Life Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia, Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2004-2008 Annual Report, 1 September 2007 - 31 September 2008, Philip W. Sadler, John M. Hoenig, Robert E. Harris, Matthew W. Smith, Rebecca J. Wilk, Lydia M. Goins

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 September 2007 through 31 August 2008. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2008 spring spawning run, estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging, and the results of the study that documents the prevalence of mycobacterial infections of striped bass in Chesapeake Bay. The information contained in this report is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and is used to implement a coordinated management plan for …

Shellfish Aquaculture Suitability Within Baylor Grounds Of The Lower Rappahannock River, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Should the Commonwealth of Virginia ever consider a regulated expansion of the aquaculture industry to public Baylor ground, timely information regarding the productivity of these grounds and the ability to support aquaculture would be highly desirable information. In this scenario, public bottom will be opened to private shellfish growers in the Commonwealth under what will likely be a tightly monitored regulation. The demise in productivity of natural oyster beds within Baylor Grounds is well known. However, there is no comprehensive resource that addresses whether Baylor Grounds would be suitable for aquaculture. This study uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to model …

Marine Resource Bulletin Vol. 40, No. 1, Virginia Sea Grant, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin

In This Issue

From Deadliest Catch to Sustainable Catch 2

Can the deep-sea red crab go from "generic crabmeat" to certified sustainable delicacy?

Captain Jon Williams thinks so, and he's enlisted the help of Virginia Sea Grant extension agents for research into methods of keeping the crabs alive onshore, as well as cooking, packaging, and marketing them.

Teachers Navigate the Web 6

This summer, the Web site that is teachers' preferred source for reliable marine science resources got a facelift. Virginia Sea Grant educators developed the Bridge a decade ago, and the site remains strong in the age of Google. …

Connecting Science And Management For Virginia's Tidal Wetlands, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay

Mycobacteriosis-Associated Mortality In Wild Striped Bass (Morone Saxatilis) From Chesapeake Bay, Usa, Dt Gauthier, R J. Latour, Dm Helsey, C F. Bonzek, J Gartland, Ej Burge, W. K. Vogelbein

VIMS Articles

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis) is an economically and ecologically important finfish species along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Recent stock assessments in Chesapeake Bay (USA) indicate that non-fishing mortality in striped bass has increased since 1999, concomitant with very high (>50%) prevalence of visceral and dermal disease caused by Mycobacterium spp. Current fishery assessment models do not differentiate between disease and other components of non-fishing mortality (e. g., senescence, predation); therefore, disease impact on the striped bass population has not been established. Specific measurement of mortality associated with mycobacteriosis in wild striped bass is complicated because …

Economic Implications Of Alternative Management Strategies For Virginia Oysters And Clams, Darrell Bosch, Nicolai V. Kuminoff, Anna Harris, Jaren C. Pope, Kurt Stephenson, Pamela Mason

Reports

The Virginia shellfish industry has historically been an important element of the state’s economy. After long-term downward trends in the harvest of wild stocks, clam and oyster production from shellfish aquaculture has been growing. This report provides an analysis of the possible ways to support and enhance this expansion through a variety of shellfish policy options. Three general classes of policy alternatives were considered: 1) state policy to increase private grounds available for shellfish production, 2) state research and development programs, and 3) various financial incentives to increase production. In general, the availability of suitable lease ground is not a …

Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve In Virginia Management Plan: 2008-2012, W. G. Reay, Sandra Erdle, Scott Lerberg, Sarah Mcguire, Ken Moore

Reports

No abstract provided.

Economic Outlook For Expansion Of The Eastern Shore Farmers’ Market: Seafood Handling, Storage, And Transportation Facility, Thomas J. Murray, James E. Kirkley

Reports

No abstract provided.

Interim Report An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In Selected Closed Areas: Georges Bank Area Ii And The Delmarva Closed Area, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, To The Potomac River (Spring 2008), Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions agreed to implement an annual survey for young of the year (YOY) American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC, 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 …

Environmental Code Of Practices For The Virginia Shellfish Culture Industry, Michael Oesterling, Mark Luckenbach

Reports

No abstract provided.

Benthic Habitat Characterization Within The Nearshore Of Mobjack Bay, Virginia : Final Report, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Kory Angstadt, David Stanhope, Carl H. Hershner

Reports

No abstract provided.

Best Management Practices For The Virginia Shellfish Culture Industry, Michael Oesterling, Mark Luckenbach

Reports

No abstract provided.

Technical Support In Engineering Construction Phase Of Craney Island Eastward Expansion, Mac Sisson, Harry V. Wang, Yuepeng Li, Jian Shen, Albert Y. Kuo, Wenping Gong

Reports

No abstract provided.

