Heinz Proft (left) and Dr. George Dennis inspect a weatherstation at Warderick Wells Exuma Land and Sea Park, Exuma Cays,Bahamas.
The Caribbean Marine Research Center (CMRC) was created in 1984to address critical problems facing the world’s living marineresources. CMRC is one of the region’s leading centers forfield research and training in marine science, with principalfacilities in Florida and the Bahamas, research sites throughoutthe Caribbean, and affiliated scientists and universities.
FORECAST weather stations are pinpointed on the above map of theBahamas. The stations help track larval transport of thequeen conch, spiny lobster and Nassau grouper.
In 1987,CMRC launched a comprehensive, long-term program,entitled Fisheries Oceanography and Recruitment in the Caribbeanand Subtropics (FORE-CAST) to investigate and identify the criticalprocesses that deter-mine changes in the abundance of key marinespecies in Florida and the Caribbean. In the FORE-CASTprogram, scientists from eight U.S. marine science institutionscollaborate to examine the meteorology, oceanography, marineecology, and fisheries biology affecting the life cycles of threecommercially important species: the queen conch, spiny lobster, andNassau grouper.
Most marine organisms live and grow in open systems in whichocean currents link man-grove forests, sea grass beds, coral reefs,and open oceans in an interconnected system of marine habitats.
The queen conch, spiny lobster and Nassau grouper move amongthese habitats during their lifecycles, hatching in spawning areasand drifting with currents, sometimes for hundreds of miles, beforesettling onto the sea bottom and growing into adults.
Because larval transport is strongly influenced by storms, wind,and currents, a major focus of FORECAST has been to learn howoceanographic and atmospheric forces control the movement of larvaeto coastal nursery areas and determine the supply of conch lobster,and grouper to a given habitat.
Several Campbell Scientific, CR10-based weather stations weredeployed to monitor the atmospheric forces in Exuma Sound, Bahamas,a major study site in the FORECAST program. The capability toplace weather stations in remote locations for extended periods oftime is an asset to the program. Weather stations on CatIsland and Eleuthera collected data for up to five months beforebeing downloaded.
Results from the weather stations —in conjunction with the nettows, current-meter data, and field samples —show that successfultransport from spawning areas to nursery grounds depends not onlyon favorable weather conditions, but also on the chance occurrencethat larvae will settle safely into nursery grounds.
Greater understanding of these factors as well as populationdynamics of marine animals is essential in predicting regionalsupplies of fish and shellfish. This in turn enableseffective policies to be set for pre-serving marineenvironments. FORE-CAST is supported by NOAA’s NationalUndersea Research Program.