NSU Currents Fall 2014 Newsletter - Volume XXV, Issue 2

7 OC Hosts Booths at Music Festival Pairing with the Rock the Ocean Foundation, this festival brings like- minded fans together for a beach weekend experience that pairs music with meaning to raise awareness for marine conservation and to support scientific research, education, and ocean conservation initiatives. The NSU booths were part of the Guy Harvey Conservation Village. Many OC students and staff members enjoyed the music while educating the public about shark finning, lionfish invasion, degradation of habitats, loss of coral reefs, and seafood fraud, as well as the overfishing of key species, such as the bluefin tuna. M.S. student Max Appelman helps set up NSU’s booths at the Tortuga Music Festival. Held on Fort Lauderdale Beach, the Tortuga Music Festival is a multiday, multistage festival featuring some of the biggest names in country, rock, and roots music. Broward County High School Students Attend OSTEM Summer Camp at the OC This summer, 20 students from the Broward County Marine Magnate program attended a two-week summer camp focusing on oceanography science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (OSTEM). Working in conjunction with the School Board of Broward County, NSU faculty and staff members and students enhanced the camp with demonstrations and examples of their own research at the OC and the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. Students considered two of the best parts of the camp to be the videoconference with the pilots of the E/VNautilus , which was working in the Gulf of Mexico, and the shark-tagging trip in Broward County. Charles Messing , Ph.D., OC professor, organized the videoconference and allowed students to interact with the pilot and science communication fellow of the Nautilus Project. The shark-tagging trip, sponsored in part by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, allowed the students to work with researchers to tag and sample four sharks, three sandbar sharks ( Carcharhinus plumbeus ), and one nurse shark ( Ginglymostoma cirratum ). The small samples were taken for genetic and isotopic studies. OSTEM campers return from a daylong shark-tagging trip with a fins up! OSTEM Summer Camp students toured the Oceanographic Center’s Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research building. OSTEM camper Emily Hall helps tag a sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus.