Greater Amberjack Study Team Chosen

The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, made up of universities including the University of South Alabama (USA), has selected a team of scientists through a peer-review process to conduct an independent study to estimate the number of greater amberjack in the U.S. waters of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The team will also investigate the fish’s movement and how it is distributed by habitat, including artificial, natural and uncharacterized habitats. The team is made up of 18 scientists from 13 institutions, including Sean Powers and Mark Albins of USA and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Powers leads the team of geneticists, modelers, statisticians, ecologists and oceanographers, many of whom were also part of The Great Red Snapper Count (BBN #10 and 36). “We build on a lot of lessons learned from The Great Red Snapper Count,” Powers said. “We know what we did pretty well, and we know what we have to improve. This one should be even better than the last.” The two-year project has been awarded $9 million in federal funds; with university matches, the total comes to $11.7 million.