Marine Resource Studies

Studying the use and conservation of marine and coastal natural resources requires scrutiny from many different natural science and social science perspectives. This course focuses on human interactions with local natural systems, and vice versa. Understanding the roles that nature-society interactions such as resource extraction, fishing, tourism, and associated development play in the protection of natural areas from human disturbance is crucial to the present and the future of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). Our primary goal is to discover how we may encourage sustainable human-environment relationships. With a hands-on, teamwork focus on conservation and sustainable development, this course will help you comprehend the connections between theory and practice. It will also provide you with the on-the-ground practical skills and tools necessary to critically analyze management of the human-environment nexus. Because tourism, development, fishing, and conservation are simultaneously social, cultural, economic, and ecological phenomena, holistic critical thinking can help to create more sustainable programs that will benefit natural and social worlds.

Marine ecology is the study of how marine organisms interact with their biotic and abiotic environments. In this course we will focus on the biological processes and trophic webs that exist in the ecosystems that dominate the shallow coastal areas of the tropical western Atlantic, i.e. mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs, as well as the behavior and biology of the organisms that inhabit them. Furthermore, we will explore the ways in which Marine Protected Areas, climate change and hurricanes can affect ecological processes, and we will learn some of the practical field data collection techniques that can be employed to assess marine communities.

This course is intended to introduce the disciplines and tools required to understand and manage marine resources. This component of the academic program at the Center for Marine Resources Studies (CMRS) makes the link between Marine Ecology and Marine Conservation Governance. Topical areas include fisheries management, marine conservation, ocean pollution management, marine protected areas, coastal zone management, and strategies for sustainable development.

This course prepares students to distinguish hidden assumptions in scientific approaches and separate fact from interpretation, cause from correlation, and advocacy from objectivity. Students learn specific tools including: experimental design; field techniques; basic descriptive statistics; and parametric and non-parametric quantitative analysis. Emphasis is placed on succinct scientific writing, graphic and tabular presentation of results, and effective delivery of oral presentations.