by Fiona Graham, RJD Intern Sometimes imposing a regulatory action alone is not enough. Implementing a new policy aimed at reducing the mortality of a species or group of species requires scientific studies to gather the information necessary to enact that policy. Some important questions to be asked are which species need protecting? Where are […]
by Jon Dorsey, RJD Intern Climate change is a major concern that has been facing humankind for quite some time. Sea surface temperatures are predicted to rise between 1 – 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 and the consequences of this world-wide climate alteration include a loss of species richness, habitat shifts, and certain species endangerment. […]
by Stacy Assael, RJD Intern October 14th, 2012 Today the RJD team and I had the pleasure of fishing with Miami’s own MAST Academy, and the one and only Greg Markham. Expectations were high as we set out to the same spot from the day before where we caught 5 sharks. We were heavily staffed […]
by James Komisarjevsky, RJD Intern Imagine being out on a ship and facing a 60 meter high wave. An extremely large wave like that is known as a rogue wave. Rogue waves can be anywhere from two or more times higher than the average wave crest. They can be anywhere from 20 meters to 60 […]
by James Komisarjevsky, RJD Intern October 13, 2012 It was a quiet morning having to leave my house at 5:30AM in order to make it down to Islamorada for the shark trip planned for that day. Like always, I was screaming with excitement for being able to go out on the water with the RJD team […]
by Fiona Graham, RJD Intern Marine protected areas (MPAs) are regions of the ocean that have been zoned off and designated a level of protection. Different levels of protection can be offered by these zones, for example a no take zone, where regulations in that area do not permit fishing of any kind. Another example […]
by Megan Piechowski, RJD Intern The intermediate position of forage fish species in the food chain creates a high level of importance of their presence to the health and success of an ecosystem. Forage fish, like herring or anchovies, contribute directly to the commercial fishery economy through their direct catch and contribute indirectly through forage […]
October 12th, 2012 by Dani Escontrela, RJD Intern It had been about two months since my last shark tagging trip, so needless to say, I was super excited. I barely got any sleep the night before thinking about how incredible this trip would be. At the same time however, I tried to not get my […]
by Laurel Zaima, RJD Intern Ecological disruptions have been occurring at an alarming rate and have been affecting many sensitive marine organisms. Fortunately, the coral reefs have been fairly resilient to the climate change; however, these disturbances have created a high demand for solutions to conserve the resilience of the coral reef. The scientists of […]
by Dani Escontrela, RJD Intern Bluefin tuna is the most valuable fish species in the world. Their numbers, however, have greatly decreased in recent years due to their high demand. In fact, in 2001 “one 202 kilogram bluefin tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma, Japan sold at the Tsukiji market for 862 USD/kg” (Shamshak […]