About Us

Projects

Today, OCO is concentrating on research in the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. We know that billfish migrate through this channel into the Gulf of Mexico, but no one knows the numbers of fish, or the particular times this movement occurs. OCO is also developing a relationship with Cuba’s Flora y Fauna department to study the migratory patterns of tarpon. Cuba does not have the funds to conduct extensive research, so OCO is attempting to provide the research necessary for the Cuban government to successfully manage its fisheries.

OCO’s past projects are numerous:

Through OCO’s efforts, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison provided federal funding of $2.5 million for billfish research.

OCO partnered with Erica A. G. Vidal of the Fundacao University, Department of Oceanography, Rio Grande, Brazil, and Dr. John W. Forsythe of the University of Texas Medical Branch, in cephalopod research near Xavier Island, Brazil.

OCO provided the support to Dr. Jay Rooker, Texas A&M University, Galveston, for his study of billfish in the northern Gulf of Mexico. His study results suggested that blue marlin, white marlin, and sailfish aggregate and spawn in the northern Gulf, and may remain in the region for significant periods of time.

OCO funded Dr. John Graves’s study on white marlin using circle hooks in Venezuela, which established that mortality rates of released fish are decreased significantly when circle hooks are used instead of standard hooks.

OCO also provided the funds for John Graves’s deployment of SAT tags on blue marlin in Gulf of Mexico. He was able to track the movement of several blue marlin through the Gulf, establishing migratory patterns.

OCO provided the support to Greg Marshall of National Geographic, in his placing the first Crittercam® on a blue marlin in Virgin Islands. The video obtained from the camera showed the fish swimming through a group of sharks unimpeded, and healthy post-release.

OCO partnered with the Ocean Futures Society, Jean Michel Cousteau’s nonprofit organization, in its filming spawning coral at the Flower Gardens in Gulf of Mexico.

OCO was a sponsor of the 4th International Billfish Symposium in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, where the world’s preeminent billfish scientists met to share their studies and discuss their future research.

OCO was an observer at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), the governing body the world’s fisheries, for at its annual meeting when it was held in New Orleans, Louisiana.