By: Hannah Calich, RJD Graduate Student For many years we lived in a world where the state of our fish stocks was not a primary concern. However, our population has become so large, and our technology so advanced, that we are utilizing resources at a rate that was once inconceivable. We have significantly impacted many […]
By Alison Enchelmaier, RJD Graduate Student Declines in the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, have raised interest in studying the species’ early life history. Potential causes could include overfishing, increased predation, and habitat loss; but determining the cause is difficult due to the American eel’s complex life history. One potential factor, predation, is important to consider […]
By Hanover Matz, RJD Intern The long migrations undertaken by Atlantic and Pacific salmon to reach their spawning grounds are known by many. Salmon are anadromous; they spend their adult lives foraging at sea, and then return to the freshwater rivers of their births to spawn and reproduce. How this remarkable feat is accomplished by […]
By Daniela Escontrela, RJD Intern The Galapagos Islands are home to four species of native and endemic boobies: the blue footed boobies, the masked boobies, the Nazca boobies and the red footed boobies. The name for the boobies comes from the name “bobo” which is a Spanish term for fool or clown. They are all […]
By Laurel Zaima, RJD Undergraduate Intern Commercial fisheries have prioritized maximum economic profit over the ecological distresses caused by their fishing practices. Consequently, unsustainable fishing practices hook high amounts of bycatch in relation to the amount of the target species. Bycatch are the animals that are accidentally caught and discarded due to lack of value, […]
By Hannah Calich, RJD Graduate Student Bycatch, or the unintentional capture of non-target species, has negative biological, economical and social consequences (figure 1). Reducing bycatch has been a fisheries management priority in the US for many years and is increasingly becoming a priority in European fisheries as well. While technical, regulatory and social approaches have […]
By Jessica Wingar, RJD Intern Conservation of threatened species is very critical in order to maintain the state of our oceans. There is a wide range of reasons for why the species needs to be conserved from threat of boat strikes to disease outbreak. However, humans cause many of these threats. In an effort to […]
By Gabi Goodrich, RJD Intern Everyone is well aware of the problem of overfishing. Fishing fleets go out and fish until they meet their quota. While over fishing is a major problem for the oceans health, another, less talked about side of the issue is the fuel consumption of those fishing fleets. As the “fight […]
By Hanover Matz, RJD Intern September 19th proved to be an exciting trip to begin the fall RJ Dunlap shark tagging season. Students from Westminister Christian School joined the RJ Dunlap interns along with Dr. Neil Hammerschlag at the Crandon Marina for a successful day of shark research. The interns loaded the gear onboard as […]
By Jake Jerome, RJD Graduate Student and Intern Last Friday marked the first time that RJD went shark tagging out of West Palm Beach, and it proved to be an exciting first! We were joined with one of our more frequent school groups, the South Broward Reef Dogs. After making the trek up to West […]