August 26, 2009 Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary is located
17 nautical miles offshore of Sapelo Island, Ga. High resolution
(Credit: NOAA) Two related research expeditions by NOAA
scientists to track the habitat preferences and movements of
fish at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary may help managers
protect overfished species such as red snapper and grouper.
Research from the two expeditions appears in the current online
edition of the peer-reviewed Bulletin of Marine Sciences. “It’s
important to know exactly what areas to protect,” says Matt
Kendall, principle investigator on the habitat mapping project.
“Certain fish gravitate to certain bottom types. If you want to
protect red snapper, for example, you have to know where they
live.” The projects tracking fish movements through telemetry
will help researchers better understand the basic “life
histories” of these fish. The South Atlantic Fishery Management
Council, citing the “lack of basic management data as a major
obstacle” to the successful man