Larval transport simulation

The purpose of this study is to understand how oceanographic factors affect the annual recruitment success of gag grouper. We use the Connectivity Modeling System (Paris et al. 2013), an individual-based model which estimates the movement of particles in a 3-D velocity field, and has the capacity to simulate complex behaviors such as those displayed by fish larvae. Simulated gag grouper larvae are tracked from their release sites in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico to suitable settlement habitat, given the specified biological parameters. The modeling effort presented here produces an index of annual recruitment deviations for the years 2003-2012, which can be directly input into the 2013 Stock Synthesis assessment model.