Auburn professor's work includes high-tech spying on snapper in Gulf

Ben Raines - 

Sitting on the bottom of the sea 100 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico on a cloudy January day, three words come to mind: cold, dark, and lonely.

Think of sticking your face into a bucket of water and ice. Then imagine the water in the bucket is so dark you can scarcely see your hand on the end of your arm. Welcome to Steve Szedlmayer’s laboratory.

The professor, working out of Auburn University’s Department of Fisheries, has been studying red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990, a 20-year project that has required thousands of scuba dives and allowed Szedlmayer to keep tabs on some individual fish for years. It has also given him unique insight into the ecological impact of the hundreds of artificial reefs off Alabama.

“The basic message is that artificial reefs work. I never believed I’d be saying this 20 years ago. I thought it was a joke. We used to say, ‘Oh my, sinking another ship. Oh what a waste,” Szedlmayer said Thursday. “At this point, I’m convinced that they produce fish, rather than just attract fish.”

That conclusion is inescapable, said Szedlmayer, based on his studies of how long snapper stay on the reefs, what age they arrive at the reefs, what they eat, how quickly they grow and where they concentrate in the Gulf.

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Photo Ben Raines

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