URI student tracks lobster migration and recoveryMichael Phillips spent the summer before his senior year at URI tracking the movements of lobsters into and out of Narragansett Bay and assessing how well lobster populations have recovered from the effects of a 1989 oil spill. Working with Kathleen Castro, Sea Grant Sustainable Fisheries Extension Program director and URI fisheries researcher, Phillips spent his days at a series of artificial reefs in Dutch Harbor designed to provide a new habitat to help rebuild lobster populations. Castro and other URI researchers created the six cobblestone reefs in 1997. “On a typical day I’d go out to the reefs to retrieve and tag lobsters, record data, and see which reefs the lobsters were caught at previously so we could trace their migratory patterns between reefs,” said the marine biology major. Each lobster he caught was measured, tagged, assessed for disease, and released back where it was found. “We wanted to have a high recapture rate because that shows that the lobsters are staying at the artificial reefs.” Phillips wasn’t the only one recapturing the tagged lobsters. Commercial lobstermen occasionally caught the lobsters, too, as the lobsters moved from the reefs into open water. “The tags have our phone number on them, and we’ve gotten some odd phone calls as a result of people catching the lobsters,” Phillips explained. “We had a lot that migrated up the coast and were caught in Nova Scotia. We even got a call from an Omaha, Neb., woman who apparently bought one of our lobsters, though they’re not supposed to be sold. When she saw the tag she didn’t know what to do!” The good news, according to Phillips, is that the research has shown that lobster populations have increased considerably on the reefs since the oil spill. “They’re down there inhabiting the reefs. Before the reefs were installed there was nothing there. But the reefs provide a community structure and bring together all sorts of creatures—shellfish, sea bass, algal growth, crabs, mollusks, starfish. It’s a whole ecosystem now.” Funding for Phillips’ lobster research was provided by Rhode Island Sea
Grant through the URI Coastal Fellows Program, a unique program designed
to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental
problems. Now in its eighth year, the Coastal Fellows Program teams students
with faculty, research staff, and graduate students to help them gain
skills that will ensure their future success. When he graduates, Phillips hopes to conduct fisheries-related research on commercial fishing boats. “I also want to stretch my knowledge to learn about tropical waters. I’m very interested in coral reef dynamics and community structures in warmer climates and in learning more about what goes on in ecosystems in the tropics.” —Todd McLeish, URI News Bureau Related Link:
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