Cruise I: June 13-20, 2013

This cruise was aimed at using the C-BASS (Camera Based Assessment Survey System) designed by the team at the Center for Ocean Technology (COT) at the College of Marine Science. We planned on going to different areas on the West Florida Shelf (in the Gulf of Mexico) to film fish assemblages. Sarah Grasty, a master’s student in the lab, is analyzing the footage to see if marine protected areas enhance fish populations. The camera is an innovative new technology that will help with fish stock assessment and advance fisheries management with better-informed science. A second goal was to take fish samples – liver, bile, muscle, and otoliths (the tiny set of ear bones that record age and growth in annual layers, just like the way tree rings are formed every year) – to be analyzed for traces of oil from the BP spill, and see if oil exposure slows fish growth.