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Characterization of Navassa Island, National Wildlife Refuge
Period of cruise: 04/18/2006 ñ 05/01/2006
Research Platform: Aboard NOAA ship NANCY FOSTER
Background Information:
In 1999, Navassa Island was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge under the jurisdiction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Navassa is a small (5 km2) uninhabited island west of Haiti, largely inaccessible except for a small and precarious landing at Lulu Bay. Navassa Island has a very energetic coastal wave environment, particularly the exposed east coast. Possibly intense, but largely unquantified artisanal fishing pressure from nearby Haiti may be affecting the biodiversity and reducing the fish stocks. Much of the coral reefs of Navassa Island on the deep slopes below 30 meters are as yet unexplored.
Cruise Objectives:
Relatively few research cruises have been conducted on Navassa Island. Previous research has focused mostly on terrestrial and shallow water (<30 m) resources. This cruise will expand upon valuable information collected from previous research and include surveys of the deep terrace (30-50 m).
Our mission objectives include:
- Generating habitat maps for resource managers using:
- Abundance of artisanal fishing gear
- Types of gear used
- Catch landed
- Benthic habitats fished
- Potential impact to benthic resources
- the trophic structure on coral reefs in Navassa and
- energy transfer between trophic guilds and/or habitat types
- Quantification of the physical environment around Navassa using:
- CTD casts
- Light profiles
- Installation of long-term temperature loggers
- Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler data
- Assessment of the population status of species possibly impacted by artisanal fishers such as:
- Conch
- Sea turtles
- Lobsters