservation and things like no-take […]
By Julia Whidden, SRC Intern On February 15th, a crew of 8 SRC members and 7 National Geographic filmmakers merged together for a 3-day tagging excursion in search of the Ferraris of the ocean: the great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran). With cloudy skies and a slim chance of rain, we made brief introductions and set […]
By Grace Roskar, SRC Intern Sea turtles have existed on Earth for over 100 million years and presently inhabit warm waters in tropical and subtropical latitudes. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has classified six of the seven species of sea turtles as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable (IUCN, 2014 in Laloë et […]