NSU Currents Spring 2014 Newsletter - Volume XXIV, Issue 1

8 Students Help Clean Up Beach In January, students from the OC worked their way up John U. Lloyd Beach State Park to pick up marine debris. The marine debris can come from anywhere—it can be carried by rivers, streams, and other waterways. The National Marine Debris Monitoring Program determined that 49 percent of debris on U.S. beaches is from land- based sources, 18 percent is from ocean-based sources, and 33 percent is from a general source that could be considered land or ocean-based. However, regardless of the source or type, all marine debris impacts our oceans, beaches, and waterways. The cleanup is part of the OC Student Government Association’s and the Peer Mentorship Program’s continuing outreach to our community. For more information on the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program, visit http://water.epa.gov . Necropsy of SpermWhale Educates OC Students On January 10, students who are trained volunteers of the Marine Animal Rescue Society (MARS) responded to the report of a dead sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) that washed ashore in Boca Raton, Florida. Students were able to assist in the necropsy where samples were taken to the lab to help determine the cause of death. This adult male whale measured 35-feet long and weighed close to 15 tons. After the necropsy, the remains were towed out to sea, where nature was allowed to take its course. MARS was founded in 1996 and is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a Letter of Agreement from the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS/NOAA) to rescue, transport, rehabilitate, and release stranded marine mammals. Based out of Miami, Florida, with a coverage area of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, MARS maintains its commitment to outreach and education in the community by fostering stewardship and protection of the marine environment. Students (L–R): Jonathan Schulte, Jenna Caderas, Rachel Zimmerman, Mike Nakama, Joe Hornbeck, Sonia Ahrabi-Nejad, Lauren O’Connell, Allison Santos, and Kayelyn Simmons helped clean up John U. Lloyd Beach State Park. Shown from left: Caitlin Brice, Brittany Knowles, Laura Eldredge, Kayelyn Simmons, Allison Santos, and Ari Halperin are the M.S. students who assisted in the whale necropsy. NSU’s PanSGA Bestows Travel Grants for Thesis Research Charlotte Berry, M.S. student, presented her poster at the Benthic Ecology Meeting. M.S. student Charlotte Berry received two travel grants from NSU’s Pan Student Government Association (PanSGA) to present her master’s degree thesis research at scientific conferences. She gave an oral presentation in November at the 66th Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute that encompassed her significant results from her broad-scale study and her second study that looked specifically at the queen conch aggregation located off John U. Lloyd Beach State Park. Earlier in the year, she presented her initial findings from a broad-scale queen conch ( Strombus gigas ) study near Port Everglades inlet, Florida, at the 42nd Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Savannah, Georgia. The Pan Student Government Association is a confederation of 18 recognized, program-specific, graduate student governance associations and the Undergraduate Student Government Association that operate within Nova Southeastern University. One of its directives is to allocate student activity funds to a student’s professional development.