Caribbean Marine Research Center, Lee Stocking Island,
Exuma, Bahamas

National Undersea Research Programme,
National Marine Fisheries Service,
School of Oceanography, University of Washington,
North Carolina State University, and
Virginia Institute of Marine Science

The Fisheries Oceanography and Recruitment in the Caribbean and Sub-Tropics (FORECAST) programme integrates a number of projects into a comprehensive study that focuses on the effect of oceanographic factors on the recruitment and larval dispersion of three commercially important fisheries: queen conch, spiny lobster, and Nassau grouper. When analysed in conjunction with the various life cycles of each
commercial species, the data collected is expected to assist in determining the effects of anthropogenic stress as well as future management strategies for the sustainability of these marine resources. Incomplete information concerning the key controls of population fluctuations has precluded accurate predictions concerning the abundance and distribution of these populations.

Coastal and marine resources (Chapter IV of the Barbados Programme of Action)

• An integrated life history model for spiny lobsters was created and used to determine the effect of marine reserves on exploited spiny lobster populations. Results indicate that reserve location and size can have a significant effect on population and fishery statistics.
• The study on the effect of oceanographic factors on the recruitment and larval dispersion of queen conches, spiny lobsters, and Nassau grouper found the following:
1. Oceanographic conditions have a significant impact on recruitment patterns. Key factors affecting the level of recruitment include dispersal patterns among sub-populations, as well as larval growth and survival
rate.
2. Major regional variations in the conch community structure correlated to physical oceanographic dynamics.
3. Despite large expanses of seagrasses on the Exuma Bank, large long-term aggregations of juvenile conch are limited to a few particular sites comprising less than 1 per cent of the available seagrass habitat. Conse-quently, it is more important to protect the existing conch nursery grounds than arbitrarily protecting a portion of the conch distribution range.
4. Mass migrations of queen conch appear to serve as a dispersal mechanism for juvenile queen conch from centers of recruitment, allowing for the restocking of the fishing grounds.
5. Casitas, artificial lobster shelters designed to attract settling lobsters, must be located in habitats with adequate post-larval supply and settlement substrate availability. The placement of casitas in dense seagrass-algal mat habitats helps to increase the number of lobsters.
• Nassau grouper change habitats as they mature: small post-settlement groupers live in algae-covered coral clumps; early juveniles live outside and adjacent to those clumps; and larger juveniles are found in natural and artificial patch reefs and mangroves.

• Knowledge of the factors affecting behaviour during reproduction and molting, considered the most vulnerable times in a lobster’s life cycle, leads to an improved understanding of the species as wells as better management policies.
• Management practices such as a closed-access fishery must be applied in order for casita-based lobster fisheries to be sustainable.
• Methods that better monitor resources that cross habitat boundaries need to be devised, possibly by identifying the most vulnerable life stages or finding more comprehensive ways to effectively manage resources with well-planned Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
• By setting aside a critical habitat as a MPA, populations of fishery-targeted species can survive, for the reason that reproductive adults are protected without being harvested.
• The location of an MPA is as important as the size of the area protected. For example, it is more important to protect the existing queen conch nursery grounds than arbitrarily protecting a portion of the conch distributional range.

Dr. John Marr
Perry Institute for Marine Science
Caribbean Marine Research Institute
250 Tequesta Drive
Tequesta, FL 33469