Sex and the sea snail: how a plucky marine lab brought a mollusk back from the brink Once abundant in California, the white abalone had all but vanished. Now, thanks to an innovative breeding program, it’s staged a remarkable comeback

Some brilliant photos in this article on the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory's white abalone breeding programme

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.01.033

[New Paper] @currentbiology.bsky.social presents our population genomics study of the iconic Scaly-foot Snail: 125 genomes from 8 Indian Ocean hot vents! Deep currents drive South→North gene flow, while transform faults act as dispersal barriers.
READ FOR FREE: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mbW73QW8S...

I wish NZ government research reports had a single repository with DOIs and a consistent format...

‘Mad fishing’: the super-size fleet of squid catchers plundering the high seas Every year a Chinese-dominated flotilla big enough to be seen from space pillages the rich marine life on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned part of the South Atlantic off Argentina

Well this was a depressing read: ‘Mad fishing’: the super-size fleet of squid catchers plundering the high seas www.theguardian.com/environment/...

#fisheries

New Plymouth lake to be drained in fight against invasive clams The invasive clam Corbicula fluminea was found in Lake Rotomanu on 8 November, the first discovery in NZ outside the Waikato River.

New Plymouth lake to be drained in fight against invasive clams: www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!

Unrecognised DNA Degradation in Flash‐Frozen Genetic Samples in Natural History Collections Optimal preservation of tissues from the field to long-term cryo-storage is paramount to securing genetic resources for research needs. DNA preservation techniques vary, with flash freezing currently...

Flash-frozen tissues are considered the gold standard for DNA—but our analysis of field-collected samples found surprising degradation.
Preserving in buffer before freezing may be more robust in real-world conditions.
👉 doi.org/10.1111/1755...
#Museomics #Genomics #Fieldwork #DNApreservation

A photo of an oyster dredge pulling up oysters.

A photo of many shucked oysters sitting in a cooking pot.

Our study demonstrates the potential insights provided by ddPCR beyond detection screening, as well as the importance of considering evolutionary ecology in the management of commercially important marine diseases.

A final diagram, again showing infection intensity estimated by ddPCR, but breaking down samples into all species and location groups.

A photograph of shucked oysters on a tray.

The difference in infection intensity may reflect a lack of host-parasite co-evolution for the newly introduced B. ostreae. Overall, our results indicate that B. ostreae remains a significant risk to Ostrea chilensis flat oysters, although coinfections may not exacerbate disease.

A figure showing the infection intensity of infection groups, using ddPCR gene copy number. There's a statistically significant difference between B. exitiosa and B. ostreae groups.

A similar diagram, with singles-species infection and coinfection groups per species. Again, there's a statistically significant difference between the two parasites.

Our results indicate that 1) infections of introduced Bonamia ostreae are more intense than B. exitiosa, and 2) concurrent infections of both Bonamia parasites have similar intensities to single-species infections, with no detectable interactive effects.

A map of the sample locations in New Zealand for each species.

A histology slide photograph showing oyster cells infected with Bonamia.

We used gene copy numbers for species-specific digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) assays to compare infection intensity between two parasite species. Bonamia exitiosa has been detected in New Zealand since the 80s, whereas B. ostreae is an introduced species first detected in 2015.

A graphical abstract of the paper, showing an illustration of infected oysters, a map of their sample locations in New Zealand, and a diagram showing the difference in their infection intensity measured by ddPCR.

A photo of oysters on the seabed, with many encrusting barnacles.

Speaking of oysters, my first publication on #Bonamia with @mrhenryslane.bsky.social is now out in #Parasitology! We used #ddPCR to compare the infection intensity of two closely related oyster #parasites found in New Zealand flat oysters. doi.org/10.1017/S003...

#genetics #ecology #biosecurity

This trip was for the Bonamia ostreae surveillance, and so I can't comment on oyster numbers from this sampling. The overall oyster quality seemed up, even if the beds across Foveaux remain quite varied.

Yes! Spring B. ostreae surveillance.

Annual Foveaux Strait oyster sampling done. ✅️
Also mollymawks!

A photo of a crowd of attendees at the symposium.

A photo of myself presenting.

Was brilliant to attend the Tuna Hui / Eel Symposium 2025 at Auckland University of Technology last week. Especially inspiring to learn more about dedicated mahi of mana whenua across Aotearoa to protect our native tuna.

@tewhareturoa.bsky.social #eels #conservation #ecology #fisheries

Almost time! #biosecurity

Hoiho - the world’s rarest penguin, fewer than 150 mainland pairs left

🐧We researched one of the world’s rarest #penguins. The yellow‑eyed penguin (aka hoiho/takaraka) isn’t one homogeneous species after all!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#hoiho #conservation #genomics #birds #nzwildlife #endangered #wildlife #nature

Currently seems like the only way to find a manuscript ID when verifying a Scientific Reports peer review is to select 'contact journal' in the Springer portal. The ID doesn't seem to be provided directly in any emails or anywhere in the portal?

Great Spring afternoon for a quick bit of Durvillaea fieldwork in the city

Plasmid prevalence is independent of antibiotic resistance in environmental Enterobacteriaceae The rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens poses a critical threat to the treatment of infectious diseases. While the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) via plasmid conjugation has bee...

If you ever find yourself needing evidence for ‘Plasmids are just as common in microbes without resistance genes,’ we’ve got you covered! Check our new paper, out today:

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Extirpation of Lake Sturgeon in an Ontario Lake Following Dam Construction and Watershed Diversion Confirmed by Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Sedimentary eDNA: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Fucus algal meadow in the Baltic Sea

Doctoral position on genomic basis of Fucus (brown algal) local adaptation - join our exciting #Fubluc team! Fully funded for 3.5 years & we also consider candidates with strong molecular or bioinformatic skillls but no marine / algal experience, see www.geomar.de/en/karriere/...

Nature article here too: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

'Driven by financial gain': Porirua man jailed over pāua haul The man claimed they were for a wedding in Auckland but a court didn’t believe him.

MPI officers seize 619 pāua during Porirua raid, man jailed for more than two years: www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mpi-offic...

Strawberry Conch (Conomurex luhuanus) Strawberry Conch from Okinawa, JP on April 28, 2018 at 10:50 PM by Shawn Miller. Strawberry conch (Conomurex luhuanus) - - Has four eyes. A possible mutation. Location: Okinawa...

Huh. FOUR eyes! #molluscmonday www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Can also read a paper about Beast X here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Perhaps it's the experience of growing up chronically online and binge-reading Wikipedia, but I find it pretty easy to ignore blue hyperlink text. 🤷 I actually find the grey text more distracting - maybe because it's smaller and it therefore breaks up the lines?

A cream piece of cloth with a black K embroidered in the centre, surrounded by embroideries of (from top left) giant shipworm Kuphus, small top-shell snail Kaliela, whelk Kelletia with its stabby appendages out, and orange fossil of a maybe-mollusc, maybe-not creature called Kimberella

K is for giant wormy Kuphus, adorable Kaliela, stabby Kelletia and (putatively) Kimberella

Another cool population genomic/phylogenomic study on kelp, involving whole-genome sequencing.

Revisiting the species problem in Northeast Pacific ribbon kelp lineages (genus Alaria): Lessons learned using whole genome data: doi.org/10.1111/jpy....