Much of the tremendous fluctuation in fish population sizes is due to variable conditions experienced by their tiny eggs and larvae–currents, food, and predator distributions. Physical-biological processes dictate the survival and dispersal of egg and larvae but are difficult to resolve using traditional net sampling at coarse scales in space and time. Thus, developing new tools capable of observing fish egg distributions at fine scales is important to our mechanistic understanding of why fish populations decline and recover.

Together with Jules Jaffe’s Lab, we are investigating how survival and dispersal of eggs and larvae affect an endangered reef fish, Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) in the Cayman Islands. Nassau Grouper populations have drastically declined throughout the Caribbean, primarily due to overfishing at their spawning aggregations. The aggregation off Little Cayman is the largest (documented) remaining for the species, and has greatly increased in size due to one large recruitment pulse. Mechanistic understanding of how eggs survive to become spawning adults will allow for appropriate management to help protect this species.

This work is still in progress.

Stock BC, Mullen AD, Jaffee JS, Candelmo A, Heppell SA, Pattengill-Semmens CV, McCoy CM, Johnson B, and Semmens BX. 3-dimensional advection, diffusion, and mortality of eggs and larvae dispersing from a Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) spawning aggregation observed with a novel plankton imaging system. Larval Fish Conference, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, May 2019. Slides

Stock BC, Mullen A, Roberts P, Jaffe JS, Waterhouse L, Pattengill-Semmens C, McCoy C, and Semmens BX. Fine-scale dispersal of eggs from a Nassau Grouper spawning aggregation. Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Nov 2016. Abstract