Bringing back the sawfish Florida adopted protections in 1992 and the U.S. population of sawfish was the nation’s first native marine fish listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2003. By that time, the fish were only found in pockets of Southwest Florida, said Dean Grubbs, associate director of research and a research professor at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory.
“It’s distressing to see the animals dead and dying,” said Dean Grubbs, the associate director of research at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory. Grubbs is also a member of the sawfish recovery team and was on the boat last week when the crew caught the healthy sawfish.
Jared Fuqua and Maddie Mahood, FSUCML's Outreach and Education Coordinators, talk with Florida State News about our Open House on Saturday, April 20th from 10 am - 3 pm.
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
