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Grubbs Laboratory in the News

2016

FSUCML scores another scientific first: Dr. Dean Grubbs and colleagues document and assist pregnant sawfish give birth in the wild


Dr. Grubbs described the experience as "the biggest day of my research career!" His team captured a female sawfish who started giving birth. This is the first time a live sawfish birth has been documented in the wild.

How this ray became a scapegoat in the Chesapeake Bay


Listen to this podcast for the latest publicity on Dr. Dean Grubbs' and Dr. Chip Cotton's paper disputing claims that the population of cownsoe rays in the Chesapeake bay had exploded. "It's biologically impossible for cownose ray populations to explode," says Dr. Grubbs. Cownose rays only have one pup every year, making it difficult for their population to "explode" as the 2007 study had claimed. Because of the slow rate of reproduction, the efforts to fish for these rays could be especially harmful.

FSUCML researchers set record straight on alleged link between sharks, rays, and bivalves


Dr. Dean Grubbs' and Dr. Chip Cotton’s (FSUCML faculty members) latest research challenges a 2007 study claiming that shark declines led to rising populations of cownose rays, which were responsible for the collapse of oyster and shellfish industries along the Atlantic coast.