This week I finally finished dissecting and cleaning the 200 vertebrae samples I have been working on. My next step will be to bleach them, bake them, section them, and then determine their age. This will help gather data on species that are otherwise data deficient. Additionally, it will help with conservation efforts because we will know which species reproduce and die off quicker and which ones don’t so that the populations that mature and die at much later ages can be better conserved because it takes much longer for their populations to increase
I am still watching finprint videos and this week I saw some bull sharks, nurse sharks, lemon sharks, grey reef sharks and even an octopus and a green sea turtle. I am also helping out another PhD student with her project where she is testing temperature preference in epaulet sharks in a lab and field setting. I feed them about every other day and also assist with the surgeries where a tracker is placed inside the belly and then it is sutured up. I am looking forward to seeing how all of the data turns out.
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