Author: snancollas

This September Hollis attended the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association and National Shellfish Growers Association Conference in Seaside, Oregon. During this conference, she was awarded the Kenneth K. Chew Student Research Grant for her third chapter which experimentally tests whether a preliminary air exposure primes hatchery produced Pacific oysters for the transition from the subtidal hatchery environment to the intertidal grow-out farm by reducing energy budget disruption. Go Hollis!

As a Sustainable Oceans NSF Research Trainee, PhD student Hollis Jones was able to spend her first summer interning with Hog Island Oyster Co., a California oyster farm dedicated to developing sustainable aquaculture techniques. She spent 10 weeks immersed in everything from spawning broodstock at their hatchery on Humboldt Bay to unloading shipments of shellfish from other farms for retail at one of their five restaurants. She split her summer between the farm in Tomales Bay, and the hatchery and nursery in Humboldt Bay. This internship shaped her dissertation and she plans to continue to partner with Hog Island to work towards making the commercial oyster industry more resilient to climate change. Great work Hollis!

Out on Tomales Bay surveying oysters for mortality. Photo credit: Maxwell Rintoul

Checking oyster baskets in Tomales Bay during low tide. Photo credit: Remy Hale

Graduate student Annelise Del Rio completed her PhD last September with an engaging exit seminar via Zoom. During her time in the lab, Annelise ran some exciting lab and field multi-stressor studies on early life stages of Chinook Salmon, was a fantastic mentor to several undergraduate students, prioritised outreach, and published several publications. After completion of her PhD, Annelise worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Fangue lab and has recently just started her new position as a Salmon Scientist for the Puget Sound Partnership. Annelise will be greatly missed in the lab, but we wish her the best of luck in her new position and excited to see what she accomplishes in the future. Congratulations Annelise!