Two from HRI travel to Roatan
Shirley, Etnoyer conduct research in sub

HRI's Dr. Tom Shirley and Dr. Peter Etnoyer with the submersible Idabel.
(click photo to enlarge)
Endowed Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science Dr. Tom Shirley and Dr. Peter Etnoyer (NOAA) traveled to Roatan, Honduras, August 12-16 to evaluate the submersible Idabel as a scientific sampling platform. The three-person sub is shore-based and rated by the designer and pilot Karl Stanley to depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). The designers and Dr. Fred Boltz of Conservation International made three dives of 4-6 hours duration to depths of 2,200 feet. The Idabel offers excellent visibility for photography, comfort (in comparison to most subs!), ease of operations, inexpensive costs and ready access to deep water. During their trip, Shirley and Etnoyer shot many photographs and high-definition videos and returned with a favorable impression of the Idabel. Before leaving the island, they participated in a radio talk show on coral ecology hosted by Roatan Radio, an Internet and FM radio station.

Saltwater Fishing Magazine
HRI researchers featured in article

HRI staff featured in Texas Saltwater Fishing
(click image to read article in PDF)
HRI Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean Health Dr. Greg Stunz and two scientists on his Ocean Health research staff, Megan Robillard and Laura Bivins, were featured in an article of this month’s Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine. Masters student Bivins is studying spotted seatrout movement patterns and is sponsored by HRI, CCA Texas and the Rotary Club of Corpus Christi. She is tracking seatrout's movement patterns by implanting transmitters and then following their movements via stationary receivers. Her preliminary data has shown that seatrout can travel distances as far as 69 miles in a nine-week period, which is contradictory to what scientists have believed.
READ MAGAZINE ARTICLE (pdf 1.3mb)

Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells
New HRI book released in July
The newest book in the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico series was released by Texas A&M Press in July 2010. Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells - Identification, Ecology, Distribution, and History covers all 900 species of marine mollusks from the Texas shoreline to the deep Gulf of Mexico. The book is authored by HRI Associate Director Dr. Wes Tunnell, Jean Andrews, Noe Barrera, and HRI Assistant Research Scientist Dr. Fabio Moretzsohn. This very detailed, full-color reference book will become an essential tool for scientists, students, natural resource managers and seashell collectors in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Gibeaut presents paper in Brazil
Focus on sea-level rise impacts in Texas
HRI Endowed Chair for Geospatial Sciences Dr. Jim Gibeaut presented an invited talk at the Meeting of the Americas, which was sponsored by the American Geophysical Union. The Conference took place in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, August 8-12. Graduate students Eleonor Barraza and Boris Radosavljevic co-authored the presentation, which was titled “Projecting the Impacts of Relative Sea-Level Rise and Erosion on Texas Barrier Islands and Planning for the Future.”

The Book of Shells
HRI researcher author of new book
Dr. Fabio Moretzsohn, Assistant Research Scientist at HRI, co-wrote a new book on seashells with Dr. M. G. Harasewych, curator of mollusks at the Smithsonian Institution. The Book of Shells: A Life-Size Guide to Identifying and Classifying Six Hundred Seashells, displays colorful photographs of seashells illustrated in life size (with enlargements for small shells). It was recently published in the U.S. by the University of Chicago Press, and by A&C Black in the U.K. HRI’s Allison Knight and her husband Justin helped Fabio gather biological facts and distributional data for many species.