Which Lobsters Share Shelters?

Spiny lobsters are known to be social animals that often share crevice shelters. However, den sharing is far from obligatory. On average only one-half of all juvenile lobsters in Florida Bay are sharing shelters at any time. What are the factors that determine who will and will not share shelters with one another? This is the question we are studying for our current research project in the Florida Keys.


We are staying at the Keys Marine Laboratory in Long Key, FL for the next month and will we post updates as we can during our time out of the water.

Recent Article on Blue Crab Presentation

Click on the link below to read a recent article by Bo Petersen.

Blue crab moving farther upstream as water becomes saltier, more polluted

Where Have All the Crabs Gone Presentation

Click here to download the Where Have All the Crabs Gone presentation as a PDF file.

This is the public presentation made on January 11th, 2011 by Dr. Michael Childress.

State of the Basin Newletter

Click here to download a PDF copy of State of the Basin Newsletter.

This newsletter highlights the most recent research findings for our ongoing study of blue crabs in the ACE Basin NERR.

Blue Crab Presentation Rescheduled

The public presentation titled "Where Have All the Blue Crabs Gone" has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan 11th, 7 pm, in the Maclean Auditorium of the Technical College of the Lowcountry, Beaufort, SC.

The presentation is free and open to the public and door open at 6:30 pm.

Childress Lab Presents Work at Multiple Meetings

The Childress Lab presented research at numerous meetings this semester. Kirk Parmenter presented his posted titled "Drought and the Decline of South Carolina Blue Crabs" at the 2010 SC Water Resources Conference. His poster was selected as the runner-up for best student poster.

Click here for the 2010 SC Water Conference Proceedings


Katherine presented her poster titled "Do Octopus Exhibit Optimism or Pessimism" at the 3rd annual Clemson Biology Student Symposium (CBASS). The research was Katherine's honor's theses project at Millersville University.


Michael presented an oral presentation titled "Modeling the Decline of Blue Crabs using an Individual Based Model" at the Southeastern Evolutionary Genetics and Population Ecology meeting in Cherry Lake, FL and at the 2010 SC Water Resources Conference in Columbia, SC. Michael also presented an oral presentation titled "Impact of Mass Sponge Mortality and Juvenile Density on Spiny Lobster Recruitment in Florida Bay" at the Linking Science to Management: Florida Keys Ecosystem Conference in Duck Key, FL.

Click here for the Linking Science to Management Conference proceedings

We have larval crabs!

In a monster sampling effort this fall, Kirk and Kylie completed the first study of blue crab recruitment in the ACE Basin. They made 11 round trips to the coast and spent 22 days on the water.


Kylie then processed 480 jars of plankton spending over three weeks straight at the dissecting scope.


But the effort paid off by documenting the arrival of first stage juvenile crabs.


And the arrival of megalopae. The results of this recruitment study will be Kylie's project for the 2011 Benthic Ecology Meeting.