Reef and Fishery Assessment of Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge

On April 23, 2009 scientists from the NOAA's Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami Florida (SEFSC) departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster. Their destination: the Navassa National Wildlife Refuge. Along with the NOAA scientists are researchers from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (UM/RSMAS), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Director of the Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine (FoProBiM), an NGO based in Haiti.
This work is funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program.


Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Navassa’s Boobies

On Sunday afternoon we arrived at Navassa Island. Well, we are not actually going onto the island, our ship will be anchoring about ¼ mile out. We will be doing our diving operations from small dinghies launched and retrieved directly from the Nancy Foster. Our Boobie count has gone from a handful to the hundreds. We are seeing Brown Boobies in multiple year classes and color morphs and we are also sighting both juvenile and adult Red-Footed Boobies as well. Most of our Boobie sightings are coming in the late afternoon as the birds return to the island.
Mike

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