2008 An Environmental Crossroads

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Global warming clouds our future. Pollution degrades our air, soil and water. Environmental toxins compromise the health of our children. Misuse threatens the sustainability of our forests, fisheries, wetlands and coasts, and the health of species that live there.

But there is reason for hope.

Through sound science and policy research, we're finding answers to these problems. Airborne lead and acid rain have been dramatically reduced. Industrial water pollution has decreased. Habitats are being preserved.

Faculty members from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University are part of the effort to help find these answers and establish new environmental practices and policies to safeguard our natural resources for generations to come.

To contact our experts or learn more about what we're doing in states across the nation, click on the state you're interested in.

Fisheries & Marine Ecosystems
Commercial and recreational fishing play a major role in South Carolina’s economy and cultural history. But loss of wetlands, increased coastal development and nutrient-rich runoff from inland farms and cities threaten the health of many of the state’s most economically important fish species. The accidental bycatch of seabirds, marine mammals and other marine species also continues to be a problem. Fishing trawlers in southeastern waters have reduced unintended kills by more than 25 percent in recent years, but more needs to be done to save federally protected turtle populations and other non-target fish species.

Larry Crowder studies marine ecology and the use of technology to track and monitor marine mammal populations. He’s an expert on international fisheries policy, particularly fisheries vs. endangered species conflicts.
tel:(252) 504-7637 : e: lcrowder@duke.edu

Research focus: Marine ecology and fisheries. Population and community ecology. Endangered species/fisheries conflicts, especially sea turtles and bycatch in fishing gear. Marine conservation biology and policy. International affairs.

In 2004, Crowder and a team of other Duke researchers published the first global assessment of sea turtle bycatch casualties. They found that more than 250,000 loggerhead and 60,000 leatherback turtles are snared each year by longline fishing – far more than previously thought. “There have been few attempts to quantify the magnitude and extent of protected species bycatch, even for fisheries in which bycatch is perceived as a pressing concern,” Crowder says. “Our numbers, though estimates, are firm enough to warrant the development of rules for fishing equipment and practices to reduce or avoid such losses.”

Scott Eckert is an expert on sea turtle conservation and management. Working with conservationists at the Marinelife Center at Juno Beach, Fla., he is tracking the foraging, migratory and inter-nesting movements of the beach’s rare colony of endangered leatherback turtles.
tel: (252) 504-7598 e: seckert@widecast.org

Research focus: Endangered species research and management. Conservation biology. Marine turtle management and conservation. Diving physiology. Ecological physiology.

Using a specially designed, flexible tracking harness he devised in the 1980s (and refined with satellite telemetry in the 1990s) Eckert has tracked the movements of more than 300 sea turtles, including giant leatherbacks that nest at Juno Beach, Fla., the species’ most important nesting colony north of the Virgin Islands. His research has helped scientists gain new insights into leatherbacks’ migrations and critical habitats – knowledge that is helping conservationists develop management strategies for the endangered species’ recovery.

“Determining where leatherbacks go – where their foraging grounds, migratory corridors and inter-nesting areas are – is vital in helping us reverse their decline and anticipate the impact fisheries or other human activities may have on them,” he says.

Eckert is an assistant research scientist at the Duke Marine Lab, and is director of science for WIDECAST, the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network.

Richard Forward studies the behavior and physiology of blue crabs and other crustaceans native to the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard. His studies on crab migrations have helped policy makers and conservationists identify critical crab habitats and set sustainable catch limits.
tel:(252) 504-7610 : e: rforward@duke.edu

Research focus: Forward works on the physiological ecology of marine crustaceans and fishes. Studies focus on sensory physiology and behavioral responses to environmental (e.g. light, temperature, salinity) and chemical cues, and biological rhythms. Recent studies have applied result to diel vertical migration and selective tidal stream transport.

Mike Orbach served as a scientific advisor to the US Commission on Ocean Policy and is an expert on marine and coastal management and policy. He is director of the Duke Marine Lab.
tel:(252) 504-7606 : e: mko@duke.edu

Research focus: Applications of social science to environmental policy and management. Marine fisheries and integrated coastal management. Public involvement and participatory action in environmental policy. Environmental sociology and anthropology.

Orbach has conducted research on all U.S. coasts, as well as Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim.

Andy Read studies the impact of bycatch on ecosystems and marine mammal populations. He’s an expert on “smart” fishing gear that’s designed to reduce the risk of ensnarement, and on the use of technology to track and monitor marine mammal populations.
tel:(252) 504-7590 : e: aread@duke.edu

Research focus: Marine mammals, particularly dolphins and porpoises; marine conservation biology; fisheries bycatch; whales and whaling. He is particularly interested in the study of endangered or threatened marine mammals, and in the development of new technology to reduce the risk of marine mammals becoming ensnared in fishing gear.

Although he has taken part in marine mammal rescues, current rescue practices are “really only a Band-aid,” Read says. “It's something to do in the interim while we search for better solutions. What we're doing is kind of like emergency room care for marine mammals that become entangled. The real answer is developing fishing gear that doesn't entangle them in the first place."