Alfonsina Romo Curiel
Who I am
As a teenager, I grew up in the coastal fishing community of Bahía de Kino in Sonora, Mexico. At that time, my family’s livelihood depended on a fishing cooperative that oversaw catching, processing and selling diverse marine products such as octopus, brown swimming crabs, sea snails, fish, and ray and shark meat. Because of this, I became interested in learning about the sustainable use of fishery resources and decided to study marine sciences. As an undergraduate, I spent a summer volunteering at the Veracruz Aquarium, feeding tiger sharks and other big fish, as well as sea turtles and rays in the oceanic fish tank. This gave me an incredible opportunity to interact with and take care of living organisms, as previously I had only seen dead ones at local fish markets. After that, I started my first project on the reproductive biology of shovelnose guitarfish in the Gulf of California for my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE), Mexico. This reinforced my interest in learning about these amazing creatures and led me to focus my PhD and postdoctoral studies on the ecology, habitat use, migration and connectivity of marine fish. As part of my research, I have worked with ageing techniques in teleosts, invertebrates and elasmobranchs by applying otolith and vertebral microchemistry to studies of fish ecology and have evaluated the potential impacts of oil spills on large pelagic species in the Gulf of Mexico. Most species I have studied are economically important to fisheries in both the USA and Mexico, or have some conservation status. Recently, I took a position as a research associate at the Marine Science Institute of the University of Texas at Austin.
Where I work
The Gulf of Mexico, a large sea bordered by the USA and Mexico, is connected to the Caribbean by the Yucatán Channel and to the western Atlantic Ocean by the Florida Strait. It supports many important fisheries, including tuna, shark, shrimp, octopus and snapper. Various large pelagic species, such as tuna, billfish, shark and manta ray, enter this basin seasonally to feed and reproduce, making it an important nursery area. At the same time, some of these seasonal aggregations serve as tourist attractions for divers. Other species are targeted by fisheries or are caught as bycatch by recreational, artisanal and commercial fishers. In addition, the Gulf of Mexico has multiple ecosystems, such as bays, lagoons, reefs, sea-grass meadows and mangrove forests, as well as open water. Together, they support a high diversity of species, including endemic elasmobranch species such as the freckled guitarfish.
What I do
During the sampling season, I visit artisanal fishing camps along the Texas coast to record freckled guitarfish catches and conduct interviews with fishermen to find out whether they catch this species locally. When a freckled guitarfish is caught, its weight and total length are measured and samples of its reproductive organs and vertebrae are taken. The reproductive organs are examined to determine the individual’s status in terms of fecundity and gestation, and each sample is labelled and preserved on ice. Once in the laboratory, several cross-sections are made of the vertebrae. One is stained so that growth rings can be counted and the age of the guitarfish established. Another is glued onto a glass slide for processing in a high-precision microdrill to measure its isotopic composition in a mass spectrometer. The same vertebra cross-section is then analysed by laser ablation to assess concentrations of trace metals. Both microchemical analyses provide evidence to infer nursery areas and, together with life-history traits, provide a basis for developing fisheries management and conservation strategies.