FOCAL (Fisheries Oceanography of Coastal Alabama) is a fisheries research program located within the Richard C. Shelby Center for Ecosystems-Based Fisheries Management at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). The overarching goal of FOCAL is to capture and understand the highly variable nature of Alabama’s nearshore and shelf environment as it relates to fisheries production. By nature, FOCAL is an interdisciplinary, multi-investigator program. We are fisheries biologists, marine ecologists, and physical and biological oceanographers with a keen interest in understanding the northern Gulf of Mexico shelf ecosystem as it relates to our ecologically and economically important fisheries resources. The core element of FOCAL is a cross-shelf ichthyoplankton and zooplankton survey initiated in Fall 2004. These data are currently being employed in several long-term studies aimed at understanding recruitment variability of several key fish species. FOCAL also provides support to state and federal agencies with expertise and training in the identification of ichthyoplankton and other plankton groups. FOCAL scientists have been actively involved in research related to the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Alabama's marine resources. Our historic time series provides a valuable baseline of "pre-spill" conditions in regards to ichthyoplankton and zooplankton seasonality, abundances, cross-shelf distributions and vertical distributions. We are uniquely poised to address questions regarding the short- and long-term recovery of Alabama's coastal and marine environment.
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