This grant will fund her project on smalltooth sawfish in Cape Canaveral. The primary objective of this project is to define critical habitat, including potential mating areas, for large juvenile and adult smalltooth sawfish in the USA. This is intended to have immediate use in species conservation actions and decisions.
In a dedicated effort to protect coastal and marine habitats and species, the Guy Harvey Foundation (GHF) has awarded a Florida State University student the inaugural Guy Harvey Fellowship. Annais Muschett-Bonilla, a doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences, received a $5,000 research stipend and certificate personally designed and signed by Guy Harvey, world-renowned marine wildlife artist, conservationist and GHF Founder/Chair Emeritus.
Andres and her team of researchers on the newly minted Crystal River Bull Shark Project started fishing for sharks in August and began tracking their movements two months later. Since the team began, they have caught 27 baby bulls and are monitoring 10 of them with special acoustic tags that map where in the river a shark has traveled.
There have been more than 50 sightings of sick or dead sawfish in the Lower Keys since November, according to the Florida Wildlife Commission. Despite ongoing efforts, researchers have yet to determine the cause but are actively testing the animals and collecting samples. #FloridaKeys #sawfish #research
"There are five species of sawfish in the world. That's it. And they're all listed as endangered or critically endangered,” said Dean Grubbs, a Florida State University fish ecologist and a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s sawfish recovery team. “So an occurrence like this, where all of a sudden quite a few large animals are dying inexplicably, is of great concern.”
The Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration Program today announced the 47 recipients of its Shellfish Growers Resiliency Fund (Fund), which is designed to develop a more resilient and sustainable U.S. shellfish industry that benefits the ocean and coastal communities.
Scientists from the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University have described and named a new species of coral in the waters of French Polynesia. Postdoctoral researcher Erika Johnston and Scott Burgess, associate professor of Biological Science, described Pocillopora tuahiniensis by studying the coral’s genome and examining the symbiotic algae that live inside its cells. They also considered where these coral live and how they’re different from other specimens in the area. These things helped them conclude that this coral represents a previously undescribed species. Their research was published in
So in the new study, developmental biologists tagged along with scientists studying bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo), a small hammerhead species with a relatively giant noggin. As the team scooped the sharks from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and off the U.S. east coast, the biologists retrieved live embryos of all ages. The biologists preserved the embryos for further study using different staining and imaging techniques, piecing together the video above from different specimens.
By Irene Wright Growing up on the Gulf coast of Florida, shark researcher Dean Grubbs has always been fascinated by nature’s ancient animals. “I caught a little sharpnose shark when I was 7 years old, and I thought it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and (I) told my parents I was going to be Jacques Cousteau,” he told McClatchy News in a phone interview. “That fascination never changed.”
In 2003, smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) had the unenviable distinction of being the first native marine fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. The classification followed decades of declining populations due to habitat loss, overharvesting and mortality as fisheries bycatch. Now, 20 years later, a 13-foot adult female captured off the coast of Cedar Key, FL suggests the species may be making a slow but spirited comeback.
