Coastal and Estuarine Fish Ecology

Originally posted on USM News by Margaret Macloud A University of Southern Mississippi Ph.D. candidate has been selected as a finalist for the distinguished 2023 class of the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program, which gives professional-level students hands-on experiences transferring science to policy and management through one-year appointments with federal government … More Distinguished Marine Policy Fellowship Awarded to USM Student

By Grace Cuevas This June, I began a GenSea marine biology internship led by Dr. Kim de Mutsert and graduate student, Adam Murray. During this internship, I worked alongside Adam as we tested the tolerance ranges for both salinity and temperature and how these two variables interacted with local shrimp species. I took part in … More GenSea Marine Biology Internship: Grace Cuevas

Story originally published on the GMU website. High school students in the collaborative project, A Community Approach to Reducing Single-Use Plastic Beverage Bottles: (GMU 120505) funded by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, have been awarded the prestigious President’s Environmental Youth Award. The long term, sustainable goal of this two-year project is to reduce single-use plastic water bottle use … More Marine Debris Project wins President’s Environmental Youth Award

The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) has selected six research projects worth $1.3 million to receive funding in its 2022-2024 funding cycle. The university-based projects aim to help people, policy-makers and resource managers make decisions that lead to the responsible use of ocean and coastal resources in Alabama, Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico region. … More Mid-Breton Diversion Research Project Selected for Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Funding

The Louisiana coastal zone is the fastest-eroding wetland in the US. This region is home to a variety of vitally important fish species for local fishing industry and ecosystems, which are currently under threat. Conservation schemes have been proposed under the 2017 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan in an attempt to preserve coastal habitats and their … More Identifying Effective Strategies to Protect Louisiana’s Precious Wetlands

by Sara Marriott Seaspiracy, the viral Netflix documentary, concludes the only way to save the ocean is to stop eating fish (and I assume all meat). I am not going to spend my time going into the inaccuracies and misleading statements in the film, since many marine scientists have already done so (Science of Seaspiracy, … More 8 Ocean Documentaries Better than Seaspiracy

The following was originally posted on NCCOS News on 1/22/2021. Third Advisory Panel Workshop on Hypoxia Effects on Fisheries Showcases Visualization Tool and Models “The third Advisory Panel Workshop on Hypoxia Effects of Fish and Fisheries was held virtually on December 14, 2020 as part of an NCCOS NGOMEX project led by Dr. Kim de … More NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science covers third NGOMEX Advisory Panel Workshop on Hypoxia Effects on Fisheries

By Katie Russell I graduated this past May of 2020 and was able to work in and do undergraduate research in Dr. de Mutsert’s lab through GMU’s OSCAR program on river herring, two species of anadromous fish present in the Potomac. Anadromous fish spend their adult life in the ocean but return to freshwater tributaries … More Anadromous Fish: From East to West

by Sammie Alexander In spring 2016, I completed an OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program project under the guidance of Dr. CJ Schlick (then, PhD candidate) investigating the influence of temperature on the growth of young-of-year (YOY) Alewife and Blueback Herring in Potomac River tributaries. At the time, I was a second-year undergraduate and had not … More Influence of Temperature on the Growth of Young-of-Year (YOY) River Herring – New Publication!

I recently completed my Masters thesis work in the de Mutsert Fish lab. My research is based in Gunston Cove, a freshwater tidal tributary to the Potomac River in Virginia, USA. Estuaries are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts, due to their proximity to high human population density. Impacts at the ecosystem level are particularly strong … More A tale of joy and sorrow: Successful recovery and setbacks of blue catfish invasion