Thyroid Hormone Receptor Α1 Follows A Cooperative Crm1/Calreticulin-Mediated Nuclear Export Pathway, Matthew E. Grespin, Ghislain M.C. Bonamy, Vincent R. Roggero, Nicole G. Cameron, Lindsay E. Adam, Andrew P. Atchison, Lizabeth A. Allison

Arts & Sciences Articles

The thyroid hormone receptor α1 (TRα) exhibits a dual role as an activator or repressor of its target genes in response to thyroid hormone (T3). Previously, we have shown that TRα, formerly thought to reside solely in the nucleus bound to DNA, actually shuttles rapidly between the nucleus and cytoplasm. An important aspect of the shuttling activity of TRα is its ability to exit the nucleus through the nuclear pore complex. TRα export is not sensitive to treatment with the CRM1-specific inhibitor leptomycin B (LMB) in heterokaryon assays, suggesting a role for an export receptor other than CRM1. Here, we …

Oscillation Regularity In Noise-Driven Excitable Systems With Multi-Time-Scale Adaptation, William H. Nesse, Christopher A. Del Negro, Paul C. Bressloff

Arts & Sciences Articles

We investigate oscillation regularity of a noise-driven system modeled with a slow after-hyperpolarizing adaptation current (AHP) composed of multiple-exponential relaxation time scales. Sufficiently separated slow and fast AHP time scales (biphasic decay) cause a peak in oscillation irregularity for intermediate input currents I, with relatively regular oscillations for small and large currents. An analytic formulation of the system as a stochastic escape problem establishes that the phenomena is distinct from standard forms of coherence resonance. Our results explain data on the oscillation regularity of the pre-Bötzinger complex, a neural oscillator responsible for inspiratory breathing rhythm generation in mammals.

Why Biodiversity Is Important To The Functioning Of Real-World Ecosystems, Je Duffy

VIMS Articles

Controlled experiments have substantially advanced our understanding of the links between changing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) in recent years. However, controversy continues regarding the relevance of BEF experiments to the complex ecosystems and large spatial and temporal scales of interest in conservation and management. Here, I address some of the persistent criticisms regarding experimental BEF research and argue that these have been overstated. Contrary to some suggestions, many putative artifacts attributed to experiments render their conclusions about BEF links stronger, rather than weaker. Like other broad ecological concepts, BEF focuses on general patterns, rather than looking at species-level, applied …

Abstracts Of Technical Papers Presented At The 100th Annual Meeting National Shellfisheries Association Providence, Rhode Island April 6–10, 2008, National Shellfisheries Association

VIMS Articles

No abstract provided.

Relative And Interactive Effects Of Plant And Grazer Richness In A Benthic Marine Community, Jf Bruno, Ke Boyer, Je Duffy, Sc Lee

VIMS Articles

The interactive effects of changing biodiversity of consumers and their prey are poorly understood but are likely to be important under realistic scenarios of biodiversity loss and gain. We performed two factorial manipulations of macroalgal group (greens, reds, and browns) and herbivore species (amphipods, sea urchin, and fish) composition and richness in outdoor mesocosms simulating a subtidal, hard-substratum estuarine community in North Carolina, USA. In the experiment where grazer richness treatments were substitutive, there were no significant effects of algal or herbivore richness on final algal biomass. However, in the experiment in which grazer treatments were additive (i.e., species-specific densities …

Whimbrel Tracked With Satellite Transmitter On Migratory Flight Across North America, B. D. Watts, B. R. Truitt, F. M. Smith, E. K. Mojica, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Articles

"Two disjunct breeding populations of Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus have been described in the western hemisphere (American Ornithologists’ Union 1983). The western population breeds in portions of Alaska and across the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada while the eastern population breeds west and south of Hudson Bay (Skeel & Mallory 1996). Most of what we believe we know about the migratory pathways of these populations has been pieced together from circumstantial evidence gleaned from decades of field observations (Skeel & Mallory 1996, Taverner 1942). The populations have been thought to have separate migratory routes with little mixing where the western …

Estimating Relative Juvenile Abundance Of Ecologically Important Finfish In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay, Mary C. Fabrizio, Troy D. Tuckey

Reports

No abstract provided.

