Scott Heppell (foreground) with a stereo video camera rig while Brice Semmens (background) takes pictures for facial recognition of Nassau grouper.
Scott Heppell is a professor in OSU’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences within the College of Agricultural Sciences, where his research focuses on marine and freshwater fish ecology. He’s worked with fish all over the world and is currently on his annual trip to Little Cayman for an ongoing conservation project for the Nassau grouper.
Where are you?
I’m on the island of Little Cayman in the Caribbean, which has a year-round resident population of about 200 people. To get here, you have to fly into Grand Cayman and take a puddle-jumper flight to the island.
OSU, Scripps and REEF teams head to Little Cayman from Grand Cayman.
The Cayman Island Department of Environment Research Vessel Seakeeper returns to the dock after an evening dive.
What language is spoken there?
English — it’s a British overseas territory.
What’s the focus of your work?
Since 2005, I’ve been involved in the Grouper Moon Project with the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) to help conduct research necessary for the Cayman Islands to rebuild their population of the Nassau grouper. The Nassau grouper is to the Caribbean what salmon are to the Pacific Northwest in that it’s a historically, culturally, ecologically and economically important species. It is listed as critically endangered, largely because of overharvest, which happened in part because of their spawning behavior: During winter full moons, Nassau grouper get together in big aggregations in well-known locations to reproduce.
In 2003, the Cayman Islands issued an emergency ban on fishing at the aggregation sites to give the government some time to figure out conservation strategies. As part of ongoing research, we have instruments in the water to take environmental measurements, and we’ve implanted electronic tags in some of the fish to track their movements. We spend a lot of time in the water counting fish in a variety of ways. Nassau groupers are these big magnificent fish that get up to 35 pounds, almost a meter long and can live up to 30 years, and I think they’re beautiful. They are one of the top-level predators in coral reefs in the Caribbean, so they play an important role in the ecosystem, we think similar to the wolves in Yellowstone.
They have a cultural value and an economic value as a commercial fishery, and it turns out they’re hugely economically valuable underwater, as well. One of the primary economic drivers of the Cayman Islands, other than banking, is scuba diving, and Nassau grouper are probably as close as you can get to encountering a friendly cat underwater. They’re curious, they’ll swim right up to you, interact with divers — the value of that to a recreational scuba diver is immeasurable.
From a low point of an estimated 1,200 fish at the aggregation in Little Cayman in 2007-2008, last year our Little Cayman population estimate was over 9,000 fish. So this is a real success story.
How much time have you spent there?
My current trip is Feb. 11-23; over the past 20 years, with annual trips of 10-12 days each plus a few others, I’ve probably spent more than half a year of my life in the Cayman Islands on this research project.
Who are your closest local colleagues?
The Grouper Moon Project is a collaboration between the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, the nongovernmental organization REEF, my colleague Brice Semmens and his team from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and myself and a grad student, Janelle Layton, from OSU.
The Grouper Moon team, including colleagues from the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, REEF, Scripps and OSU. Scott Heppell is at the far left, back row.
What’s the biggest challenge of working there?
The logistics. It’s a small island; if we get here and we don’t have something we need, it’s very hard to get. There’s one store that’s the equivalent of a very small convenience story combined with a very small hardware store. Most people have things shipped in on the barge that comes every week or two.
What’s the best food you’ve eaten there?
You can get really good fish at the Iguana — known as the Iggy — and sometimes really good conch. There’s also a lady on the island who makes amazingly good jerk chicken. But I have never eaten grouper in the Cayman Islands.
What’s the most non-touristy thing you’ve gotten to do?
The dive site that we work at, nobody’s allowed to dive there except us because it’s a marine protected area. It’s pretty amazing. We’re working at 90 feet most of the time. This week, I’ve seen hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, loggerhead sea turtles … Every time we get in the water it’s something new, something fun, even though technically it’s work.
What’s one thing from your experience you’ll bring back to Oregon with you?
This is a really big collaborative project, with a whole bunch of people working together to problem-solve. We’ve got academics, environmental NGO folks, the government, lots of support from local island businesses; all working together to solve a natural resource problem to the benefit of everybody, and I think that’s a model that we should really try to do everywhere.
What were you most surprised to learn?
Every time I’m here, I hear new stories from Caymanian friends. This year I learned that apparently, in the mid-’80s, there was this entire proposal to turn Little Cayman into a transfer terminal for international shipping, so there used to be big tankers moored nearby.
Besides family, what do you miss most from home?
My wife and I spend a lot of time on the Oregon coast, which I always enjoy, so I’m a little sad to be away from that. But the trips are short; 10-12 days away is workable.
What advice would you give others who might travel there?
If you are looking for nightlife or fine dining or shows or anything like that, this is not the place for you. If you’re looking for a real, small-island, nothing-to-do, walk-on-the-beach Caribbean experience with world-class scuba diving, then it’s a good place to be. It’s a very slow pace of life.
Related Stories
