Casey Boleman Butler

Casey Butler, M.S., is a Research Associate with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in Marathon, FL.  Casey’s research interests lie in the chemical ecology of marine arthropods, and anthropogenic impacts like ghost fishing and climate change on arthropod fisheries. She received her B.S. and M.S. in marine biology from Florida Tech, where she focused her thesis research on the ability of horseshoe crab larvae and juveniles to use chemical odors to select settlement habitat and to avoid predators. More recently, Casey collaborated with scientists at Old Dominion University to examine the effects of long-term confinement of lobsters resulting from both ghost fishing and from the use of live conspecific lobsters to bait traps. This research identified that long-term confinement of bait lobsters in traps results in a reduction of attraction to conspecific lobsters and reduces trap catch, which should be of interest to commercial fishermen. Lobsters confined in ghost traps for long periods of time are subjected to starvation, injuries, disease, and mortality. Casey is currently investigating how the health of lobsters changes throughout the fishing season.