Censusing Florida's Gulf Biodiversity

On a research vessel in the Gulf of America, deep into the night, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) seafarers communicate in Latin, "Doryteuthis! campechanus! synagris! brevirostris!" Scientists call out species' names as they sort trawls of writhing fish, toxic sponges, and everything in between. The effort is part of the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program, or SEAMAP, an operation to collect data for future regional policy and management decisions of marine resources. All species encountered in the biannual cruises are accounted for (hence the Latin). And there are a lot of them.

The Gulf harbors roughly 9,000 species of invertebrates alone. Yet this number only represents those that have been discovered and described by scientists; there are many, many more. Think worms buried deep in soft sediment, symbiotic shrimp living in the network of tunnels in barrel sponges, the sponges themselves that form the structure of whole communities, and numerous other obscure and cryptic species of sea cucumbers, slugs, squirts, and beyond. Life in the ocean is diverse, complex, and connected, and much remains to be discovered.

FWRI's marine collection (or Specimen Information Systems) is teaming with SEAMAP and other FWRI programs to discover, document, and describe marine biodiversity and make these data available to scientists and the public worldwide, free and open. The goal is to census all species in the region and provide photos, keys, descriptions, and DNA sequence data to help identify each one. A huge task, but it's worth it. Whether studying what game fish eat or restoring ecosystems, marine biology research depends on first understanding what lives in the environment.

The accompanying photo of specimens collected on a SEAMAP cruise represents the beginning of this initiative and just a small taste of the Gulf's incredible biodiversity.