Performance Report for Cooperative Agreement No: na06oar4810163 for the Period from September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2012 University of Maryland Eastern Shore

LMRCSC scientists and students worked on projects in four thematic areas: Quantitative Fisheries, Essential Fish Habitat, Fisheries Socio-economics and Aquaculture. Some of these projects were funded through the TAB review process, while others were supported by external grant funds. TAB projects included NOAA scientists as collaborators, and students as active participants.

Xaymara Serrano completed her M.S. thesis at RSMAS on the physiological definition of habitat constraints for grey snapper in South Florida in June 2008, and has been working on a Ph.D. project with Dr. Andrew Baker on impacts of climate change on coral reef communities. Her dissertation is entitled “Population Genetics of Scleractinian Corals in the Tropical Western Atlantic (Caribbean). Joel Llopiz who completed his Ph.D. also at RSMAS in June 2008 worked on population dynamics parameters during the early life history of billfish. Research in Socio-economics was conducted by Ayeisha Brinson (Ph.D., RSMAS) on the Atlantic billfish fisheries in collaboration with Dr. David Die (RSMAS) and Dr. Juan Agar (NMFS/SEFSC). Dwight Ebanks continued his work on the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on early life history of cobia, a project that has applications to both aquaculture and essential fish habitat. Quantitative fisheries is the main area of research of the LMRCSC Project Director at RSMAS whose work contributed to the assessment of International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and billfish species. Dr. Die also provided support to the Center for Independent Experts that provides NMFS with independent peer review of science products. Additionally, he was a leader of the pelagic working group during the Caribbean Fisheries Mechanism annual assessment workshop.

Two LMRCSC institutions, UMES and HU collaborated with 7 other institutions and submitted a proposal to NOAA entitled “Cooperative Institute for Climate and Marine Ecosystem Research” with the University of Rhode Island as the lead institution, although the proposal was not funded. UMES also collaborated with, Morgan State University, and Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in a proposal submitted to NSF to establish a Center for the integrated study of coastal ecosystem processes and dynamics in the mid-Atlantic region which was funded in 2010.

Dr. Matt Ogburn (SSU) developed a shrimp project with Dr. Joan Browder and other NOAA scientists at NOAA SEFSC. Existing NOAA collaborations with NOAA’s Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) continued during this project period through projects such as that of M.S. student, Noelle Hawthorne (SSU) that involved monitoring of the utilization of the reef by commercially important species.

The LMRCSC at SSU made a greater effort to include fishery socioeconomics in its research activities by engaging Dr. Kristy Wallmo (NOAA, Silver Spring), Patricia Pinto da Silva (NOAA Woods Hole Lab), and Dr. Susan Abbot-Jamison (NOAA, Silver Spring) of the Voices of the Fisheries Project. The three collaborated on a project to study the history of African-American fishermen in coastal Georgia that was funded by the NOAA Preserve America Program.

Scientists at the LMRCSC worked with Elizabeth City State University scientists to develop projects looking at the evolution of coupled human and natural systems. A symposium entitled “Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management” was planned by Dr. Eric May (UMES), Dr. Anne Garland (ECSU) and Dr. Kristy Wallmo (NOAA Office of Science and Technology) for the AFS annual meeting in August, 2008.

The research projects funded through the TAB review process of the LMRCSC are presented in Tables 9-13. A total of fifty-four (54) proposals were funded from 2006 to 2012. The projects were collaborative and included scientists from center institutions, NOAA and students.