With the rapid increase of lionfish in seawaters, some concern has come up regarding the possibility of ciguatera poisoning associated with lionfish consumption. However, inconclusive information on ciguatera in lionfish may be a deterrent to one of the few tools that we have to manage with this particular invasive species: promoting its consumption. Read more about it!
The Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Publication Database consists of reliable sources of information found in peer-reviewed scientific journals, books, websites, thesis/dissertations, and government documentation associated with marine/coastal management and conservation in the Caribbean region from 1998 to the present. Over 50% of the resources found in the database are freely available online. However, it is [...]
The Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean (AMLC) celebrated its 35th Scientific Meeting in the Universidad de Costa Rica at San José, Costa Rica on May 23-27, 2011. With more than 30 institutions involved in marine research, education and resource management, the AMLC aims to encourage the production and exchange of information between researchers [...]
In the US Virgin Islands, the Sea Grant Marine Outreach Program is busily preparing for the 2011 St. Thomas Reef Fest, scheduled for early November, come rain or shine. As you probably guessed, Reef Fest is a festival to celebrate the reef. More than that, it is about empowering the local community to protect coral [...]
The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released new national policies aimed towards sustainable marine aquaculture practices to cope with the increasing demand for seafood production, to promote job creation associated with coastal communities, and to restore critical ecosystems (Read the full news article here.) Among the priorities set [...]
The historical perspective on mangroves is becoming extremely important for understanding the so-called “natural history” of coastal ecosystems. The Martunnizi et al (2008) paper I discussed in the previous entry in this blog (click here to read about it) is an example of such a perspective. Dahdouh-Guebas and Koedam (2008) published an interesting article on [...]
The debate on the amount of mangrove cover lost in Puerto Rico throughout the twentieth century continues unabated. A recent article by Martinuzzi et al (2008) [1] revives the issue with new data, maps, remote sensing images, corrections of past estimates, and trend analyses of mangrove cover. The paper, published in Forest Ecology and Management, [...]
The term “biodiversity” has become a household name within the scientific community and has been used to describe habitats and organisms as varied and diverse as cacti in deserts to birds in mangrove coastlines. On February 1-4, 2011, the VII Congress of the Caribbean Biodiversity (sponsored by the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo) celebrated the [...]
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently declared Latin America and the Caribbean as a Biodiversity Super Power, stated in their recently published report on the economic contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services of the region (Bovarnick, A., F. Alpizar, C. Schnell, Editors. The Importance of Biodiversity and Ecosystems in Economic Growth and Equity in [...]
Several researchers from the academic sector have made efforts to understand the complexity of marine ecosystems and have contributed much to our scientific knowledge on the importance of conserving these resources. However, there are pending issues that need to be addressed in order to efficiently manage and conserve our resources. On November 6 and December [...]
For a more detailed description of the objectives of our project and several key questions that we seek comment on, please read our informational brochure here. |
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