In summer 2023, Dr. Daniel Okamoto and his lab made their annual cruise into Gwaii Haanas with a team of divers and researchers.

With summer coming to an end and the new semester swinging into action, the FSUCML wants to give a huge shout-out and congratulations to Danie Barnes! Danie graduated in August after completing her Master’s in Biological Science. We are so proud of her accomplishments! Read on to learn about her research, favorite FSUCML memories, and her next steps.

Scientific divers from FSU joined the FIO Peerside Program to participate in a joint project aimed at studying archaeology, marine biology, and geology of offshore springs in the Gulf of Mexico

This recently published manuscript assesses changes in fish populations in Apalachicola from 2001-2019. The lead author is Dr. Cheston Peterson, a Florida State University alumnus, with co-authors David Gandy from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and Dr. Sandra Brooke, Research Faculty at the FSU Coastal and Marine Lab. The data for this manuscript was provided by the FWC Fisheries Independent Monitoring Program and funding for its preparation came from the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative.

Last month, FSUCML’s Dr. Jeroen Ingels attended part of the 28th International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council Meeting. At a side event organized by Nauru Ocean Resources Inc., he presented a summary of the work he, Meiolab members, and colleagues at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Recife, Brazil) have been conducting together since 2020.

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.

Laura Anthony has received NOAA's prestigious Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship!

As the spring semester ends, one of our FSUCML students will be walking across the stage at graduation! Sean McCollum successfully defended his Master’s thesis, “Exploring the drivers of seagrass meadow organic carbon burial and storage using meta-analytic and laboratory approaches.”

On April 6th, FSU held an undergraduate research symposium, where our excellent Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) students featured and presented research from across the Marine Lab. They each showed a poster on the work they’ve been conducting this past year with faculty and graduate students. Congrats to everyone on a great job!

Current graduate student Aaron Ridall, FSU Dept of Biology undergraduate Emily Farrar, former FSU Dept of Biology undergraduate Morgan Dansby, and FSUCML faculty member Dr. Jeroen Ingels, recently published their work on the influence of wastewater treatment plants and water input sources on size, shape, and polymer distributions of microplastics in St. Andrew Bay, Florida, USA.