Last Thursday Martha Dobes, FSUCML Board of Trustees Member, hosted a shindig in Atlanta to share some of the research the FSUCML is currently working on. Many of the attendees own property nearby the lab, so it was important for them to learn about what we do here. Dr. Felicia Coleman and Dr. Dean Grubbs were in attendance and gave presentations on their own research and why it is important to protect out ocean's resources.
A large number of shark species live beyond the reach of unaided humans. The environment that they regularly reside in is difficult to research and therefore little is known about these evasive sharks. In 2010, FSUCML's Dr. Dean Grubbs paired up with researcher Edd Brooks, from Cape Eleuthera Institute's (CEI) Shark Monitoring Program, and took to the waters of the Bahamas to try and unravel some of these mysteries. Read Andy Murch's article in Diver Magazine to learn about some of their findings over the last few years.
WFSU radio's Tom Flanigan interviews Dr. Dean Grubbs (FSUCML) about his October Science Café lecture on sharks. Dr. Grubbs discusses the effects of the BP oil spill on deep sea sharks and the challenges he faced while conducting this research because of the lack of data on marine life at these depths.
Two years after the Deepwater Horizon blow out, scientists are still piecing together what happened to the millions of gallons of crude oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico and what the environmental consequences would be. Recently, FSUCML scientists Dr. Grubbs and Dr. Coleman and their colleagues in the Deep-C Consortium gathered in Tallahassee to discuss their long-term study of oil effects, where they were interviewed by WFSU news director Trimmel Gomes.
Dean Grubbs, usually found at the FSU Marine Lab, will talk about how the animals that live in the deepest waters near the BP oil spill are doing. When not hosting Science Cafe, Dean can be found tagging 15-foot sharks, then releasing them and harvesting the electronic data their transmitters send back to him until the devices pop off. Written by Kathleen Laufenberg - Special to the Chronicle.
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI), which is responsible for organizing the BP-funded research consortia studying the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, highlights the at-sea research of the Deep-C Consortium. FSUCML researchers Dr. Dean Grubbs, Dr. Chris Koenig, and Dr. Felicia Coleman, make up part of the ecology team and are working closely with the geochemists to determine paths of oil-related contaminants through the food web, particularly as it impacts economically important fish species.
In a recent paper in Ecology and Evolution, Dr. Laure Petes, Alicia Brown, and Carley Knight describe the effect of water withdrawals and drought on the incidence of disease in Apalachicola oysters. Large oysters suffered higher mortality than small oysters and conditions worsened in summer. This has important implications for watershed management to control disease. Dr. Petes (NOAA Climate Office) conducted this research as a post doc at FSUCML, working with Alicia (FSU PhD student) and Carley (University of Southern Mississippi MSc student) when they were undergraduates in the Certificate Program in Marine Biology.
In late August, a massive fish kill at a Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) nuclear power plant included 50 to 75 protected goliath grouper. But, the fact that goliath grouper were killed went unreported for months. FSUCML faculty, Dr. Chris Koenig comments on how the lack of communication from FPL has affected goliath research. FPL's actions have also prompted Florida wildlife officials to create a protocol for gathering information about fish kills at power plants.
A Florida crown conch population explosion devastates the oyster populations in Southern St. Johns County. The conchs eat oysters and clams and can destroy entire reefs. In particular, the data collected by graduate student, Hanna Garland, reveals the crown conch racing through oyster beds, especially near Matanzas Inlet. She was looking to find whether the animals were eating oysters that were killed off by something else or if they were directly responsible for the damage. Results proved that it was solely the conchs, without a doubt.
FSUCML faculty Christopher Koenig and Felicia Coleman's research, which synthesized data from over 30,000 surveys to map goliath density across space and time, shows that the recovery of the species is concentrated off the southwest coast of Florida. This research as well as Koenig and Coleman's new investigation will provide more insight into the impact and successes of the 1990 goliath grouper fishing ban.
