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Rick Nemeth Center for Marine and Environmental StudiesUniversity of Virgin Islands US Virgin Islands |
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| Personal profile |
As Director of the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies (CMES) I have focused the department on applied fisheries and habitat conservation research. This has lead to considerable grant funding to examine the influence of anthropogenic activities on the functioning of coral reef systems and the importance of marine protected areas in protecting deep coral reef habitats and rebuilding fish stocks, in particular, grouper and snapper spawning aggregations. Our research findings were instrumental in establishing the Grammanik Bank seasonal fishery closure in 2005 which protected spawning aggregations of the endangered Nassau grouper and seven species. Ongoing research is focused on three key areas: 1) understanding the connectivity between grouper spawning aggregations which are located on deep shelf edge reefs and larval grouper recruitment in shallow water habitats around the USVI, 2) spatial and temporal patterns of migration and mesophotic reef habitat use of grouper and snapper spawning aggregations and 3) comparing the movement and migration patterns of Caribbean and tropical Pacific groupers as a means of determining the minimum boundaries for MPA’s around grouper spawning aggregation sites. Working with fishermen, non-profit conservation organizations, local and federal resources agencies, CMES produced an educational documentary on the biology of reef fish spawning aggregations in the Virgin Islands highlighting the social-economic issues of local fisheries and current research (Pickert et al. 2006, Seas of Change: Spawning aggregations of the Virgin Islands. DVD by Friday's Films, San Francisco, CA 28 min). |
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