SESSION SUMMARY: OCEAN SERVICES/BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTIVITY 



Ivar Babb 



National Undersea Research Center 



University of Connecticut at Avery Point 



Groton, CT 06340 



The six papers presented in the final session of the 

 symposium deal with two major research themes supported by the 

 National Undersea Research Program ( NURP ) and illustrate the 

 diversity of its science program. NURP augments NOAA's mandate 

 to provide information of an applied science nature by defining 

 a major research theme of Ocean Services. This category fills a 

 niche that exists because of the inadequacy of conventional 

 oceanographic techniques information of high resolution and 

 small scale. Conversely, research of a pure science nature that 

 NURP supports is exemplified by the papers that focus on the 

 topic of Biological Productivity. 



The first Ocean Services paper of Cunningham and Colwell 

 reflects NURP ' s commitment to scuba diving as a productive means 

 to conduct in situ research. The paper summarizes our knowledge 

 of the hazards that threaten the scuba diver in polluted waters 

 and has direct applicability by alerting divers to the nature of 

 hazards present in these waters and precautions that can minimize 

 their impact. 



Two Ocean Services papers were presented that utilized the 

 unique capabilities of manned submersibles and ROV's to assess 

 the efficiency and impact of two distinct types of fishing gear. 

 The paper by Bublitz presents preliminary observations of the 

 behavior of the Alaskan flatfish species in response to 

 commercial trawls. These observations indicate that the initial 

 reaction of the fish were to audible stimuli, but that the field 

 of binocular vision played an important secondary role in 

 determining fish behavior. The paper of Cooper et al . summarizes 

 the results of a 3-year study of the abundance and potential 

 impacts of lost gillnets in the Gulf of Maine. Recommendations 

 are provided to better manage this gear impact problem. 



The first paper dealing with Biological Productivity, by 

 Watanabe et al., described the progress of a successful 

 mariculture project designed to raise freshwater tilapia in 

 saltwater cages at the Caribbean Marine Research Center ( CMRC ) . 

 Another presentation of CMRC ' s involvement with the productivity 

 of important living resources was by Wicklund et al . that 

 summarizes information on the life cycles of the queen conch, 

 Strombus gigas . The final paper of Hay et al . provides insight 

 into the complex interactions between the seaweed Halimeda and 

 herbivorous reef fish. This seaweed appears to rely on chemical 

 defenses to protect its nutritionally valuable new tissue. 



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