Rutgers scientists are devising strategies for state businesses to successfully weather future adverse effects from climate change.
A student-led science story, Life on the Edge, which was funded by pilot grants featuring the research of Dr. Daphne Munroe, has now been accepted into 4 science film festivals, with possibly more to come:
• Cut International Short Film Festival
Using Rutgers University brood stock, the hatchery was able to have eight spawns this year, and is on its way to success in benefitting local aquaculturists in the state of Delaware.
Shellfishermen and scientists have spent years battling a disease that nearly wiped out the native oyster population. At last, there are signs of a possible way forward.
One East Coast collaboration, the Regional Shellfish Seed Biosecurity Program , is attempting to make interstate business easier for hatcheries and growers. “In a nutshell, we want to have a hatchery’s health record for three years, and see a clean bill of health for three years, before the hatchery becomes certified,” explains Lucia Safi, a postdoctoral researcher associated with Rutgers University and the Regional Shellfish Seed Biosecurity Program. “The hatchery will make an application for each product that they want to have certified. We do all this research and certified best management practices to minimize disease. In the long run, this will save a lot of time and money.”
In some parts of the East Coast, specially constructed blocks of concrete that mimic the surface area of an oyster reef are used for oyster settlement along the shoreline. This concrete must be designed to break down, however. Asking concrete manufacturers to make a product designed to break down may seem counterintuitive, explains Dave Bushek, director of the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University.
HSRL RIOS interns finished their summer internships strong during the capstone poster presentation on Cook Campus in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. All four completed outstanding projects providing data that will advance the research they were involved in, while also learning about the basic process of conducting science and communicating the information revealed.
Molly and Nina were selected by an independent faculty review committee to present their posters at the next Ocean Sciences meeting and Michelle and Aisling’s mentors are discussing presenting their posters to relevant regional conferences. Congrats to all and thanks to everyone that helped support them.
Rutgers University is leading an 18-month DARPA project during its first phase, with options that could extend out to a total of five years.
The Rutgers-led Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project—awarded $12.6 million last fall to develop an artificial reef ecosystem to help project coastlines from storm damage, flooding and erosion—recently conducted laboratory testing of modular oyster reef-mimicking structures for eventual installation in the Gulf Coast.
The Haskin Shellfish Lab participated in the Delaware River and Bay Authority’s (DRBA) second annual World Environment Day celebration, along with over one hundred (100) other exhibitors and vendors with various environmental focuses. The first official World Environment Day celebration was held in 1973, marking 2023 as the 50th anniversary, with over 150 countries participating.
