NOVEMBER 2022

ECU grad students host OBX fishing day

The student subunit for the American Fisheries Society at ECU hosted a day of fishing at Jennette's Pier in Nags Head. CSI students met with folks from main campus. In the photo are Ray, Andrew and Chase Spicer (left to right). The fish were reluctant to bite, but the weather was nice and we saw a large pod of dolphins, sea turtles and seabirds. Caid, Andrew and Maddie serve as officers in the AFS student subunit. 

Dylan presents research at NC Coastal Conference

Eastern Pamlico Sound is rich in seagrass habitat, but limited data are available that describe the species assemblage in this area. Through a beach seining survey, Dylan Whitt described this community and demonstrated the importance of seagrass. He presented his research this month at the North Carolina Coastal Conference in Raleigh. See his poster here (LINK). Dylan is graduating from ECU this fall. 

Verena & Jim meet with collaborators in Oregon

 A two day meeting of collaborators for a Lenfest Ocean Program grant took place at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Our research team met with three scientists from NOAA, and laid out the groundwork for the next year's worth of analyses and outreach.

Despite a full agenda of brainstorming and discussion, our team found some time to enjoy the sites of the Oregon coastline. Verena is the lead analyst on the project. 

OCTOBER 2022

Kayaking in the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge

ECU's American Fisheries Society student subunit hosted a day of paddling in the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge. Around 10 participants (including Andrew and Jim) enjoyed a nice day of paddling. The group saw two alligators warming themselves in the sun. Maddie, Andrew and Caid serve as officers within the AFS student subunit. The picture at right shows ECU grad students Chase Spicer and Maggie Shostak. 

Lela begins research on long term trends in North Carolina's coastal ecosystems

The Fisheries Lab received funds from the North Carolina Collaboratory to examine long term trends in NC's coastal ecosystems. Lela will be examining long term change using many ecosystem indicators, which will include data on water temperature, fisheries catches, and many more. This project is part of a larger group, across multiple NC universities, that is assessing the health of NC fisheries and coastal habitats. 

 AUGUST 2022

How do fish respond to oyster sanctuaries in Pamlico Sound? 

This summer, CSI hosted a group of undergraduate researchers for an NSF sponsored program. The Marine Fisheries Lab worked with one of these students, Diandre' Richie, to assess how fish abundance might be enhanced at oyster sanctuary sites in Pamlico Sound. We used acoustic imaging technology to measure fish density and size distributions at many positions inside and outside of two different oyster sanctuaries. We found that mean fish densities were over twice as high in sanctuaries compared to the surrounding area. See Diandre's poster here (LINK).

JULY 2022

Chloe joins the lab to research the parasite that causes black gill

Black gill is a condition caused by a parasite, which infects multiple species of shrimp in the southeast U.S. In other states, this parasite is thought to have negative consequences for shrimp populations, which are of major economic and ecological importance. However, the dynamics of this host-parasite relationship have not been investigated in North Carolina. Chloe will be using microscopy and genetic markers to determine seasonal and spatial patterns of infection in Pamlico Sound, for grass shrimp, brown shrimp and white shrimp. Her project has already received attention, as the Southern Shrimp Alliance awarded Chloe with funds to help support her work. Chloe will be co-advised by Jim and April Blakeslee.

​Caid participating in study on Atlantic tunas

Correctly identifying closely related species from recreational and commercial fisheries catches is important for effective management, because it affects the data that analysts use to assess fish stocks. Caid is helping researchers from Michigan State University, who are using genetic markers and fish morphometrics to classify tuna species. Caid is taking pictures of tuna that are landed along the Outer Banks.   

​Maddie and Andrew's research featured on local kiosk

A public walkway and pier on Roanoke Sound, along the Nags Head causeway, are now featuring multiple educational kiosks. The themes on display include signs on the importance of seagrass, dolphin use of local habitats, and.....sheepshead! The sign is centered around Maddie's thesis work on sheepshead habitat use and otolith aging, and Andrew's telemetry tagging study on their daily movements.  

JUNE 2022

​Andrew accepted as a Coastal Community Environmental Data Scholar

The Coastal Community Environmental Data Scholars (CCEDS) program is an NSF funded Research Traineeship for graduate students at ECU. The goal of this 3-year program is to enhance data science based approaches among graduate students, and to engage students in stakeholder involvement and communication with the public. Andrew will be applying his use of sonar technology in coastal inlets to the CCEDS program. Coastal inlets represent areas of intense overlap between human-use and marine organism dependency, but human-ecosystem dynamics are poorly understood in these areas.

​Diandre' Richie examining habitat enhancement of oyster sanctuaries

The Coastal Studies Institute is hosting undergraduates from across the U.S. to participate in summer research as part of the REU program. Diandre' Richie, a junior from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, will be working with the Fisheries Lab to measure how fish densities and lengths are enhanced by oyster sanctuaries in Pamlico Sound. He will be using acoustic imaging sonar to collect novel data in these artificially enhanced habitats. 

​Dylan Whitt to study seagrass assemblages 

The fishes and invertebrates that use seagrass habitat in the northern Pamlico Sound region have received little scientific attention. However, this area might be unique among seagrass habitats in North Carolina, because it is adjacent to the only coastal inlet that is north of Cape Hatteras, which is a major geographic dividing line among marine fauna. Dylan Whitt is a senior biology major in the Honors College at ECU. For his undergraduate thesis he will be examining spatial and seasonal species dynamics in seagrass habitat by conducting a monthly beach seine survey with the Fish Lab at CSI.