Bacterial Vs. Zooplankton Control Of Sinking Particle Flux In The Ocean's Twilight Zone, Deborah K. Steinberg, Benjamin A.S. Van Mooy, Ken O. Buesseler, Philip W. Boyd, Toru Kobari, David M. Karl

VIMS Articles

The downward flux of particulate organic carbon (POC) decreases significantly in the oceanÂs mesopelagic or ‘twilight’ zone due both to abiotic processes and metabolism by resident biota. Bacteria and zooplankton solubilize and consume POC to support their metabolism, but the relative importance of bacteria vs. zooplankton in the consumption of sinking particles in the twilight zone is unknown. We compared losses of sinking POC, using differences in export flux measured by neutrally buoyant sediment traps at a range of depths, with bacteria and zooplankton metabolic requirements at the Hawaii Ocean Time‐series station ALOHA in the subtropical Pacific and the Japanese …

Estimating Relative Abundance Of Young Of Year American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Virginia Tributaries Of Chesapeake Bay (Spring 2007), Troy D. Tuckey

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery dependent and fishery independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions (including Virginia) agreed to implement an annual survey for YOY American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC, 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 …

Water Quality Conditions And Restoration Of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Sav) In The Tidal Freshwater James River 2007, Ken Moore, Betty Neikirk, Erin C. Shields, Jessie Jarvis, David Parrish

Reports

In 2007, wild celery (Vallisneria americana) and water stargrass (Heteranthera dubia) were planted at sites in the Hopewell region of the tidal James River. The SA V transplants from 2007 and previous years were monitoried by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) for survivorship and growth throughout the growing season. Nursery ponds were constructed at the VIMS campus for development of SA V transplant propagules. Water quality sampling was conducted at bi-weekly intervals throughout the year for water column nutrients, chlorophyll a, suspended solids, water transparency and other chemical and physical constituents important for SAV growth. Continuous water quality …

Misuse Of Pcr Assay For Diagnosis Of Molluscprotistan Infections, Em Burreson

VIMS Articles

: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are useful tools for pathogen surveillance, butthey are only proxy indications of pathogen presence in that they detect a DNA sequence. To be use-ful for detection of actual infections, PCR assays must be thoroughly tested for sensitivity and speci-ficity, and ultimately validated against a technique, typically histology, which allows visualization ofthe parasite in host tissues. There is growing use of PCR assays for pathogen surveillance, but toooften the assumption is made that a positive PCR result verifies an infection in a tested host. Thisassumption is valid only if the assay has been properly validated …

An Evaluation Of Size Selectivity And Relative Efficiency Of Black Sea Bass, Centropristis Striata, Habitat Pots Equipped With Large Mesh Panels, David Rudders, Robert A. Fisher, Noelle Yochum

Reports

The black sea bass, Centropristis striata, fishery is in a state of transition. Regulatory changes found in Amendment #9 to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan implemented measures intended to both rebuild the stock and to maintain it at sustainable levels into the future. These measures included commercial quotas, commercial gear requirements, minimum size limits, recreational harvest limits, and permit and reporting requirements. One vital component contributing to the efficacy of these regulatory measures and future sustainability of the fishery are regulations that effectively protect sub-legal fish. The protection of sub-legal fish not only increases …

Final Report Calibrating Industry Scallop Surveys With Noaa Vessel Platforms, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Final Report An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In Selected Closed Areas: Georges Bank Area I And Ii, Nantucket Lightship And Elephant Trunk, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Us Caribbean Fish Trap Fishery Socioeconomic Study, Jj Agar, Jr Waters, M Valdes-Pizzini, M Shivlani, T Murray, Je Kirkley, D Suman

VIMS Articles

Concerns over the potential impacts of trap fishing on coral reefs and associated habitats prompted a socioeconomic study to characterize the U.S. Caribbean fish trap fishery in anticipation of management actions. Stratified random interviews of one hundred fishermen revealed the presence of a diverse fishery, with appreciable inter-island differences in levels of fishing dependence, fishing practices, and capital investment. High levels of fishing dependence Were observed among fishermen in the U.S. Virgin Islands, whereas Puerto Rican fishermen exhibited a more diversified livelihood strategy. Fishermen from St. Croix derived 62% of their household income from fish traps, significantly more than fishermen …

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report : Results Of The 2007 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Thomas J. Murray, Michael J. Oesterling

Reports

Continued growth of the shellfish aquaculture industry in Virginia has added significant value to the state’s seafood marketplace. Today, watermen continue to harvest both hard clams and oysters from the state’s public resources, albeit at diminished rates. At the same time, Virginia’s watermen-farmers are providing growing quantities of additional quality shellfish to consumers. Following the lead of the hard clam industry, there has been a significant transition to intensive aquaculture of native oysters in recent years. The once extensive oyster planting has disappeared primarily as a result of endemic oyster diseases and increasing wildlife predation of seed oysters. In its …