Dr. Felicia Coleman and Dr. Christopher Koenig, accompanied by grad student Chris Malinowski, are onboard the RV Walton Smith (the ship after which the R/V Apalachee was modeled) conducting research in Pulley’s Ridge and the Tortugas, 350 miles from Miami, where the cruise set sail. The objectives are to determine the density of red grouper in selected sites, and to determine whether fish living here are related to fish turning up in coastal sites like Florida Bay. To that end, they are trapping adult fish at~65 m depths on Pulley’s Ridge and the Tortugas, and grad student Bob Ellis is catching juvenile fish in the much shallower (3-m) Florida Bay, to help make this determination. All fish captured in the study are sampled, tagged, and released on their capture sites. To read more about the offshore component, check it out on the FSUCML Facebook Site (entries about the NOAA Coral Connectivity Cruise) or go right to the NOAA website to see all the mission logs.