MPA spillover

Unlike the BP oil spill, spillover form marine protected areas (MPAs) is considered one of the most important benefits of MPAs to fisheries.  However, documenting the spillover, i.e. contribution of MPA populations to increase in fish stocks outside of the MPA, has been difficult.

In a new PLoS One article, Mark Christie and colleagues have documented larval dispersal from an MPA on the big island of Hawai'i to unprotected sites - spillover.  They use microsatellites to genetic fingerprint adults and recently settled juveniles in an attempt to match parents with their offspring (kids).  As the authors note, its kind of like CSI in the ocean - using DNA to find clues to determine where the suspects came from.  In this case, they found four parent-offspring pairs out of over 1,000 fish tested.  Note that there is some room for error in the assignments, but if judges think that this level of error is enough to convict a man to a life sentence, it is probably okay for us to believe these matches as well.

Figure 1. Christie et al 2010 PLoS One. Photo: W.J. Walsh.

 
The pairs suggest larval disperse over a range of 15 to 184 km (9 to 114 miles).  Over 100 miles is pretty impressive for a little fish larva adrift.  We've found evidence to suggest that, at hydrothermal vents, larvae can disperse even farther - more than 300 km (185 miles) article.  But, the appeal of Christie's work isn't just the long distance dispersal, but the successful documentation that MPAs can have a positive effect a hundred or more miles away to improve the health of unprotected populations and communities.

Holidays

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.  Posts will be intermittent (not that they aren't already) for a couple of weeks as I celebrate the season (aka cold) with my family and friends and then head off to the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT (aka more cold) at the beginning of the year.

Spotlight: Southern California Protected Areas

One of the reasons that studying larvae, and population connectivity more broadly, is to inform marine management decisions (see Connectivity Page).

Back when I was a blissfully naive undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara, heated debates were occurring over the first management review of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary http://channelislands.noaa.gov/.  Essentially the previous management plan was thrown out the window.  Advances in scientific knowledge, technology and management made the previous plan obsolete.  It was an interesting lesson on how to juggle multiple stakeholders with varying interests - fishermen, tour boat operators, recreational divers, scientists, and marine organisms.  Some of the debates got down right dirty, but the result was probably a better plan for the conservation of the natural resources over the long run... which should benefit everyone.

Anacapa Island, Channel Islands NMS

Now, California Fish and Game is considering larger scale conservation efforts - new protections for 12 percent of coastal waters between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border, and 7 percent of the waters will be no fishing zones. This would be a huge step forward in marine conservation efforts.  I am of course biased towards my birthplace, but Southern California has beautiful, productive, and diverse marine habitats well worth protecting.  Such a large scale effort will of course be met with some resistance and much controversy... even more than a decade after the Channel Islands review.  Many sentiments are the same... skepticism, concern over livelihoods, and mistrust between the parties. However, some of the preconceived notions are being dissuaded by improved communication. A sea urchin fisherman was quoted saying

• "A lot of environmentalists I got to work with, we've found that common ground. They understand that fishermen are not the neanderthals like maybe they thought, and we know that not all enviros are wackos. And we basically want the same thing." 

(reported by Southern California public radio article: http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/12/14/mlpa-preview-2/)

I hope that Cali Fish and Game can move forward with this effort and that in some way my research on sea urchins will contribute to the efforts to maintain healthy fishery populations and marine ecosystems.

Doing a jig

I recall once my graduate advisor coming running out of her office to do a pirouette in the middle of her lab because she got a big grant funded.  (Good thing too, since that grant funded a lot of my research.)  I now know the feeling... not because I got a grant funded. I'm still trying to figure out how to submit an NSF grant while I'm at NIH for post-post-doc money - but its proving to be a pain because funding agencies don't like to mix.  So no grant, but I did have a manuscript sent out for review at Science!  This might be a bad thing to post because, though acceptance has a better chance at this point, they could still boot it and I could be jinxing it.  But this was my goal - go out for review!  ~80% of the submissions to Science don't make it to review, so I consider this a huge win!  Upon reading the email, I leaped out of my chair and did a jig.  If it gets into Science, even better! Keep your fingers crossed for me. For now though, I'll celebrate this achievement.  You've gotta appreciate the high points in this career whenever they come.

High five

I've earned myself a high five yesterday for an apparent breakthrough in my developmental biology education - or may be for just acknowledging the potential power of development.  A high five from the boss is only second to the proverbial 'gold star' - a classic embedded in the hearts of all since elementary school.

So what exactly did I do to earn this symbol of achievement?  One of my current goals is to identify the receptor that sea urchin larvae use to sense the quantity (and possibly quality) of food in the environment (see variable development page).  We have a couple of candidates, none of which have panned out thus far.  So how to proceed?... through developmental biology.  If I can prevent the development of this sensory system through genetic pertubation(s), then we can use genomic approaches to identify the genes, including the receptor, which comprise the sensory system.  Ah ha... genius.  Now to find the right genetic perturbation...

Friday Feature: A Noisy Ocean

How do larvae of organisms living on coral reefs navigate between the inhospitable open ocean to the productive coral reefs?  Noise.  It has been known for a while now that reef fish can hear and orient to the noisy reef.  Shrimp and crabs snap.  Parrotfish grind up corals and waves crash on the perimeter.  If audio recordings of an active healthy reef is played away from the reef, the number of larvae collected dramatically increases.  That fish, who are fellow vertebrates, can hear is probably not a surprise.  Millions of kids talk to their pet fish daily.  What might be more surprising is that coral larvae which are simple invertebrates are also attracted the sounds of the reef.

As the reefs degrade and motorboats become more common, the noise will change.  How will this change the larval supply to the reefs?  The future of coral reefs may partially depend on playing lullabies, of archived audio recordings of healthy reefs, to lure babies.