We had a really successful field season in Cayman with our partners at Cayman’s Department of Environment (DoE) and our student Johanna Kohler and intern Pete Davies on the team. Johanna concentrated on sharks and our Citizen Science programme while Pete focused on the snapper population. We deployed camera traps (BRUVS or baited underwater video stations) and set scientific long lines around Grand and Little Cayman to monitor shark and predatory fish species. The acoustic tagging went very well for both sharks and snappers and we hit a veritable motorway underwater for the sharks on Little Cayman and grey snappers on Grand Cayman. Photo-identification is an important part of estimating the shark populations and we continue to build our catalogue of individual sharks. Our partners at GHOC have tagged more tiger and oceanic whitetip sharks and their migration patterns are becoming clearer as they roam the Caribbean and beyond.
From the data that we began collecting in 2009, we have drafted the Species Action Plans for eight Cayman shark and snapper species, along with a Biodiversity Action Plan for the sharks. Our student Maria Maily was helpful in the first drafts and our DoE partners will be taking these forward for public consultation.
We have a much better idea of the health of the grey and mutton snapper populations with a lot of fishing by Pete and our former student Justin Lewis. Working with our fisher network, we have discussed management options for the snapper, based on our results and the fishers’ knowledge and suggestions.
An important part of the project is raising awareness, public education and communication about issues related to sharks and snapper fishing. We launched the #SpotThatCayFish programme with Brita Gill’s eye-catching designed postcard and Johanna distributed these to all the hotels and dive companies on Grand and Little Cayman. Johanna has also recruited divers to our Shark Logger programme, resulting in our Caribbean reef shark with tag DoE143 being reported as re-sighted. Shark Loggers understand that it is key to working out population numbers to know when a shark has not been seen as well as when they are observed.
To celebrate the first year of shark protection in Cayman, we held SharKY Fest which was hugely fun – after the months of organisation and planning lead by Johanna! She did an amazing job and what a success it was. We had several short talks about sharks and their conservation, what we have been working on and our results, what the new law protecting sharks means, diving with sharks and their natural attractiveness. There were wonderful posters displayed from the school poster competition on Cayman sharks – professional graphic designer watch out! We had captivating photos by Ellen Culyaerts, face painting and shark crafts, there were shark themed drinks with Vivo’s delicious sliders. The music by Trio Vivo and the Swanky Kitchen Band had everyone dancing (see FB!).
As part of continuation of the work in the future for Cayman, we are collaborating with Tom Sparke at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in deploying BRUVS to monitor sharks and predatory fish species.
And so to the next field season, we can’t wait! Johanna, Rupert and I will be joined by Helen Delgado-Nordmann, who will be focusing on the snappers.