Jacque Carter's Current Research Project

Over the past several years, Dr. George Sedberry and I have been working with colleagues and several college students, to describe the community structure of assemblages or guilds of fishes associated with the diversity of marine habitats found in coastal waters of Belize. Much of this research was undertaken in order to evaluate the effectiveness of marine reserves in restoring reef communities to previously unfished states, and as a fishery management tool. Our research, and related scientific studies in Belize and elsewhere have demonstrated the positive effect of marine reserves in restoring fish abundance, maintaining diversity and stabilizing trophic structure while permitting some harvest of fishes in adjacent areas. This conservation oriented research has played a major role in fostering the design and implementation of marine protected areas along various sections of the Belize Barrier Reef and offshore atolls. The most recent being the establishment of the Glovers Reef Atoll Marine Reserve.

There is now an immediate need to provide Belizeans, charged with the task of monitoring the state of their reefs, with accurate and detailed information regarding coral reef fish biodiversity. Specifically there is a need for comprehensive faunal lists, regional reference collections and fish identification guides. In response to this need, Dr. Sedberry and I, together with several undergraduate and graduate students, have initiated work to produce a definitive treatise on the coral reef and shore fishes of Belize. This guide will be a comprehensive fish identification guide that contains keys and illustrations to identify specimens to major group and to species as well as data on fish habitat preference based on ten years visual census surveys on the reef. In addition it will include information on the importance of each species to local fisheries and ecology, as well as fisheries statistics, conservation status of the species (e.g., underutilized, overfished, endangered) and descriptions of the importance of these fishes in the economy, culture and folklore of Belize. The Glovers Reef Marine Research Station will serve as our primary base of field operations for P.I.s and students throughout the course of this project.