Ocean Policy Working Group at Duke

This summer, OPWG Outreach Coordinator Claire Huang is working with the Fisheries Conservation Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center! Her research focuses on river herring, a group of anadromous fish (much like salmon) that live in the ocean but migrate annually to spawn in freshwater streams. Claire's project assesses whether large-scale dam removals help restore fish migratory paths and spawning habitat, using data on egg production, environmental DNA, and acoustic tagging. She is also interested in modeling how dam removal affects fisheries productivity in the Chesapeake Bay. While she may not be able to be in the field due to COVID, Claire is excited to work with the lab to publish and share the results of this study to inform future herring conservation. Her PI, Dr. Matt Ogburn, is also a Duke Marine Lab alum! 🐟🐟

This week's coordinator feature is our Publication Coordinator, Rachel Earnhardt! Rachel is delighted to be the Coastal Resilience Stanback Intern with the Southern Environmental Law Center based in the Charleston, SC office. This summer, she is conducting research to support a range of projects about coastal resilience policy with a focus on equity. Her supervisor, the wonderful Jenny Brennan, is Duke MEM Class of ’17!

Happy National Ocean Month! Curious what the OPWG Coordinators are up to this summer? 🌊

Our first feature is OPWG Seminar Coordinator, Juliette Lee! Juliette is interning with the Chicago Zoological Society at Mote Marine Lab. She is monitoring dolphin populations by conducting boat-based photographic and drone identification surveys to collect and record behavioral, location, individual, acoustic, and environmental data of the resident bottlenose dolphin groups, and additional data related to human-dolphin interactions. She is also conducting research on the relationships between distributions of dolphins and their prey and factors that affect fish community ecology by sampling fish communities through purse seining techniques and collection of other environmental data. Juliette will apply her new-found acoustic data analysis skills from this internship to her master’s project on ocean noise. 🐬🐬🐬