Featured Posts
Never Home Alone
A really fascinating new book by my colleague Rob Dunn - an absolute must read. It details the incredible world of life that lives in your homes. Here is the Amazon link and review. Even [...]
A Fishwatcher’s Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything
Came across this fun new book that alludes to, among so many other interesting natural history morsels, our research on fish "pee". Here are some quick excerpts: "... fish ecologist Jacob Allgeier spent years working out [...]
Lost and Found: Israel Point Cave
A guest post from Ali Ball. What a cool find! Thanks Ali. LOST AND FOUND: ISRAEL POINT CAVE In July of 1904, American zoologist Glover M. Allen visited various caves in Abaco to collect bat [...]
Contemporary and Emerging Fisheries in The Bahamas
A recent, easy-to-read, review paper on the state of fishery resources in The Bahamas. A great starting point for assessing the many conservation challenges ahead.
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 [...]
Final Project from our Superstar Intern
Here is the final research project on mangrove die-off from our superstar intern Sofia Sanchez-Zarate, from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Great job Sofia!
Dear Sponge – I Am Breaking Up With You
To help us understand the complexities of nature, we often use simple classifications to help wrap our minds various intricacies. Think about how we classify species interactions: predation, mutualisms, parasitisms, commensalisms, etc. Simple. But complications [...]
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 [...]
Mangrove Disease Poster
We are presenting our mangrove disease research at the American Phytopathological Society (APS) conference this week. View a PDF of the poster here.
Ryann Rossi’s Research Featured by NCSU
Video link here. Great job Ryann!
Hear the roar of the lionfish recorded for the first time
Here is a popular press piece (link here) on the first documented sound production in lionfish. The original paper well qualifies that these data are just preliminary, but very interesting what role this sound production [...]
Artificial reefs in Haiti – ampil poisson!
We have been reporting on our long-term artificial reef research in Haiti for a few years now. This year we were pleased to learn that not only did our reefs survive the massive hurricane Mathew, [...]
Fish pee on coral reefs in the Caribbean makes Canadian Broadcasting Company
An interview I did a few months ago for Quarks and Quirks on CBC radio recently aired. Yes, of course, it is more about fish pee, but I thought I would post it all the [...]
Summary of on-going mangrove die-off research
Here is a video update on the on-going mangrove die-off research. See video here.
Recent work on Nassau Grouper spawning aggregations asks us to rethink current fishing regulations
An exciting new publication just came out helping us better understand Nassau grouper populations in The Bahamas (article here). Using acoustic telemetry data, Dr. Craig Dahlgren and others recorded the movements of different sized Nassau [...]
Are you productive? Or just attractive?
We have posted much about our fish pee research (nutrient provision by the animals in their excretion), using artificial reefs as the experimental tools (here is video footage of one of our most successful reefs). In a [...]
Progress with Mangrove Fungus Biotechnology Project
We recently posted about investigating whether the mangrove fungus we find on infected leaves may have potential uses in biotechnology (see here). The images above show how some Pestalotiopsis cultures we have isolated from infected mangrove leaves [...]
New Reefs Are Born: ampil pipi poisson
As an extension of our on-going research in Haiti, we recently kicked off a new artificial reef project. Working with local fishers, we have constructed two clusters of artificial reefs, one of which the locals will actively [...]
Is every Nassau grouper the same?
The Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, is an iconic species here in The Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean. They are the highlight of a dive in the tourism industry as well as an extremely important commercial fishery. [...]
New species of boa found in The Bahamas
Finding new species these days is usually the business of researchers who work with small things like insects and crustaceans. However, every once in a while researchers uncover big animals. These rarities have hidden away in [...]
Fish Rules
A substantially revised version of the fishing regulations app Fish Rules is out. It is really cool - check it out.
Rats!
Over the last few weeks I've been noticing extensive damage to shrubs and small trees. The bark has been removed over long sections of living and (now) dead plants. I wondered what could be doing [...]
A closer look at a mangrove die-off
The first day of the 7th biennial ASAC meeting has come to an end! Here is a link to the talk about the mangrove die-off in The Marls: A closer look at a mangrove die-off [...]
What if we are wrong about the lionfish invasion?
The bi-annual Abaco Science Alliance Conference is here. We want to get all posters and talks featured on Abaco Scientist (the first poster is up so far). One talk on Friday will hopefully generate discussion [...]
Andros Creek Restorations Ten Years On
We headed to Andros last week to check up on previous projects and think about future directions. I was excited to see how well our first two small creek restoration projects looked. When you restore flow [...]