Oh, the Locations We Go: The Journey of Grey Snapper Larvae on the West Florida Shelf – Tech Cyber Internet

Eric Bovee is an MS scholar within the College of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences on the College of Florida. Eric was awarded the Florida Sea Grant Man Harvey Fellowship in 2024.

All of us have our internal present that guides us all through our profession journey. My present began on the College of Florida, the place I obtained my B.S. in marine sciences. After graduating, my present curved extensively west — I grew to become a North Pacific Groundfish Observer in Alaskathe place I collected data on fish populations aboard varied business fishing vessels.  As my present settled down, I stayed in Alaska as a technician for the Tongass Nationwide Forest, amassing information on topics such because the impact of logging roads on fish passage and variations in fish communities post-stream restoration.

My present then took a wild flip again east. I grew to become a technician onboard the NOAA R/V Henry Bigelow helping on the annual Backside Trawl Survey, which collects information on fish species starting from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Nova Scotia, Canada. My present then “closed the loop,” returning me to the College of Florida the place I presently analysis the larval dispersal of Grey Snapper on the West Florida Shelf as an M.S. scholar within the Murie Lab.

Grey Snapper (Lutjanus griseus) is sometimes known as “Mangrove Snapper.” Regardless of this title, immature Grey Snapper will also be present in different inshore habitats, comparable to seagrass beds and oyster reefs. As soon as mature, they transfer offshore to a variety of habitats together with, however not restricted to, coral and rocky reefs On account of this motion, it’s exhausting to attach which offshore spawning areas provide eggs to essential inshore nursery habitats.

To reply this query, first, our lab needed to establish the place Grey Snapper spawn of their offshore habitat. Fortunately, my lab mate Ashely Weschler had carried out a reproductive examine on Grey Snapper within the Gulf of Mexico, which recognized spawning areas alongside the West Florida Shelf by amassing feminine fish and histologically figuring out the state of their ovaries. We additionally dropped down cameras to find out the abundances of Grey Snapper in areas the place we collected our fish.

Along with Ashley’s reproductive examine, I recognized different potential spawning areas on the West Florida Shelf through the use of data collected from the Gulf Fisheries-Unbiased Survey of Habitat of Ecosystem Assets (G-FISHER). This survey makes use of stereo-baited distant underwater video arrays to depend fish and report their lengths. I recognized areas the place there have been excessive counts of Grey Snapper that additionally had a median dimension of mature fish. The areas Ashley and I recognized have been utilized in my larval dispersal mannequin.

I used the Connectivity Modeling Systemcreated by the Paris Lab on the College of Miami. This mannequin differs from different larval dispersal fashions — fairly than treating each larva as a passive particle, it permits the consumer to incorporate larval conduct comparable to ontogenetic vertical migration (the flexibility for the larvae to swim up and down the water column as they develop). After together with data on offshore spawning areas, inshore nursery habitats, larval conduct, and modeled ocean currents, the mannequin can provide us an output of predicted areas the place Grey Snapper larvae would settle inshore.

Completely different present methods can take larvae to varied areas, regardless of originating from the identical spawning habitat. My analysis hopes to tell fisheries managers concerning the connectivity between sure offshore spawning habitats and inshore nursery habitats on the West Florida Shelf, and for managers to think about these larval pathways when making administration choices. That is essential since Grey Snapper helps a big leisure fishery that happens in each state waters and federal waters.

Because the ocean present guides Grey Snapper larvae inshore, an analogous present has guided my profession choices, taking me everywhere in the United States, whereas a few of my associates again house have by no means left my hometown. Grey Snapper larvae taught me to all the time observe your internal present — you by no means know the place it could take you!

Wish to study what the remainder of the Florida Sea Grant Man Harvey Fellows are as much as? Try these student-written blogs to examine their respective backgrounds and analysis: https://www.flseagrant.org/tag/ghf-blog/