Conch and Lobster Tagging

Charles Acosta is looking for a lobster to tag in the crevices of the reef at Glover's Reef

Dr. Charles Acosta was back for the second time this year, in early August, to carry out a LAMP survey training (see previous entry) but also to continue his work on queen conch and lobster tagging (see posting “Commercially important species at Glover’s Reef”).

This time he came back with Sarah Register and Melissa Miller, two students from Nothern Kentucky University where Dr. Acosta is also a professor.

Melissa and Sarah measuring conchs and tagging them. They measure the lenth, width and look for a "flared" lip to see if they are adults.

Dr. Acosta is originally from Belize and has a long history of studying its marine resources. He has been a WCS research associate since 1996 and among other things has compiled the Long term Atoll Monitoring Program (LAMP) tailored specifically to monitor reefs like Glover’s Reef.

Dr. Acosta is constantly questioning the role of marine reserves such as the one at Glover’s Reef in order to modify and adapt regulations to get the most effective results for conservation.

The most recent project aims to show two functions of a Marine Reserve:

-Protection of species with commercial value and which are targeted by local fishery

-Spill-over effect: are the protected species traveling out of the reserve and helping maintain the fishing industry?

To study this Charles Acosta is looking more closely at the population dynamics of commercially-exploited species (spiny lobsters, queen conch, and fishes) in the Glover's Reef Marine Reserve. He is particularly interested in the spatial ecology of these species and the dynamics of the refuge populations and adjacent fisheries

Dr. Acosta has started tagging conch and lobsters and following their progress within the boundaries of the reserve. This is an ongoing study that will take a couple of years to produce the first results.

To find out more about Charles Acosta’s work please visit his webpage: http://www.nku.edu/~acostac/research1.html

More pictures

Rita (our divemaster) caught this lobster to get tagged. It's putting a fight and almost dragging her in the water. Did you know that lobster swam backwards?

Charles is "folding" the lobster to fit into the mesh bag-not an easy operation.

Measuring conchs underwater

Getting ready on Slippery. From left to right: Faegon- boat captain, Rita-dive master and lobster catcher!, Melissa and Sarah going to tag conchs.