HRI staff attends Shellers Jamboree

Authors of new Texas Seashells book, Dr. Fabio Moretzsohn (left) and Dr. Wes Tunnell, who is with his wife Kathy. PHOTO: LUCY CLAMPIT
The Coastal Bend Shell Club of Corpus Christi sponsored the Texas Shellers Jamboree, a biannual meeting of the shell clubs in Texas, May 1-3, 2009. HRI Assistant Research Scientist Dr. Fabio Moretzsohn was the program chair and gave a presentation on his recent visits to the London and Paris museums of natural history. HRI Associate Director Dr. Wes Tunnell was the banquet speaker and talked about HRI, seashells, corals and Google Ocean regarding the Gulf of Mexico. Noe Barrera of TAMU-CC's Center for Coastal Studies gave a talk on the upcoming Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells book, authored by Tunnell, Jean Andrews, Barrera and Moretzsohn, which will be released in early 2010 in the HRI Book Series published by TAMU Press. The three-day meeting was attended by more than 60 registrants.
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Project to study red snapper in the Gulf

Dr. Matthew Johnson (left) with a large red snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Ocean and Human Health group led by HRI Endowed Professor Dr. Greg Stunz was recently awarded a grant by the Environmental Defense Fund to study red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. The project will be led by HRI Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Matthew Johnson who will be studying habitat use of large red snapper. He is interested in whether older snapper use relatively unstructured habitats as a spatial refuge from fishing pressure. Stunz and Johnson will use modern acoustic telemetry to track snapper movements to assess if there is a large, un-fished population of red snapper “hiding in plain sight” in the Gulf of Mexico.

HRI hosts Data Integration and Management (DIM) Workshop
Dr. Longzhaung Li of the TAMU-CC Department of Computer Sciences, HRI's Dr. Tom Shirley and others hosted a Data Integration and Management Workshop at HRI May 22-23, 2009. The workshop was attended by 55 registered attendees and included 25 presentations. It was a component of project funded by the National Science Foundation that is being conducted by Li, Shirley and others entitled, “A massive and heterogeneous data repository for computing research on the Gulf of Mexico.”

HRI scientists train in submersible

HRI PhD student Michael Reuscher underwent training in a submersible to prepare for an upcoming research cruise.
HRI Endowed Chair Dr. Thomas Shirley and his doctoral student Michael Reuscher completed training for the one-man submersible “Deep Worker 2000” at Nuytco Research in Vancouver, Canada, from April 30 to May 6. During five dives, they learned how to navigate the sub, how to react in emergencies and how use the sonar, onboard computer, manipulator arm and video devices.
   In June, both researchers will join a Living Ocean Society cruise to the coast of Northern British Columbia. During this cruise Shirley and Reuscher will use the twin Deep Worker subs to monitor the abundance of cold water coral and glass sponge reefs, investigate the marine animals associated with the corals and assess the impact of bottom trawls on these habitats.

Gulf of Mexico Sea Level Rise Conference
Mark your calendar for Gulf of Mexico Sea-Level Rise Conference set for March 1-3, 2010. More information to follow in next issue of HRI News, or check the HRI website.

Shirley attends marine life workshop
HRI Endowed Chair Dr. Thomas Shirley participated in a Census of Marine Life workshop in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, May 23-28, 2009. The Sloan-funded research is comparing four major marine ecosystems (Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine, Baltic Sea and the Great Barrier Reef) involving scientists from Australia, Canada, Denmark and the U.S.