field sites

Sean Lyman sjl3 at acpub.duke.edu
Thu Nov 6 15:56:42 EST 1997


Hello Coral Listers--

I am writing to seek guidance as to appropriate field sites for a 
dissertation project that I'm planning.  First, please allow me to 
introduce myself--my name is Sean Lyman, and I'm working at the Duke 
Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC, USA.

The project I'm planning is a first cut at evaluating whether marine 
protected areas (MPAs) really do enhance surrounding fisheries given 
enough time.  The literature I've seen has been equivocal, and most (if 
not all) evaluative projects were based on fishery landing data.  I'd 
like to take a different tack and take a shot at measuring larval export 
out of protected areas.

The way I plan to do this is a two-component project.  The first is a 
suite of larval traps (like those in Doherty's work) strategically 
positioned to measure larval import and export.  The second is a basic 
life-history analysis, determining age and size structure of fish 
populations as well as growth rates and age at first reproduction.  I 
plan to look at a well-protected area, an exploited area, and an area 
somewhere in between.  Alternatively, I could use three reserves of 
varying age.  I believe that the combination of these two methods becomes 
a powerful test of the larval export hypothesis.

For this experiment to be successful, however, I need to be clever about 
choosing both target species and field sites.  To make the larval trap 
component work effectively, I need to find a site in an area of known and 
simple flow regime.  This area also needs to have sites with the three 
levels of protection I mentioned above.

I write to seek the advice of those who may know of good locations to do 
this research.  I'm considering the Florida Keys, but I'm open to 
consideration of any coral reef sites, though preferably in the 
Atlantic.  I'm also beginning to think about target species so if you can 
offer advice on this I would also be appreciative.

Finally, I would like to invite anyone working on similar problems or 
interested in this sort of project to contact me as discussions could 
only prove helpful.

Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the lenth of this message.

Cheers,
Sean

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sean J. Lyman                              
Duke University Marine Laboratory          sjl3 at acpub.duke.edu
135 Duke Marine Lab Road                   sean.lyman at duke.edu
Beaufort, NC  28516  USA

Phone:  (919) 504-7565
Fax:    (919) 504-7648



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