Froeschke receives two-year fellowship
Bridgette Froeschke, a TAMU-CC Coastal and Marine System Science Ph.D. student and Research Assistant for HRI, received the National Estuarine Research Reserve Graduate Student Fellowship, for two years. The fellowship will provide funding for a chapter of her dissertation research, "Identification of southern flounder nursery habitat within an estuary: the influence of abiotic and biotic factors." Southern flounder stocks have declined along the Texas coast and her research in the Mission and Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve and will provide much needed information on the habitat requirements of an imperiled fish species. Additionally, Bridgette also received the 2009 Ph.D. student Texas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Scholarship in support of her dissertation research.

Garcia-Pineda first PhD graduate
Oscar Garcia-Pineda became the first TAMU-CC PhD graduate in the new Coastal and Marine System Science degree program. Oscar is from Tampico, Mexico, and was one of the first students to register in the new program in Fall 2005. Oscar did his research in the HRI building under the direction of Dr. Ian McDonald, HRI Research Associate and Professor of Oceanography at TAMU-CC. The title of his dissertation was “Remote Sensing Analysis of Natural Oil Seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.” He has accepted a position as Postdoctoral Research Associate at Florida State University in the Department of Oceanography.

Recent publications from the Stunz lab
HRI Endowed Professor Dr. Greg Stunz and his associates in the HRI Ocean and Human Health program have published several papers in international journals this spring. Former M.S. graduate students Megan Reese and Suraida Nanez-James both mentored by Stunz published their thesis research in the scientific journal Estuaries and Coasts. Reese’s paper (vol. 31) covered the impact of opening Packery Channel to fisheries, and Nañez-James examined (vol. 32) the spatial distribution and habitat preference of southern flounder. Post-doctoral associate Dr. Matthew Johnson also has two recent publications, one in Journal of Shellfish Research (vol. 28) and the other in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (vol. 138), on impacts of hypoxia to restored oyster reefs, as well as fish use of restored oyster reefs in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

HRI student describes new species
A new polychaete species, Samytha storchi, was described in March 2009 by HRI student Michael Reuscher and his former advisor from the University of Heidelberg, Dr. Thomas Wehe, in a German journal, Umweltwiss Schadst Forsch. Reuscher and two friends found the polychaete in 2007 during a scuba dive in the Northern Gulf of Aqaba while they were working at the Marine Science Station in Aqaba, Jordan. The species is named after the renowned zoologist Dr. Volker Storch on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Storch was an advisor of both describers and also helped to establish contact of Reuscher and his new advisor, Dr. Thomas Shirley, Endowed Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science.

HRI student invited to speak to NOAA
Anthony Reisinger, PhD student and graduate research assistant working under HRI Endowed Research Associate Professor Dr. Jim Gibeaut, was recently invited to speak at the 2009 Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Orientation at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. The orientation is a week-long program designed to familiarize the incoming undergraduate recipients with NOAA offices, mission and programs. NOAA annually awards more than 100 of these prestigious scholarships to students studying in NOAA related science fields and provides hands-on training and experience to encourage undergraduates to pursue study and research in NOAA-related fields. Reisinger, a former recipient of the Hollings Scholarship, spoke at this year’s orientation about how he made the most of his experience at NOAA. Reisinger’s internship as a Hollings scholar with the Environmental Visualization Laboratory earned him a national award for the short science film he created on the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. During the week Reisinger also headed roundtable discussion groups and served on a question-and-answer panel to help students identify what they should do during their time as a Hollings Scholar.