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PRELIMINARY CRUISE REPORT

STATE DEPARTMENT CRUISE ID: DOS-2006-113

NOAA CRUISE ID: NF-07-05

SHIP NAME: NOAA Ship Nancy Foster

CLEARANCE COUNTRIES:

United Kingdom, for Anguilla and British Virgin Islands

Dominican Republic

Guadeloupe/France, for Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy

Netherlands Antilles, for Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten

Saint Kitts and Nevis

The United States Virgin Islands' (USVI) Grammanik Bank, located to the south of St. Thomas, is the site of multi-species spawning aggregation for economically important fish including yellowfin grouper, Nassau grouper, tiger grouper, and dog snapper. Fishing pressure at this suspected source of larval recruits prompted the Caribbean Fisheries Council in 2004 to close the bank yearly from February - April. A series of banks south of the USVI (St. Thomas and St. John) and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) provide similar habitats and spawning aggregation sites. Unfortunately, the biological and physical processes which drive production on these banks, the circulation connecting these banks, and the flows across these banks have yet to be quantified. Absent such data, management decisions (including Marine Protected Area [MPA] designations and temporary closures) are presently based on professional judgment rather than quantifiable, defensible scientific information.

To address this data gap, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, Florida, working with scientists from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in St. Thomas are conducting a three-year interdisciplinary research project using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to conduct biological and physical oceanographic surveys of the Virgin Islands' bank ecosystems and surrounding regional waters. The long-term sustainability of fisheries in the VI and surrounding regions will depend on a comprehensive understanding of regional spawning aggregations, larval transport, and overall larval recruitment in the study area.

Document Information

Document Type
Report

Document Format
Acrobat Portable Document Format

Publication Date
2007-05-01

Distribution Information

Contact Information

Distributor
NOAA Institutional Repository (REPOS)
noaa.repository@noaa.gov

Item Identification

Title: DOS-2006-113.pdf
Short Name: 2007 CRER Cruise Report
Status: Completed
Publication Date: 2007-05-01
Abstract:

PRELIMINARY CRUISE REPORT

STATE DEPARTMENT CRUISE ID: DOS-2006-113

NOAA CRUISE ID: NF-07-05

SHIP NAME: NOAA Ship Nancy Foster

CLEARANCE COUNTRIES:

United Kingdom, for Anguilla and British Virgin Islands

Dominican Republic

Guadeloupe/France, for Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy

Netherlands Antilles, for Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten

Saint Kitts and Nevis

The United States Virgin Islands' (USVI) Grammanik Bank, located to the south of St. Thomas, is the site of multi-species spawning aggregation for economically important fish including yellowfin grouper, Nassau grouper, tiger grouper, and dog snapper. Fishing pressure at this suspected source of larval recruits prompted the Caribbean Fisheries Council in 2004 to close the bank yearly from February - April. A series of banks south of the USVI (St. Thomas and St. John) and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) provide similar habitats and spawning aggregation sites. Unfortunately, the biological and physical processes which drive production on these banks, the circulation connecting these banks, and the flows across these banks have yet to be quantified. Absent such data, management decisions (including Marine Protected Area [MPA] designations and temporary closures) are presently based on professional judgment rather than quantifiable, defensible scientific information.

To address this data gap, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, Florida, working with scientists from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in St. Thomas are conducting a three-year interdisciplinary research project using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to conduct biological and physical oceanographic surveys of the Virgin Islands' bank ecosystems and surrounding regional waters. The long-term sustainability of fisheries in the VI and surrounding regions will depend on a comprehensive understanding of regional spawning aggregations, larval transport, and overall larval recruitment in the study area.

Purpose:

The project is directed at answering one over-arching question: How are unprotected VI banks, MPAs such as the Hind Bank Marine Conservation District, seasonally closed areas such as the Grammanik Bank, and inshore areas ecologically linked via regional reef fish larval dispersal, transport, and life-history patterns?

This survey sampled water properties, currents, , and dispersal and transport of settlement-stage larvae in the VI and neighboring regions. Once the biological samples have been sorted and the oceanographic data have been analyzed, results from this cruise should yield not only an understanding of regional spatial variation in the supply of settlement-stage fishes, but also insights into the relative importance of Grammanik Bank and its MPAs as a source of juvenile fishes recruiting to the waters of the VI.

Specifically, results should address the following questions:

How do the abundance and composition of ichthyoplankton around Grammanik Bank and other similar banks change with space and time?

How much of this variation in abundance and composition can be explained by the oceanographic setting?

How do the oceanography and ichthyoplankton assemblages interface with the boundary areas of seasonally or permanently closed MPAs?

Notes:

This file was shared with the state department.

Keywords

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UNCONTROLLED
None DOS-2006-113
None NF-0705
None NF0705

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Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Platform Keywords
Nancy Foster > NOAA Ship Nancy Foster

Document Information

Document Type: Report
Format: Acrobat Portable Document Format

Support Roles

Author

CC ID: 880082
Date Effective From: 2007-05-01
Date Effective To:
Contact (Person): Smith, Ryan H
Address: 4301 Rickenbacker Cswy
Miami, FL 33149-1026
United States
Email Address: ryan.smith@noaa.gov
Phone: (305) 361-4328
Fax: (305) 361-4392

Distributor

CC ID: 1186722
Date Effective From: 2007
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): NOAA Institutional Repository (REPOS)
Email Address: noaa.repository@noaa.gov
URL: NOAA Institutional Repository Home Page

Distribution Information

Distribution 1

CC ID: 1186721
Start Date: 2007
End Date: Present
Download URL: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/46447
Distributor: NOAA Institutional Repository (REPOS) (2007 - Present)
File Type (Deprecated): PDF
Distribution Format: PDF - Adobe Portable Document Format
File Size: 1.21 MB
Compression: Uncompressed
Review Status: Chked Viruses Inapp Content

Catalog Details

Catalog Item ID: 57797
GUID: gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:57797
Metadata Record Created By: Lee M Weinberger
Metadata Record Created: 2019-09-26 16:46+0000
Metadata Record Last Modified By: SysAdmin InPortAdmin
Metadata Record Last Modified: 2023-10-17 16:12+0000
Metadata Record Published: 2023-01-12
Owner Org: SEFSC
Metadata Publication Status: Published Externally
Do Not Publish?: N
Metadata Last Review Date: 2022-04-27
Metadata Review Frequency: 1 Year
Metadata Next Review Date: 2023-04-27