Connectivity In Marine Fish Populations: Larvae Spawned In Marine Reserves Can Travel Long Distances

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305121657.htm

Children of baby boomers aren’t the only ones who have taken to setting up home far from where their parents live. A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documents how larval dispersal connects marine fish populations in a network of marine protected areas – information that is critical for fisheries managers...

A. percula sheltering in an anemone from Kimbe Bay. Simon Thorrold and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that about 10 percent of marine reserve populations comprise larvae spawned on one marine reserve that travel long distances to another reserve -- up to 35 km away. (Credit: Simon Thorrold, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)