OC Professor Gains Support for Manatee Detection Research

(Left to Right) NSU Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate students Travis Ritzel and V.J. Maisonet present their poster at the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Marine Mammal Symposium (SEAMAMMS), held 24-26 March 24-26, 2006 at NSU, with NSUOC faculty member Edward O. Keith.. The poster was entitled “Use of sonar in manatee avoidance technology”.

The Marine Industries Association of South Florida Offers has offered its support for Manatee Avoidance Technology Research being studied by Oceanographic Center professor, Edward O. Keith.

Keith has been studying the use of sonar fish finders to detect manatees, with the objective of developing a system to reduce mortality of the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) due to recreational vessel collisions.

Frank Herhold, President of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, has announced that his organization will provide financial support to test these sonar units in Mexico, in collaboration with faculty from the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, in Villahermosa, Mexico.

Keith has previously received two grants from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to test other technologies in the search for a solution to vessel collisions, which represent the largest known cause of manatee mortality in Florida. He will be seeking funding again in 2007 from the FWC under their Manatee Avoidance Technology program.