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Research & Environmental

What is ROFFS™ Research & Environmental?

ROFFS™ is a scientific consulting company based in Miami and Melbourne, Florida (U.S.A.) that has been providing consulting services for a variety of applications (fisheries, oil & gas development, ship routing) including environmental monitoring and assessment since incorporating in 1987.

Several of our products and services are designed to provide real-time detailed information on the distribution and motion of water masses that may contain hazardous and industrial wastes. In addition, we provide our expertise for making specific recommendations related to discharge, dispersal and monitoring of water and waste water, as well as, evaluate potential and actual impacts on the ecosystem.

In one highly publicized and successful project during 2003-2004 we were contracted as the “Independent Scientist” for the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection Piney Point Phosphate Waste Water Dispersal Program. Part of this project involved providing advice and oversight related to the dispersal location, distribution and movement of nutrient enriched water into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. During this and other projects ROFFS™ has partnered with academia, government agencies and private industry to provide cost effective solutions.

In another project, we had been monitoring the water leaving the Mississippi Delta region and circulating in the Gulf of Mexico during 2005 after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

The activity seeks to improve the existing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decision making system for population assessment and management of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus thynnus). The research team is a multi-sector and multi-disciplinary team composed of government (NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center – NMFS_SEFSC), academic (University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology and University of South Florida Institute for Marine Remote Sensing) and commercial (Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Inc.) scientists.

The goal is to reduce the variance in the estimates of adult Atlantic bluefin tuna spawning stock abundance in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) through the development of spawning site habitat classification and catchability indices of the larvae. These are being derived from the integration of several earth orbiting satellite data, in-situ oceanographic data, and ichthyoplankton larvae data. We are analyzing these data over a 20 year period to develop a time-series of enhanced biological and oceanographic indicators for the GOM fisheries. The habitat classification will lead to the development of bluefin tuna larvae catchability indices which in turn will be used in reducing the statistical variance in the population analyses. The habitat classification will aid in developing models forecasting where concentrations of larvae are likely to occur leading to an “adaptive” or targeted sampling strategy.

We will be providing individual daily sea surface temperature and ocean color images when it is appropriate. We will also be providing movie loops showing the ocean circulation.

View our past projects