​Community outreach at CSI Open House 

The Fisheries Lab participated in the Open House event at the Coastal Studies Institute this month, where the public was invited to tour the facility and meet researchers at CSI. Our group spoke with over a hundred interested people from the community. We had three demonstrations that described the use of different marine acoustics technologies in marine ecology, including an area were folks could see live acoustic imaging video (picture at left). In the lab, we also had a live critter cam, where kids could see live grass shrimp and juvenile blue crabs under magnification. 

MAY 2022

​Andrew wins Coastal Research Fellowship 

Each year NC Sea Grant and the NC Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve awards a $10,000 graduate student fellowship, and Andrew is the 2022 award winner. His project "Investigating the impacts of dredging on coastal inlet habitat function using acoustic imaging" will involve collecting sonar data in Beaufort Inlet that will help our understanding about the impact of channel dredging on the habitat function of coastal inlet systems.  

MARCH 2022

​Hosting the 35th annual meeting of the Tidewater Chapter

The Marine Fisheries Ecology Lab hosted this year's Tidewater Chapter conference, part of the American Fisheries Society. The event took place at the Coastal Studies Institute and Jennette's Pier, on the Outer Banks. Over 100 students, faculty and fisheries professionals were in attendance, arriving from North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. The event was a big success. Maddie and Ray were among the 23 attendees who presented posters. Andrew and Verena were among the 38 oral presentations. Jim will serve as president of the chapter for the next year, until the 2023 meeting in Maryland. The ECU students, and faculty, represented our program well! Thanks to all who participated in making a great event! View the meeting program (LINK).

Maddie wins several awards!

During the past month, Maddie has been awarded the Eileen Setzler Hamilton Scholarship from the Tidewater Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, which is awarded to graduate students for excellence in research, teaching, & outreach. She was also awarded the Mary Ferebee Scholarship in Marine Sciences (through Dep. of Coastal Studies) and the Edward P. Ryan Scholarship in Marine Biology (Dep. of Biology). Maddie is currently analyzing sheepshead otoliths to determine hatch dates.

​Recent outreach by the lab

​The Roanoke Island Aquarium recently hosted an event promoting Women in Science. Verena and Kyra Hagge (from department of Coastal Studies) were among the demonstrators. Verena talked to attendees about fish otoliths and their use in fisheries science. Also this month, Jim presented for NC Sea Grant's Introductory Fisheries Science course, which is a program that targets commercial and recreational fishers, and aims to enhance involvement of stakeholders in fisheries resource management. 

FEBRUARY 2022

​The 35th annual meeting of the Tidewater Chapter

The annual meeting of the Tidewater Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (North Carolina - Virginia - Maryland) is being organized by the Marine Fisheries Ecology Lab this year. We are excited to host the meeting at both CSI and Jennette's Pier, and bringing many fish biologists and marine ecologists to our area of the coast for the first time. The next month and a half will be a busy time of arranging speakers, organizing meeting events, and other planning. More information can be found here (LINK). 

JANUARY 2022
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Southern Division of the American Fisheries Society Meeting

The Southern Division of AFS held their annual meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. Jim presented in a symposium dedicated to marine acoustics technology. Specifically, he presented work on using acoustic imaging and telemetry tags to understand how oyster farms function as an artificial habitat within estuaries. 

New project on black gill disease in shrimp

The parasite that causes black gill disease in commercially important shrimp has been thought to negatively impact harvests during some years in more southern U.S. states. However, this disease has yet to be examined in North Carolina. With new funding from the NC Biotechnology Center, the Morley and Blakeslee labs are teaming up to better understand the dynamics of this parasite in NC. 

Article on Searobins 

The CoastalReview.Org, an online publication for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, interviewed Jim for an article about Searobins. This is a family of fishes with some interesting adaptations, although they are not the subject of much research. Read the article here (LINK).  

Do oyster farms have enriched soundscapes?

As part of an independent research project during the summer of 2021, Ray Delvillar recorded the soundscapes of five different oyster farms in Pamlico Sound and compared them to nearby control areas. After filtering out a great deal of boat noise, he found that there is a lot more biological activity around oyster farms, compared to controls, including evidence for spawning aggregations (silver perch) and nesting behavior (oyster toadfish). See his poster here (LINK).

DECEMBER 2021
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Ecosystem status report for South Atlantic completed

The NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center has published the Ecosystem Status Report for the southeast Atlantic region (LINK). The report contains a great deal of information suggesting large ecosystem changes in this region, including relatively warm ocean temperatures since 2014 and some profound changes in the fish community both inshore and offshore. Jim was a contributing author. 

Article on cold-stunning in the North Beach Sun

As we approach the winter season, cold-stunning events often appear in the news, as sea turtles get caught in rapidly declining water temperatures. However, as research in our Marine Fisheries Ecology Lab has shown, winter temps can have big impacts on many marine species in the region. In the latest issue of the North Beach Sun, an Outer Banks publication, Jim was interviewed to talk about why cold-stunning occurs in marine life. Take a look at the latest issue here (LINK).

NOVEMBER 2021

Meet the Scientist Video Series

This month's episode of Meet the Scientist featured Lela, where she talked about her research with mahi-mahi, shrimp, and other topics like getting shocked by a torpedo ray. Meet the Scientist is a monthly live-broadcast interview with different CSI scientists. The recorded episode is available online (LINK). 

Attending the American Fisheries Society meeting

The Marine Fisheries Ecology Lab travelled to Baltimore, MD this month to attend the annual national meeting of the American Fisheries Society. Andrew, Verena and Lela (who gave two talks) each presented their research, and Maddie presented at the poster session. Our group was also represented on two other talks given by colleagues from the ECU Coastal Studies Department and from UNC-Chapel Hill. It was wonderful to catch up with old colleagues and also make many new connections, all in person (vaccines were mandatory).