Shark Tagging with Deering Estate

by Jessie Wingar, RJD student When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was incredibly excited to be going shark tagging. I couldn’t wait to go on a trip with a new school group from Deering Estate. I grabbed everything I needed for the day and drove to Diver’s Paradise at Crandon Marina. Little did […]

Shark Tagging with Big Brothers Big Sisters

By Beau Marsh, RJD Intern The day of March 28 proved another successful shark tagging trip.  RJD had the pleasure of spending the day on the water with the Big Brothers Big Sisters group.  The crew was especially excited because past trips with BBBS had all been a treat, and, of course, today was no […]

The Importance of Integrating Human Activities into Marine Protected Areas

By Hannah Calich, RJD student The benefits of marine protected areas (MPAs) have been well documented. However, since implementing them usually involves the removal or restriction of certain human activities, their implementation is often controversial. For example, MPA regulations that limit fishing can have negative socioeconomic consequences in fishing communities, which can lead to illegal, […]

The use of spearfishing competition data in fisheries management

by Pat Goebel, RJD Intern There are fewer fishes in the ocean today than there were 200, 100, and even 20 years ago. This fact is reiterated in the case study authored by Pita, which shows   decreases in the abundance and weight of coastal rocky reef fishes over the last 50 years in Galicia. The […]

Sustainability of Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture

by Alice Schreiber, RJD intern The rapid increase of world population and the large number of already depleted fish stocks pose a significant problem for fisheries currently, and will continue to do so in the future. The growth of responsible and sustainable aquaculture facilities can help to alleviate the strain the human population has on […]

Fishy Behavior: The Effect of Local Fishing on Coral Reef Fish Behavior

By Dani Ferraro, RJD student In the Indo-Pacific, coral reef fish have encountered behavioral changes due to increasing local fishing efforts. The rise of commercial fishing and local fishing have caused a change in species composition, abundance, and behavior of species inside protected areas. In an experiment done by Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley et al, two […]