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Dry Tortugas 2008 Cruise: Overview

Personnel
NOAA/NCCOS: Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research
  • John Burke
  • Brian Degan
  • Brett Harrison
  • John Hackney
  • Don Field
  • Roger Mays
  • Greg Piniak
  • Chris Taylor
  • Amy Uhrin
  • Shay Viehman
         (Chief Scientist)
NOAA/NOS: Coral Reef Conservation Program
  • Lauren Chhay
NMFS Habitat Restoration Division
  • Sean Meehan
California State University, Northridge
  • Abigail Poray
Cape Fear Community College
  • Erik Ebert
Duke University
  • Karen Neely
NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER (credit: Amy V. Uhrin, CCFHR)






A spiny lobster, photographed on the reef during the 2007 expedition. (credit: Brian Degan, CCFHR)

Cruise title: Comparative analysis of the function of disturbed and undisturbed coral reef and non–coral ecosystems in the Tortugas: Measuring the refugia effect of establishing a reserve

Cruise dates: July 25–August 5, 2008

Cruise Number: NF–08–11–TER

Area of Operation: Tortugas Ecological Reserve; sailing from Key West, FL on the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER.

Cruise Objectives:

  1. Divers will revisit 20 permanent sites within and outside of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve and conduct fish surveys both on the coral reef edges and out onto the bordering sand. These sites were originally established in 2000, when the Tortugas Reserve was implemented by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and have been revisited every year from 2001–2005 and 2007.
  2. Remote quantification of fish communities and habitat using multibeam sonar, split–beam sonar, and remote habitat classification, and drop video cameras.
  3. Retrieval of temperature loggers installed in 2007.
  4. Examination of impacts of shrimp trawling on soft–bottom habitats in the northern Tortugas area using drop video cameras.