In 1990, conservationists and fishermen alike pushed the federal government to close the popular Goliath Grouper fishery because intensive fishing had caused a dramatic decline in their numbers. Today there is a big push to reopen it. But are there enough grouper? Has their habitat been restored? Are the fish even safe to eat?
To answer questions like these, scientists at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) started exploring the ecology of the Goliath Grouper.
Using research to inform management decisions is a primary mission of the FSU Marine Lab, according to Director Felicia Coleman, Ph.D. “One way we do this is by ensuring our scientists carry their science forward into the policy arena so it can provide the scientific underpinnings for informed policy decisions, whether dealing at local or global scales, from organisms to ecosystems.”
Being willing to engage in research that produces results that may not be popular is important, Coleman says. “I often find myself quoting the late Stephen Schneider, a climate scientist from Stanford University, who said, ‘Staying out of the fray is not taking the moral high ground, it’s passing the buck.’ At FSU, we don’t stay out of the fray.”
The researchers at the lab determined that the Goliath Grouper, which can weigh up to 800 pounds, have dangerously high mercury levels and the population has not sufficiently recovered. They also debunked the idea that the huge fish were eating the smaller, more plentiful grouper important to local fishermen.
Replacing Hunches with Science
Replacing underwater hunches with science is nothing new to the Coastal and Marine Laboratory. In fact, Florida State University has had saltwater running through its veins since 1949 — just two years after it transformed from the Florida State College of Women to a co-educational university. That year, it opened the FSU Oceanographic Institute on 25 acres at Alligator Point, where the lab remained for 15 years before moving to its current home on St. Teresa, about 45 miles south of Tallahassee.
The Oceanographic Institute maintained a substantial research effort throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The research balanced fundamental investigations of the productivity of tropical continental-shelf waters in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico with applied research on practical problems of commercial and sport fisheries and their use of other marine resources.
Current Research
Away from the lab, FSUCML faculty member Dean Grubbs, Ph.D., has been cruising grassbeds and mangrove islands throughout South Florida and the Bahamas searching for the immense Smalltooth Sawfish, the only marine fish listed on the U. S. Endangered Species List. Grubbs describes these unworldly fish as a cross between a shark and a ray with a hedgetrimmer for a nose. His research focuses on finding ways to stop the population contraction of this species because of habitat loss and track its recovery.
Much farther north and on the other side of the Atlantic, FSUCML faculty member Sandra Brooke, Ph.D., can be found in the fjords and coasts of Norway, where the most extensive deep sea coral reefs in the world exist. Here, she studies the effects of human activities on the reproduction and larval biology of these magnificent corals. Closer to home along the Forgotten Coast, she studies shallow water coral, sponge reefs and seagrasses that provide the architectural complexity of habitats surrounding the laboratory.
Coleman and fellow faculty member Chris Koenig, Ph.D., study Red Grouper and their interactions with other species. They found that the Red Grouper use their mouths to dig sand out of solution holes in limestone to create habitat, exposing rock so corals, sponges and other creatures can settle on the rock, building an entire community. Their current work focuses on the effect of invasive species — such as the Lionfish — which appear to aggregate in the excavations that Red Grouper create, eating the small fish that hide there and reducing the diversity that normally exists. They are still studying the significance of the pattern and the impact that process is having.
These scientists represent a new breed of explorers who make a point of taking their research from the field and into the policy arena, where it will help inform decisions that will best protect the world from problems occurring anywhere from the land-sea interface to the deep sea.
Why this Location?
One reason for the lab’s success over the years is that it is embedded in one of the more productive, diverse coastal habitats in North America — truly a biodiversity hotspot. It lies between two huge watersheds — the Ochlockonee and Apalachicola Rivers — and is nestled within extensive conservation lands that include the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. “It is virtually pollution-free,” Coleman says. “It is a mosaic of remarkably diverse habitats that play fundamental structural and functional roles in maintaining coastal and marine ecosystem health.”
To help stir the next generation of researchers, the lab mentors graduate students, provides research opportunities and field courses for undergraduate students and hosts the ever-popular Saturday-at-the-Sea Program, in which middle school students and their teachers from Florida schools spend the day at the lab. Students of all ages interested in lifelong learning are introduced to the rich variety of marine creatures of the Gulf of Mexico by hands-on activities and study. The experience often initiates an understanding of the biological relationships these sea creatures have to each other and to their physical environment.
What’s Next for the Lab?
With the help of a planning grant from the National Science Foundation, and input from colleagues across FSU, the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the lab developed a strategic plan that will meet its future needs. The plan includes a new research building, high-tech equipment and intense renovation of the existing research laboratory to bring it into the 21st century. Among other new buildings proposed for the site are classrooms and a 150-seat auditorium, plus more student housing and sabbatical homes for visiting faculty and their families.
Right now, it is all a dream, but according to Perry T. Fulkerson, vice president for central development at the Florida State University Foundation, the right combination of state funding, grants and private funding will allow a new generation of research to thrive. “We are talking to people who are passionate about the same things we are. I would enjoy speaking with anyone about what we are doing and how they might be able to take this journey with us.”
The body of work from the FSUCML speaks for itself, so it is not a “build it and they will come” attitude, Coleman insists. “For decades, we have filled the facility with active researchers from FSU and around the world, and have repeatedly gotten an incredible scientific return that we pass on to the citizens of the state of Florida and to the nation.”
To learn more about FSU’s Coastal and Marine Lab, visit marinelab.fsu.edu
To learn more about Raise the Torch: The Campaign for Florida State, visit raisethetorch.fsu.edu
Photos: Ray Stanyard, Brian Moe, Robert Ellis