[Coral-List] Mexican Caribbean Fish Spawning Aggregation Project Request

[e-mail stufulton]

Sarah,

In a normal scenario you´d think the fishers would know where the
aggregations are, but in this case you´d you might be suprised to hear:

1. The fishers in the Sian Ka´an Biosphere are primarily free diving
lobster fishers and have only been in the area for 1, at most 2
generations. If you check out the link you can see a dog snapper
aggregation that we found this year - that was located less than 5 km from
their village - they didnt know it was there. We found that by using their
knowledge of the currents and conditions, the bathymetric maps we made
(well, they made as they did all the work) and a lot of diving (again, we
trained the fishers to dive and they did the heavy lifting).

2. The Nassau grouper site, they knew about, and it has been fished. Which
is why, as of 12 sept 2013, the fishers THEMSELVES created a no-take zone,
legally recognized by the Mexican government to protect it. Along with 12
other areas.

This project is the accumulation of years of work, working with and winning
the trust of the fishing communites.

Regards

Stuart


On 29 August 2014 10:58, Sarah Frias-Torres <sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Stuart,
> the fishermen already know where the spawning aggregations are.
> They know where are the ones they fished out to extinction, and the ones
> they are still fishing from, until eventually they too will become extinct.
> Whether they want to tell you or not is another story.
>
> Once they eventually share their knowledge with you (and you have to find
> a way to build common trust) then having the 3D bathymetric surveys will
> add interesting knowledge.
>
> Good luck with the mini-ROV
>
>
> *Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D. *
> Coordinator Reef Rescuers Program
> Island Conservation Centre Nature Seychelles,
> Amitie, Praslin, Seychelles
> http://www.natureseychelles.org/what-we-do/coral-reef-restoration
> -and-
> Research Collaborator
> Smithsonian-National Museum of Natural History
> at Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL, USA
> Twitter: @GrouperDoc
> Blog: http://grouperluna.wordpress.com
> *http://independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTorres
> <http://independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTorres>*
>
>
>
> > Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:40:47 -0500
> > From: stufulton at ntlworld.com
> > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Subject: [Coral-List] Mexican Caribbean Fish Spawning Aggregation
> Project Request
>
> >
> > Dear Coral-listers,
> >
> > I´m writing from Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C (COBI www.cobi.org.mx) a
> > Mexican marine conservation NGO, with a request:
> >
> > We are currently running a fish spawning aggregation site project in
> > Quintana Roo, Mexico where we train local fishers to collect bathymetric
> > data, use this to make 3D bathymetric maps of the area and then predict
> > where we will find spawning sites for key species like Nassau Grouper and
> > Dog Snapper – check out the videos to see what we´ve been up to so far
> > https://openexplorer.com/expedition/fishspawningaggregationsmexico
> >
> > An opportunity has come up to win a mini-ROV for underwater exploration..
> > The mini–submarine, developed by open source software designers (
> > http://openrov.com/) can be used to explore areas up to 100 m deep,
> > normally out of our reach. The 5 projects with the most followers on the
> > openexplorer.com website by the 19th of September will win a mini-ROV.
> This
> > would be great for COBI to help monitor deep waters inside protected
> areas
> > (or potential ones), look for fish spawning aggregations and generally
> > promote the conservation of the keys sites with tools like marine
> reserves
> > and no take zones.
> >
> > If you want to help us protect these iconic species (in some newly
> > discovered aggregation sites) help us, it will only take 2 mins of your
> > time and we will keep you up to date on the project via the link.
> >
> >
> > Help by following the 4 simple steps below:
> > 1. Visit
> > https://openexplorer.com/expedition/fishspawningaggregationsmexico
> > 2. Click “Follow”
> > 3. Click “Sign up”
> > 4. Enter a username and email
> > 5. Go to your email and click the link
> > 6. Click “Follow” on the project again!
> >
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Stuart Fulton
> > Field Coordinator, Comunidad y Biodiversidad AC
> >
> >
> > ps. I don´t think I´m breaking the list rules, I gave them a quick check,
> > but if I am, apologies...;-)
> > _______________________________________________
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>