By Emma Fass, Summer Science Writing Intern
Cindy Marin Martinez has pursued marine science research, consulting, and outreach in her home country of El Salvador. Now, as a 2015 Virginia Sea Grant graduate research fellow, she will research a topic she first began examining in estuaries back in home: larval fish ecology.
Marin Martinez’s research will focus on three important species in the Chesapeake Bay: Atlantic croaker, American eel, and Atlantic menhaden. All three use the Bay as a nursery in their early life stages. Fish tend to have high mortality rates early in their lives, she says. “Therefore, for some species the early life history stages are considered critical stages that influence the future size of adult populations.”
Marin Martinez will be collecting samples in the York River and at the mouth of the Bay to determine whether the population of larval fishes in the York, where there is already an established monitoring system, is a good proxy for the amount of larval fishes moving into the Bay. To make the comparison, she will sample both locations during the winter, fall, and spring to compare the species’ composition and amount of larvae. Understanding this information will help the development of sound fishery management, she says.
“As a marine scientist,” says Marin Martinez, “one of my priorities is the communication of my results to the scientific and non-scientific community.” She hopes to publish her results in peer-reviewed publications to help other scientists understand how the Chesapeake Bay acts as a nursery. She also plans to work with the Office of Communication at Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in multiple outreach programs to share her research with the community.
Such community outreach will not be a new experience for Marin Martinez, who began volunteering in 2007 for the Young Talents National Program, where she taught biology in El Salvador. She also operates an environmental consulting firm with a group of scientists in El Salvador.
Marin Martinez, who graduated from Universidad de El Salvador with a degree in biology in 2011, is working toward a master’s degree from VIMS.
