MAR Connectivity

Our team builds on successful academic and management partnerships that spans five-years between CONANP (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas), ECOSUR (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur), CINESTAV (Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados), NOAA Early Life History Unit at SEFSC, NOAA Physical Oceanography Department at AOML, and the University of Miami-RSMAS (Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science). As a result of this interdisciplinary work, we are obtaining preliminary research and management results including assessments of larval reef fish biodiversity, distribution and relevant coastal oceanographic dynamics. This includes fishes that are ecologically and socioeconomically important to the Mesoamerican reef system such as snappers, groupers, parrotfishes and hogfishes.

Two broad questions drive this research: 1.What is the level of larval dispersal and recruitment connectivity within and amongst the Mesoamerican reef, the Dry Tortugas, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's reserves? 2. Is there evidence of self-recruitment within these marine reserves?

Reef fish populations are part of one of the most complex ecosystems in the marine environment. They are also the most heavily exploited part of the ecosystem and have been pushed to extremely low levels throughout the wider Caribbean. Despite the importance of these populations, relatively little is known about most stages of their life cycles or their interaction with small and mesoscale oceanographic patterns. Important information such as adult spawning behavior, location, and depth of spawning aggregations and recruitment is mostly unknown. Little is known about the status of these fish populations in the western Caribbean along the Meso-American reef system, though stocks there are generally considered to have suffered relatively less exploitation. There are also significant gaps in our understanding of the complex circulation patterns along the western Caribbean’s Yucatan coast where the Caribbean Current and the Loop Current connect and flow into the Gulf of Mexico (Figure). This area plays a potentially important but still unknown role in the route of subtropical gyre circulation which drives the biological production and transport of larvae throughout this region. This research project was designed to provide a baseline study of the fisheries oceanography of the western Caribbean during winter spawning and to provide a basis for future fisheries management decisions.

In addition to multiple inshore surveys that targeted nursery habitats for juvenile and newly settled fishes, shipboard oceanographic surveys were also conducted to establish a baseline of ichthyoplankton abundance and distribution regionally along the reef. Some of the goals and results of this collaborative project include, 1) data applied directly to developing and updating local and regional management plans, and 2) technology/training transfer for future capacity-building in the local communities and academic institutions, and 3) tools and deliverables for local governmental agencies, resource managers, and stakeholders. 

The figures below depict sampling locations in relation to MPAs and preliminary results from our fisheries-oceanography cruise in 2006. Grouper (Serranidae) abundance is shown per station at different depths. Also attached is the map with the 14 initial priority MPAs for the MAR Fund. 

Initial Network of Protected Areas

Because the MAR region has at least 63 coastal and marine protected areas that are part of the national MPA systems of the four countries, the decision to work with a smaller number of areas to integrate the initial network was made. The idea is to begin with a smaller group of priority conservation areas and to incorporate additional groups of areas progressively.

To select the priority areas, MAR Fund facilitated a process that included the participation of different actors from the four countries. The methodology that was designed for this purpose was applied initially through four workshops to obtain the national priorities. These results were then analyzed at a regional workshop, in which the number one priorities for the region were defined. The initial network of 14 areas includes the sites indicated in Figure 1.