Brown Shrimp Larvae Recruitment Animation

This animation shows the paths taken by the larvae of brown shrimp between hatching and when they either get lost at sea or settle in a habitat near shore, as simulated by a particle model. The process of finding this habitat is called 'recruitment'. This simulation is for the winter of 2006-2007.

The yellow points are the starting positions of each larva to be modeled. The blue line is its track through the full migration. Light blue points show the end of a track where the larva was at sea too long without settling; at this point it's assumed to be lost at sea. The maximum time at sea ranges from 20 to 90 days , depending on the water temperatures that the larvae encounters. Red points show the final recruitment point of successful larvae. The date on each frame is the date when the migration began.

The tracks were computed using a particle tracking model developed by Redwood Nero of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Fisheries Science Center located at Stennis Space Center, MS. This particle model relies on ocean model data produced by the Northern Gulf Of Mexico Nowcast Forecast System, which is based on the NCOM. Dong S. Ko, of the Naval Research Laboratory Stennis office, provided this data.

This Project is a NOAA-NGI collaboration with Drs. R. Shaw, N. D. Walker, and C. Li, of LSU and plans are to make a comparison of larval track predictions and a 2 year time series (2006-2008) of larval fish and shrimp larvae from a tidal pass near Port Fourchon, LA.