Dr. Grubbs’ lab recently spent 8 days in the Marquesas Keys with scientists from the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum and Bimini Biological Field Station to tag and collect valuable data from various species of elasmobranchs.

Recently, EcoWatch wrote a spectacular article on Ph.D. candidate, Bobbie Renfro, and her work on sponges in the Florida Keys with the Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education (I.CARE) organization. Bobbie’s research at FSU revolves around the effects of nutrient enrichment on Caribbean reef sponges, and her expertise and passion for studying these invertebrates has proved invaluable in her ground-breaking work with I.CARE.

As the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission debates reopening the Goliath Grouper fishery in Florida state waters, stakeholders and policymakers turned to FSU researchers for their expertise on the matter. Former Marine Lab Director Dr. Felicia Coleman, former faculty member Dr. Chris Koenig, and former PhD student Dr. Chris Malinowski were recently interviewed by National Geographic about the ongoing debate.

Ph.D. Candidates Johanna Imhoff, Kevin Olsen, and Cheston Peterson all successfully defended their dissertations and graduated during FSU’s 2021 summer commencement!  All of us at the Marine Lab are so proud of the accomplishments of these standout scholars and we are thrilled to watch them fledge to grow even more in their chosen professions. So where are they headed now?

Ph.D. student Aaron Ridall has published his first paper in Frontiers in Marine Science journal!! Co-authored by advisor, Dr. Jeroen Ingels, they focused on the role of nematodes as bioindicators across the globe and identified the patchiness regarding their use. They also highlighted future directions they’d like to see addressed in the field of marine nematology with a special emphasis on understanding nematodes' responses to microplastics pollution.

A couple months ago, Captain Matt Edwards and small boat technician Lance Crum took FSUCML’s Research Vessel (R/V) on the Intracoastal Waterway to Miller Marine in Panama City to undergo its biannual hull inspection, cleaning, and maintenance. From fresh paint to cleaning sea valves to fixing broken toilets, the R/V received an overhaul in all aspects of the ship! Check out the pictures below to learn more:

Recent PhD graduate, Bryan Keller, is the lead scientist on new research finding that sharks likely use the Earth’s magnetic fields to help guide them on their migrations. Keller specifically examined a group of bonnethead sharks that spend the summer off the coast of the FSU Coastal and Marine Lab, before migrating south for the winter. Other populations of bonnetheads have been shown to undertake migrations over 1000 km roundtrip. The team’s work is published in the latest issue of Current Biology

The FSUCML sawfish research team recently completed their first tagging trip of 2021. Consisting of FSUCML faculty member Dr. Dean Grubbs, FSU graduate students Ashley Dawdy and Blake Hamilton, and UNF graduate student Kristin Palmrose from Dr. Jim Gelsleichter’s lab, the team successfully tagged 7 large endangered smalltooth sawfish over three days.

A new study led by former FSUCML graduate student Dr. Chris Malinowski (Dr. Felicia Coleman and Dr. Chris Koenig’s lab) investigates the health and reproductive consequences of mercury toxicity on Goliath Grouper (Epinephelus itajara). This newly published paper builds off of their two previous manuscripts: one on spatial mercury patterns in Goliath Grouper off the coasts of Florida (2019) and the other a baseline health assessment of Goliath Grouper (2020).

We are celebrating Women’s History Month by highlighting six trailblazing female scientists from all over the world! Read on to learn about each woman’s contributions to modern marine science.