Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Proceedings of the 31^st Scientific Meeting of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean (AMLC),which was hosted in Trinidad by the Trinidad &Tobago Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA).This was a very successful and well attended congress presided over by our 2003 President,Ms.Hazel McShine,Director of IMA.We hope you find these Proceedings useful and informative.

We especially wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)for sponsoring publication of these Proceedings.

AMLC is a confederation of more than 30 marine research,education,and resource management institutions encouraging the production and exchange of research and resource management information,advancing the cause of marine and environmental education in the region,and facilitating cooperation and mutual assistance among its membership.We operate as a 501(c)(3)corporation governed by an Executive Board consisting of one Institutional Representative from each Institutional Member plus a slate of officers elected by the Executive Board.

We also have more than 150 "Individual Members "with professional research and management interests in the Region.While the AMLC is at its core an association of institutions,these individual members avail themselves of networking and professional interaction opportunities afforded by AMLC activities The AMLC hosts a Scientific Meeting every other year to which all interested marine research, education and natural resource management professionals are most welcome.Our next Scientific Meeting will be held in Curacao June 13-17,2005,and our 2007 meeting is scheduled to be convened in the U.S.Virgin Islands.Please visit our Internet web site at www.amlc-carib.org for details,including schedules,calls for papers and author guidelines,information on registration and accommodations,and membership information.If you have professional interests in,or responsibilities for marine resources of the Caribbean,we hope you will accept this invitation to join us.

Sincerely,

Steve LeGore,Ph.D.

E-mail:slegore@mindspring.com