Center for Fisheries Enhancement
MARINE STOCK ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM
Kenneth M. Leber, Ph.D., Program Manager
Nathan P. Brennan, Ph.D., Assistant Program Manager
Our Research Team
Nate
Brennan holds a 34.5 inch hatchery-reared common snook. This snook was
relased as a 6-inch juvenile into Sarasota Bay in
April 1999. It was captured in July 2004 after it had outgrown the slot
limit (26 - 34 inches) used to control harvest. This documents that
some hatchery snook have recruited to the protected adult snook
population.
MISSION: The
goal of stock enhancement research at Mote Marine Laboratory is to
develop a responsible and effective marine stock enhancement technology
that can be used (1) to help restore depleted marine fish and
invertebrate populations, (2) to augment fishery yields in
recruitment-limited or (early life stage) habitat-limited stocks, (3)
to provide a tool for advancing basic knowledge about wild stocks, and
(4) to establish new fisheries in artificial habitats.
BACKGROUND
HOT LINKS
Our
stock enhancement research is guided by the principles underlying a
responsible approach to marine stock enhancement (Blankenship & Leber, 1995). The program has an
outreach arm that works directly with government agencies and stakeholders to help
integrate these principles into strategic plans. The program’s
focus is on basic and applied research designed to resolve critical
uncertainties about stocking effects, efficiency and effectiveness, and
whether and how stocking can be used as a fishery management tool
in marine and estuarine ecosystems.
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