Over the next few weeks you may see headlines about the Rice's whale. It's a population of ~50 in the Gulf of Mexico that you have likely never heard of before. My latest #openaccess #research with @emilyyeager9.bsky.social explains why that is and what you can do about it 🧵

🔗 bit.ly/RicesWhaleNews

Seeing Lara Gutmann (Italy) perform her free skate to the Jaws soundtrack today at the #Olympics made me think of @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and #SharksNearMe (it was also an absolutely beautiful performance). Congrats team USA on the skating win!!

🥺

The secret lives of Florida's elusive, giant manta rays According to a new study and hundreds of videos shot mostly in waters near Palm Beach County, manta rays can act as a mobile home, providing food, shelter, even honeymoon suites for fish in sometimes ...

Catch amazing PhD candidate Emily Yeager @emilyyeager9.bsky.social on public radio talking about her recent publication!

Another new publication! Congrats @juliasaltzman.bsky.social

Behavioral Evidence of Predator–Predator Commensalism: Cobia Track and Feed on Prey Disturbed by Southern Stingrays We documented a novel predator–predator commensal foraging interaction between cobia (Rachycentron canadum) and a southern stingray (Hypanus americanus) in a shallow coastal habitat of Biscayne Bay, ...

🚨NEW 🐟 PAPER 🚨
On this episode of unusual animal friends…
@juliasaltzman.bsky.social was in the right place at the right time to record and generate an ethogram of a stingray-cobia pair, an interaction fishers have relied on to find and sight-fish for cobia!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Scikit-bio: a fundamental Python library for biological omic data analysis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper on using #coral nurseries as experimental units for studying host x symbiont genotype interactions. Congrats to recent PhD student (now Dr.) Matt Gamache! @cmarinescience.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eVA2C

So excited to see this out! Metabarcoding shows fishes shift diets on degraded reefs; growth rates similar, condition diverged → species-specific coping strategies buff.ly/kGkEDpw @mattleray.bsky.social @nancyknowlton.bsky.social @odealab.bsky.social @sbac-manmetuni.bsky.social @stri_panama +others

Research on the circadian rhythm of mosquitos seeks new ways to fight parasitic diseases Researchers are uncovering new ways to understand how malaria parasites and their mosquito carriers keep track of time.

Research in Filipa Rijo-Ferrera’s lab at #UCBerkeley shows both #parasites and their #mosquito hosts share #circadian rhythms that time biting and transmissibility. Targeting these internal clocks may offer a new path to reducing #malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses.
bit.ly/4q3El9s

Manta Rays Give Free Rides to Hitchhikers, Protecting Other Coastline Species Learn how manta rays’ relationships with key marine species make protecting them from human harm essential.

www.discovermagazine.com/manta-rays-g...

Manta rays create mobile ecosystems, study finds A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Marine Megafauna Foundation finds that young Caribbean manta rays (Mobula yarae) often swim...

A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Marine Megafauna Foundation finds that young Caribbean manta rays often swim with groups of other fish, creating small, moving ecosystems that support a variety of marine species.

This Year in Conservation Science: Whales, Birds, and Killer Roads • The Revelator We asked conservation researchers around the world to send us their favorite papers of 2025. They address the planet’s most pressing problems — and important solutions.

Our latest research on Rice's whale media coverage is included in this 2025 wrap up by @therevelator.org: therevelator.org/this-year-in...

@miamirosenstiel.bsky.social

Is the seagrass greener on the other side? Faster growth in Biscayne Bay, Florida’s nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) compared to neighboring conspecifics of Bimini, The Bahamas - Environmental Bi... Effective management of vulnerable species requires a precise understanding of life history. In 2024, Fadool et al. published the first von Bertalanffy growth model for the nurse shark (Ginglymostoma ...

