Over the last several years, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) has worked cooperatively with the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) to establish Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) monitoring stations at key coral reef areas throughout the Caribbean. CREWS stations consist of a suite of meteorological and oceanographic sensors, monitoring parameters such as air temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, solar radiation, salinity, and sea temperature, as well as other specialized parameters, depending on location.  These data sets are used to develop climate models and ecological forecasting in nearby coral reef ecosystems.

During Phase 1 of CREWS deployment, seven stations were installed in Belize, Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Trinidad & Tobago. In October, 2016, CCCCC received funding to deploy additional stations under Phase 2 in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, specifically at St. Lucia, Antigua, Dominica and Guyana/Suriname. AOML scientists will oversee the installation of the new stations, as well as a new maintenance program to cover both Phase 1 and Phase 2 stations. The new sensors are part of a USAID project with collaboration from CCCC and NOAA/AOML. 

Data from CREWS stations can be accessed at http://www.coral.noaa.gov/champportal/. For more information, contact [email protected].

	Workshop participants overlooking Carriacou, discussing watershed impacts on MPAs and monitoring need.

On September 19-23, 2016, twenty-five staff of  marine  protected areas from ten Caribbean countries and territories met to hone their knowledge of marine protected area bio-phy sical monitoring. The meeting was hosted by the Sandy Island/Oyster Bed Marine Protecte d Area, in  Carriacou, Grenada.

The meeting brought together marine national park staff from all corners of the Caribbean, including from Belize, The Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Bri tish Virgin Islands, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.  During the workshop, managers and marine biologists exchanged information, shared experiences and examined best practices with their peers. Such peer-to-peer learning seeks to provide participants with the opportunity to learn from each other's experience in facing common challenges, and enables knowledge-sharing and implementation of successful practices across borders.

The workshop was organized as an effort of the MPA capacity building partnership between the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) and NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program. Additional support was provided by The Nature Conservancy and SPAW-RAC, and the workshop had technical expertise from NOAA, St. George's University and the University of the West Indies.  Previous Caribbean MPA workshops by the GCFI and NOAA MPA partnership have addressed sustainable finance strategies for marine protected areas, strengthening law enforcement and building compliance, socio-economic monitoring, and outreach and education programmes. This latest activity focused on linking bio-physical monitoring to MPA management action, and the workshop helped participants to put monitoring into the context of effective MPA management.  For more information please contact Emma Doyle at [email protected] . 

 

 

      Dr Hazel Oxenford from the University of the West Indies explaining fish monitoring techniques to workshop participants at Sandy Island/Oyster Bed MPA .

The Endangered smalltooth sawfish is endemic to the Atlantic Ocean, and was historically widely distributed throughout tropical waters. This range has contracted considerably as populations have declined due to overfishing and habitat loss. The only remaining strongholds known for the species are now in small areas of the southeastern US and parts of the Caribbean. Research conducted by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Panama City Laboratory and Florida State University suggests that the west side of Andros Island, Bahamas supports a population of sawfish.  This area is expansive and contains large areas of shallow water that may harbor sawfish, but are currently inaccessible using small research boats.

Fortunately, a team of scientists at the SEFSC Panama City Laboratory have been developing techniques to survey sawfish in such difficult to access areas. Recent sightings in Florida Bay indicate that the shallow pools in the interior of some mangrove keys may be prime habitat for juvenile smalltooth sawfish. Similar to Andros Island, these very shallow areas cannot be surveyed with research vessels, so the SEFSC team used a standup paddleboard to maneuver in the shallows without disturbing the animals. The standup paddleboard allowed the team to gain access to previously inaccessible habitat, and allowed for the unique opportunity to observe this critically endangered species in its natural habitat. In September, the team led a four-day field expedition in the Florida Bay using this technique, and was able to observe up to seven sawfish as well as capture, tag and release one sawfish. 

The research team is scheduled to return to the Bahamas in December and will attempt to capture sawfish on paddleboards with the technique developed in Florida Bay.  Ultimately, the team aims to assess whether the smalltooth sawfish in Andros constitute a distinct population, or exchange with individuals in the US. If you see or incidentally catch a smalltooth sawfish, please contact the International Sawfish Encounter Database at 352-392-2360 or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 941-255-7403. All input and cooperation from the public is greatly valued and helps guide our field expeditions. For further information about this project, please cont act [email protected]  or [email protected] .