Since the Sixties, populations of blue and white marlin, sailfish, spearfish, and swordfish, collectively known as billfish, have declined radically. Data compiled by international agencies monitoring commercial catches indicate that swordfish and marlin populations have fallen as low as 75 percent below the critical biomass -- the level scientists say is necessary for a species to propagate. The future of these economically and environmentally important fish is now in danger.

Scientists from the University of Miami's Center for Sustainable Fisheries, at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, are conducting an on-going research program to provide the scientific information needed to better manage billfish populations and preserve them for future generations.

As the University of Miami's Robert E. Maytag Chair in Ichthyology, Dr. Robert Cowen has been instrumental in launching the new Center and working on its flagship initiative - the Billfish Project - to learn more about these elusive species.

"Our goal is to get the scientific information we need to help improve the management and ultimately the sustainability of billfish stocks," said Dr. Cowen. "We're trying to get a better grip on the broad system - the whole picture."

Dr. Cowen's research focuses on the ecology and life history of fishes, particularly their early life history. This information plays an especially important role in the Billfish Project.

Adult billfish can weigh from hundreds to two thousand pounds and may grow up to 15 feet in length. But it is not the adult that presents the greatest challenge or that holds the key to sustaining their populations. It is the young that may be critical to species survival; however, much of the early life history of billfish remains a mystery.

Dr. Cowen's efforts to learn more about what young billfish need to survive just received a huge boost in the form of a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Starting this fall, Dr. Cowen will lead a research team of six scientists in a 4-year study of the early life history of billfish.

Since being appointed the Maytag Chair in 1998, Dr. Cowen's research has produced important new knowledge vital to the study of marine population dynamics, management of fishery stocks like the billfish, and the design of marine reserves. In addition, he has worked on the reproductive and population biology of hermaphroditic (sex-changing) fishes, as well as community ecology of kelp bed systems. His research has been conducted on both reef-related and pelagic species throughout the Caribbean, along the East Coast of the United States, California and Mexico.

The Robert E. Maytag Chair in Ichthyology was established at the Rosenstiel School in 1957 with a gift from the estate of Robert E. Maytag to support the scholarly work of a professor focusing on the study of fishes. Thanks to Dr. Cowen's impressive contributions as a scholar, researcher and teacher, the Rosenstiel School been able to leverage the prestige associated with his appointment by strengthening links with such entities as the National Marine Fisheries Service as well as the NSF.

With the help of Dr. Cowen, the Center for Sustainable Fisheries hopes to provide managers and policy-makers with essential information that will improve their ability to make wise decisions and preserve billfish populations.

"The billfish project is an exciting and important research initiative," said Dr. Cowen. "It's one piece in the puzzle of global fisheries management. And being only seven miles away from the Gulf Stream, we've got easy access to one of the best natural laboratories for unlocking the mysteries of these majestic animals."