Check out our new publication on the growth rates and habitat use of nurse sharks in Biscayne Bay, FL compared to nearby Bimini, Bahamas which came out today (open access) in Environmental Biology of Fishes! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Assistant Professor without Tenure (WOT), Marine Invertebrate Organismal Biology University of Washington: Academic Personnel & Faculty: College of the Environment: Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Location Friday Harbor Labs, WA Open Date Dec 12, 2025 Description The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) and Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) at the University of Washington (UW) invite applications for the Riddiford – Truman Endowed faculty Chair, a position in the Without Tenure (WOT) track at the Assistant rank with specialization in marine invertebrate organismal biology. The successful candidate is expected to develop a collaborative, extramurally-funded and nationally recognized research program based at FHL that leverages FHL’s unique marine research infrastructure and natural setting. We especially welcome candidates whose scholarship in natural systems advances fundamental knowledge and contributes to environmental stewardship. All University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research, and service.

Looking for a faculty job at one of the world's great research stations?

We're looking for a marine invertebrate biologist at UW's Friday Harbor Labs.

apply.interfolio.com/178804

Thank you so much to my co-authors @floridamantagirl.bsky.social @juliasaltzman.bsky.social Christian Pankow and @drcatmac.bsky.social for all of your support throughout this process!

Stability and spatial variance of Mobula yarae-associated fish aggregates in South Florida - Marine Biology Despite their importance to organismal and ecosystem function, symbiotic associations in marine environments are often poorly understood. In the case of manta rays, casual and temporary associations w...

You can read the open access paper here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

This study adds important insight into the complexity of highly mobile marine symbioses and suggests that individual marine animals, like manta rays, may serve as important mobile habitats in their ecosystems.

We found that these manta rays most often associate with remoras, that symbionts generally congregate on the ventral side of their host (with symbiont-specific variation), and that symbiont communities are relatively stable over time and repeat encounters

In this study we analyzed hundreds of video encounters of the Atlantic Manta Ray (Mobula yarae) collected by the Marine Megafauna Foundation in south Florida to assess the composition and distribution of their symbiotic fish aggregates

I’m so pleased to share that the second chapter of my dissertation was just published open access in Marine Biology!

📢 We have multiple open PhD positions to study bacterial immune systems using cutting-edge cryo-EM, microbiology, and biochemistry in our group! Join us and uncover how bacterial defenses eliminate predators and engineer next-gen biotech tools.

🔥 Apply by Jan 8, 2026

Details: phd.pages.ista.ac.at

Natural and artificial variations of the standard genetic code www.cell.com/current-biol...

a man in red swim trunks is standing in the ocean ALT: a man in red swim trunks is standing in the ocean

Nerrrrrrrrrrrds!

To celebrate getting 100,000 followers on Bluesky, I am offering some of you fine folks the chance to join me on a 2026 shark research expedition. Really!

Enter here: forms.gle/iq3YQG31kbAC...

Terms and conditions in thread below:

The brand new website of the Bischoff lab

... together with my SciArt Gallery :)

So excited to share this as a new junior PI:

My brand-new lab website! 🎉🪰🌀
www.bischofflab.com

Please pass it on to young, motivated researchers looking for PhD positions 😊

And for the #FluorescenceFriday community: don’t miss the SciArt Gallery!

#CellBio #DevBio #PhDjob #PhDposition #Science

Come and join our lab! We have TWO fully funded PhD positions AND a paid field assistant opportunity in our Behavioral Ecology group @uni-goettingen.de & @primatenzentrum.bsky.social. Projects will be part of @rtg2906-curiosity.bsky.social & @sfb1528.bsky.social!!
Details in thread. Please re-post!

What did newspapers cover after the discovery of Rice's whales? Disagreements about policy proposals. It's a human story featuring whales, not a whale tale. Our new study shows that this approach serves news orgs well but can work against conservation and management.

Read it: bit.ly/RicesWhaleNews

From our new #research: Of the 35 newspaper texts we analyzed (2021-2024), 60% focused entirely on Rice's whales. The remaining 40% often included the whales as an example, but in the context of some other topic.

Read to find out what this means & why it matters: doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02265-y

#ICYMI: 🐋 📰 My latest #research with @emilyyeager9.bsky.social on the role of news media in marine conservation, this time about Rice's #whales. Worth reading even if you're not in whale science and conservation. Available #OpenAccess at bit.ly/RicesWhaleNews. 🐋 📰