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October 2018 news update

Well it’s been a while since I updated this page and a lot has happened!

Another graduation ceremony has occurred – congratulations to Jarod Lyon who graduated with his PhD and to the BSc (Marine Biology) students who also graduated at the same ceremony. Also, congratulations to Matt McMillan who has recently submitted his PhD thesis titled “An integrated approach to assess pupping areas and natal origins in a Conservation Dependent shark, Galeorhinus galeus” (school shark). Matt was supervised by Bronwyn Gillanders, Charlie Huveneers (Flinders University) and Jayson Semmens (University of Tasmania).

Welcome to our three new Honours students – Molly, Sophie and Tegan. Tegan is investigating ecological insights of elasmobranch hard parts using chemical analysis focused on wobbegong sharks. Sophie is investigating the presence of plastic residues in tissues of commonly fished marine species and Molly is investigating fish assemblages around artificial reefs. Our three beginning of year Honours students are all currently statistically analyzing data and writing up their theses which are due at the end of the month.

Bronwyn and Alice took a group of undergraduate students to Timor Leste – this year instead of taking the long drive to Com like we did last year we caught the local ferry across to Atuaro Island. There we saw seaweed farming (for the agar industry) and shrimp aquaculture, saw dried fish and octopus for sale in the local market and snorkeled on seagrass and coral reef habitats. A highlight was seeing a sea snake. We also hiked to the other side of the island and onto Adara Beach where we snorkeled along huge drop-offs. In Dili students completed a PADI Scuba diving course with Aquatica Dive Resort.

There’s been a range of conferences people have attended including the annual Australian Marine Science Association meeting in Adelaide, the American Fisheries Society meeting in Atlantic City, USA, the Estuarine Coastal Shelf Association conference in Perth and next week the Australian Society for Fish Biology conference in Melbourne.

The lab also has some new papers recently published –

Doubleday et al. (2018) Untapping the potential of sulfur isotope analysis in biominerals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 598: 159-166 (open access)

McMillan et al. (2018) Natural tags reveal populations of Conservation Dependent school shark use different pupping areas. Marine Ecology Progress Series 599: 147–156.

Finally check out some fantastic photos by Shannon Lauchlan of the 3rdyear undergraduate field trip down to the southeast of South Australia visiting Ewans Ponds and the intertidal rock platform.

Images: Shannon Lauchlan

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