76.7 F
Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeCommunityEnvironmentDuncan Coles Is Member of Colby College Project Receiving NOAA's Bluefin Tuna...

Duncan Coles Is Member of Colby College Project Receiving NOAA’s Bluefin Tuna Research Grant

Atlantic bluefin tuna

Duncan Coles of Frederiksted, St. Croix, is part of a team led by Loren McClenachan, Colby College’s Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, and her colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which received a grant for $46,012 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Bluefin Tuna Research Program.

Their collaborative project, “Historical data mining to inform bluefin tuna stock assessments,” has involved several Colby students, including Duncan Coles ’19, a 2017-18 F. Russell Cole Student Research Fellow and an environmental science/ biology and ecology/evolution double major, and Sara Pipernos ’19, also an F. Russell Cole Student Research Fellow (summer 2018) and an environmental science/ French studies double major.

The grant will allow the team to collect documents from historical archives and integrate them into stock assessment models for western Atlantic bluefin tuna, one of the world’s most valuable and iconic fisheries. The current stock assessment only includes data back to 1974, but most of the population decline happened earlier. Therefore, extending their knowledge back in time will improve estimates of unfished biomass, spawner recruitment dynamics and stock productivity, and it will contribute to the ability to manage this fishery more sustainably.

Colby is home to a community of 2,000 dedicated and diverse students from more than 80 countries. Its Waterville, Maine, location provides unique access to world-class research institutions and civic engagement experiences.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.