Concerns Regarding the Conch Fishery Snail Up
After the recent study was made public, the response has been overwhelming. See here and here.
Rolling Harbour
We haven’t mentioned the Rolling Harbour website in some time. If you are not familiar with it, it is a nice site for Bahamas natural history observations. Check it out – here is the latest.
Abaco Parks Video
A great video overview of Abaco National Parks. I hope those of you not on Facebook can access it. I will try and get a non-Facebook link.
Sargassum Accumulations on Caribbean Beaches
Over the last 8 years or so, many Caribbean Islands have been challenged by massive Sargassum algae accumulations on beaches (a Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute fact sheet here, and a high resolution link to the poster here). These accumulations may have many deleterious effects on species that utilize beach habitat, including for nesting turtles. See for instance
Antigua to Bahamas hawksbill migration
After finishing nesting on Long Island, Antigua this past summer, this satellite-tagged hawksbill traveled for more than a month to Long Island, Bahamas. The Long Island-to-Long Island migration covered some 1,600 km, one of the longest migrations we have documented at the early stages of our satellite tracking efforts. A cool way to connect study areas among Layman Lab members! […]
Holiday Reading
It has been a slow fall for Abaco Scientist, but we will be ramping back up in the New Year. For now, here are some recent papers for your holiday reading. Some are straight forward; others a bit more technical. Click on “Holiday Reading” for a couple more papers.
Robots versus Lionfish
I was recently sent a news clipping about an imaginative effort to rid the oceans of invasive lionfish: underwater fish-zapping ROBOTS! The group behind this effort is called RSE which is short for “Robots in Service of the Environment”. RSE is raising money through Kickstarter to support design of a robot, yes a robot, that will do […]
New Study: Queen Conch Populations are Fragmented
A new study found that Queen conch populations are not mixing across the Caribbean suggesting that there are multiple distinct populations. These findings have implications for management of conch fisheries and suggest that local management of populations may be crucial! Check out a popular news article featuring this work here and a link to the original research […]
Thoughts on recent animal introductions to Abaco
A recent issue of the journal, International Reptile Conservation Federation (IRCF), contains two short articles featuring recent observations of two new species introductions to Abaco. Below, I relay these findings and offer a few thoughts on what these recent observations suggest for the future of Abaco’s fauna. […]