March 2019
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Executive Director, Jim Sullivan, Ph.D. was featured on WPTV News Channel 5 to discuss the "crisis" we are facing surrounding toxic algae blooms. Dr. Sullivan explained there’s a good chance that we will see an eruption of algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee this summer.

There is also a severe problem with coral reefs dying due to disease. Harbor Branch researchers are trying to learn what is causing the disease and how to treat it. Watch the full interview on To The Point with Michael Williams in the video player.
With a big push to get a global audience – young and old – excited about science, a Ph.D. student at  Florida Atlantic University’s  Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is thinking outside-the-box.

Hunter Hines, ad author and a Ph.D. student who conducted research in the  McCarthy Laboratory has turned to the social media platform of Instagram to engage audiences in scientific exchange across the world and has come up with the right formula for success. He is encouraging other scientists to follow suit.

Laboratory Equipment discussed the evolution of science within social media platforms with Hines in a recent publication.
Regulated Cell Death Signaling Pathways and Marine Natural Products That Target Them
Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute researchers are trying to fully understand how marine natural products can be used to target and kill cancer cells and how that process works. 

Esther Guzmán, Ph.D., associate research professor at FAU Harbor Branch served as guest editor of a special issue of  Marine Drugs that addresses the “Connection of Marine Natural Products and Cell Apoptosis," or cell death.
Left to Right: Caird Rexroad (USDA ARS National Program Leader for Aquaculture), Megan Davis (FAU HBOI Research Professor), Paul Wills (FAU HBOI Research Professor), Gene Kim (USDA NIFA National Program Leader for Aquaculture), Jeff Silverstein (USDA ARS Deputy Administrator, Animal Production and Protection).
Harbor Branch aquaculture researchers joined experts from around the country to present the "Status of Marine Finfish Species for US Aquaculture," during Aquaculture America 2019.

Megan Davis, Ph.D., and Paul Wills, Ph.D., research professor's at FAU's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and collaborators from United States Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently hosted the special session during the conference held in New Orleans.
FAU Harbor Branch investigators are revolutionizing inefficiencies in fish farming with the development of a Hybrid Aerial Underwater Robotic System, a transformative collaborative robotic system.

"Labor- and resource-intensive operations make it difficult to sustain fish farms, which supply more than half of all consumed seafood worldwide", said Bing Ouyang, Ph.D., assistant research professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

But, Ouyang and co-investigators, Paul Wills, Ph.D., and collaborators aim to change all that.
Changing Seas - Fishing the Flats for Science

Experts study bonefish, tarpon and permit, the fishes coveted by fly anglers on the flats.

Read more
www.changingseas.tv
Changing Seas featured Aaron Adams, Ph.D., director of science and conservation for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and a senior scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in an episode titled, ‘’Fishing the Flats for Science.” 

Changing Seas went fishing with the group as they conducted research projects to better understand the movements, habitats, and spawning behaviors of bonefish, tarpon, and permit. 
More than 10 million tons of plastic debris escape the waste stream and enter the sea every year, degrading into tiny shards called microplastics, according to Tracy Mincer, Ph.D., who is investigating how plastics disrupt ocean health and sea life.

“In terms of fossil hydrocarbon tonnage, plastic pollution can be viewed as one of the biggest oil spills in history, reoccurring each year, but no one is looking at it that way,” says Mincer, research professor at FAU Harbor Branch and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College.
This week twelve of our Semester By The Sea (SBTS) students are at sea in the Gulf of Mexico on the  R/V Hogarth, operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO). The cruise is part of the  Ocean Exploration for Undergraduates course taught by Dennis Hanisak, Ph.D., Jim Masterson, Ph.D., and Ned Smith, Ph.D. 

This course provides “hands-on”, at-sea, multi-disciplinary opportunities for students. Its goal is to facilitate students to become successful scientists through active participation and immersion in an ocean sciences research cruise.
Mission: Ocean Discovery
The TC Palm recently featured Harbor Branch Immersion Tours. During the tour, Madeleine Arencibia, manager of Mission: Ocean Discovery at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, talked about the research submersibles once used by the institute during an immersion tour of the 144-acre waterfront campus in north St. Lucie County.

About ten people attended the tour and learned of the current research being conducted by scientists including aquaculture and stock enhancement, coral reef health and conservation and marine mammal research. “The tour is the only opportunity the public can learn all about our campus and see the campus itself,” said Arencibia.

The tours are offered each Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Reservation required.
This year the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center launched an Ocean Science Art contest. Middle and high school students from St. Lucie and Indian River Counties were invited to create unique artwork inspired by research at FAU Harbor Branch. Stop by the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center to cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award. If you are unable to stop by, you can email your choice to Madeleine Arencibia. Voting ends Tuesday, April 2. 
The past few years have seen an explosion of new technologies for observing the ocean:  new autonomous vehicles for seafloor mapping and ocean sampling; new acoustic, image and genomic sensors for biology that could be deployed long term at ocean sites to see changes in ecosystems.

Both national and international organizations have realized that these new developments represent opportunities, but also challenges.
Harbor Branch Lectures
Tuesday, April 9 
9:30 - 11 a.m.
Osher Lifelong Learning Complex, FAU Jupiter
 
Jim Sullivan, Ph.D., Harbor Branch 
Tuesday, April 16
9:30 - 11 a.m.
Osher Lifelong Learning Complex, FAU Jupiter
limited time only" or "only 7 remaining!"
Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education.