By Jessica Daley, SRC intern Marine debris is one of the greatest threats facing marine life today. Any man-made, produced, or processed material that is either intentionally or accidentally discarded and finds its way to the ocean is considered marine debris. There are two major hazards to marine life from interactions with debris, entanglement and […]
By Delaney Reynolds, SRC intern In September of 2016, Hurricane Hermine struck Florida as a category one hurricane and then migrated through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and then to offshore Maryland. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Hermine’s damage “totaled around $550 million, with a […]
By Nicole Suren, SRC intern Diet analysis of top predators is important in the study of ecology because it can help to illuminate the energetics and ecological interactions of that predator. One method of studying diet is using hard part analysis and DNA barcoding using the animals’ scats, while other methods include stable isotope analysis […]
By Casey Dresbach, SRC intern In the last half of the century alone, industrial fisheries have witnessed a global increase in total fishing efforts (Anticamara et al., 2011). Fishing efforts include, but are not limited to: the number of organisms caught, the type of gear used, and the areas in which fish are extracted. Implementation of spatial dynamics into fisheries management will […]
By Rachael Ragen, SRC intern The Family Bythograeidae are marine crabs that live near thermal vents. Most of them are colorless, but some may be yellow in color. The eggs and megalopa, which is a post-larva stage of the crab, tend to be orange or red. This coloration is likely due to carotenoids produced by […]
By Chelsea Black, SRC MPS student There are many occasions when high-speed swimming might be demanded by free-ranging marine mammals. This behavior will come at an energetic cost to the animal, which is why it is usually only performed when necessary for survival of the animal. Williams et al. (2017) demonstrates the physiological consequences of […]
By Grant Voirol, SRC intern On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku coast of Honshu, Japan was struck by a tsunami reaching heights of 125 feet. The tsunami caused widespread destruction along the coast, casting boats, docks, and other objects into the western Pacific Ocean. Many of these items were homes for marine communities or were […]
By Abby Tinari, SRC intern Oxygen is not only important for life on Earth, but it also regulates major nutrient and carbon cycles globally. All the past major extinction events have been associated with oxygen-deficient oceans and warm climates. Over the last 50 years, the anoxic (no oxygen) volume of the ocean has quadrupled, and […]
By Mitchell Rider, SRC master’s student In 2006, the U.S. Congress reformed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) – an act that directs marine fisheries management – by amending the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act. This new amendment directed Secretary of Commerce to recognize foreign nations identified as participating in the […]
By Trish Albano, SRC intern In an ever-changing marine environment, organisms must respond to their surroundings in order to remain reproductively successful. However, with the current rate of climate change predicted to raise sea surface temperatures by approximately 3°C by the year 2100 (Collins et al., 2013), species are faced with a choice: shift geographic […]