Entries by

Ingestion of Marine Debris and Sperm Whales

By Jessica Daley, SRC intern Marine debris is one of the greatest threats facing marine life today. Any man-made, produced, or processed material that is either intentionally or accidentally discarded and finds its way to the ocean is considered marine debris. There are two major hazards to marine life from interactions with debris, entanglement and […]

The Effect of Hurricane Hermine on Black Sea Bass

By Delaney Reynolds, SRC intern In September of 2016, Hurricane Hermine struck Florida as a category one hurricane and then migrated through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and then to offshore Maryland. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Hermine’s damage “totaled around $550 million, with a […]

Combining hard-part and DNA analyses
of scats with biologging and stable isotopes can reveal different diet compositions and feeding strategies within a fur seal population

By Nicole Suren, SRC intern Diet analysis of top predators is important in the study of ecology because it can help to illuminate the energetics and ecological interactions of that predator. One method of studying diet is using hard part analysis and DNA barcoding using the animals’ scats, while other methods include stable isotope analysis […]

Spatial Dynamics as an Approach to Fisheries Management

By Casey Dresbach, SRC intern In the last half of the century alone, industrial fisheries have witnessed a global increase in total fishing efforts (Anticamara et al., 2011). Fishing efforts include, but are not limited to: the number of organisms caught, the type of gear used, and the areas in which fish are extracted. Implementation of spatial dynamics into fisheries management will […]

Swimming and Diving Energetics of Dolphins Can Help Predict the Cost of Flight Response in Wild Odontocetes

By Chelsea Black, SRC MPS student There are many occasions when high-speed swimming might be demanded by free-ranging marine mammals. This behavior will come at an energetic cost to the animal, which is why it is usually only performed when necessary for survival of the animal. Williams et al. (2017) demonstrates the physiological consequences of […]

Expanding fisheries management and marine conservation across borders

By Mitchell Rider, SRC master’s student In 2006, the U.S. Congress reformed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) – an act that directs marine fisheries management – by amending the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act. This new amendment directed Secretary of Commerce to recognize foreign nations identified as participating in the […]

Adaptation or Extinction: the Necessity of Fish Reproductive Acclimation in the Face of Climate Change

By Trish Albano, SRC intern In an ever-changing marine environment, organisms must respond to their surroundings in order to remain reproductively successful.  However, with the current rate of climate change predicted to raise sea surface temperatures by approximately 3°C by the year 2100 (Collins et al., 2013), species are faced with a choice: shift geographic […]