NSU Currents Spring 2014 Newsletter - Volume XXIV, Issue 1

3 Dean, Professors, and Students Share Research at Gulf Oil Spill Scientific Meeting From left: Tracey Sutton, Ph.D., associate professor; Cayla Dean, M.S. student; and Bryan Hamilton, M.S. student, present their research at the GoMRI conference. In January, more than 900 scientists traveled to Mobile, Alabama, to participate in the second annual Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference. Sponsored by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) and 11 government and nongovernment organizations, the conference was created to improve scientific understanding of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem response to oil spills. The GoMRI mission is scientific understanding and mitigation of the impacts of hydrocarbon pollution and related stressors on the marine and estuarine environment of the Gulf region. Knowledge gained from the research will also contribute to improving long-term environmental health of the Gulf of Mexico; provide a scientific basis for improved oil spill mitigation, detection, and characterization; and assist the development of advanced remediation technologies. Oceanographic Center attendees included Richard Dodge , Ph.D., OC dean and member of the GoMRI Research Board; Alexander Soloviev , Ph.D., professor and member of one of the GoMRI consortia; Tracey Sutton , Ph.D., associate professor; Abigail Renegar , Ph.D. candidate; and Cayla Dean and Bryan Hamilton , M.S. students. Soloviev, Sutton, Dean, and Hamilton all made various presentations at the conference. Professor, Student Present at Marine Mammal Workshop From left: M.S. student Sohail Khamesi; David Kerstetter, Ph.D., assistant professor; and Shannon Bayse, OC alumnus (M.S. ’09) and doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology Last fall, David Kerstetter , Ph.D., assistant professor, and Sohail Khamesi , M.S. student, presented information on the topic of “Assessing the Bycatch Reduction Potential of Variable Strength Hooks: Additional Research in the Mid-Atlantic Bight” at the International Marine Mammal—Longline Bycatch Mitigation Workshop. The workshop was sponsored by the New England Aquarium’s Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction and hosted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Organized by the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch, with the support of NOAA’s Office of International Affairs, more than 24 scientists and industry stakeholders presented current research and broke into working groups to discuss critical questions remaining about several effective bycatch mitigation methods. The goal of Kerstetter and Khamesi’s research was to determine whether a variable strength “whale-safe” circle hook could be used as a gear modification to reduce bycatch and serious injury of large marine mammals, while retaining target catch in the mixed pelagic longline swordfish and tuna fishery. The results of the various presentations, including those from Kerstetter and Khamesi, will be published in a peer-reviewed special issue of the ICES Journal of Marine Science in 2014.