[Coral-List] Re: Artificial Reefs-predator exclusion
Ben Richards
Ben.Richards at noaa.gov
Thu Mar 11 09:12:05 EST 2004
Todd and John -
This statement from your last message gives me pause for thought. How
much should we be manipulating the natural environment and how careful
do we need to be when thinking of long-term effects? By excluding
predators and allowing individuals to survive that would not have done
so in a natural environment, are we not diluting the "fitness" of the
adult population. If ARs are effective and become used on a large
scale, what long term effects might we be having on natural fish
populations? I know this issue has come up in the aquaculture industry
as farm raised fish are accidentally released or escape into natural
populations.
~ben
On Mar 8, 2004, at 1:12 PM, Todd Barber wrote:
> I agree that the post larval stage is critical, it is for this that
> preditor exclusion devices can be used to increase juvinile fish
> survival rates....once fish make to to 2 cm-3 cm or so, the survival
> rates are much higher. Dr. Robin Sherman from NOVA Southeastern
> University did a nice study on this using artificial reefs with the
> exclusion devices.
---
Benjamin L. Richards
Program Specialist for Research and Information Technology
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
P.O. Box 500368
Marathon, FL 33050
ben.richards at noaa.gov
phone: (305) 743-2437 x28
fax: (305) 743-2357
NEXTEL: (305) 360-1488
http://floridakeys.noaa.gov
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