Funded by the NOAA Educational Partnership Program with Minority-Serving Institutions
Cooperative Agreement Award #NA16SEC4810009
Edith Gonzalez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Marine Biology
Javier Navarro, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Environmental & Marine Sciences
Queriah Simpson, Florida A&M University, Environmental Science
Alexandra Thomsen, California State University Monterey Bay, Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy, CSUMB
Shan Guruvadoo was a Master's student at Bethune-Cookman University who graduated in May of 2019. As of May 2020, he has accepted a position as a Data Scientist at Channel Logistics, LLC dba Space-Eyes. Read more below about his position.
"My internship with NOAA Tides & Currents made me a good candidate for the position, and I enjoyed being in the CCME program during my time at Bethune-Cookman.
My job as a Data Scientist is to integrate machine learning into product features, such as ship detection within satellite imagery and anomaly detection in vessel traffic patterns. I build neural networks for deep learning, and support team members on development of the data pipeline."
With guidance from NOAA CCME faculty and the use of the NOAA Restoration Atlas tool selected student participants will:
Funded by the NOAA Educational Partnership Program (EPP/MSI), four NOAA CSC Centers bring together 29 University Partner Institutions across the country engage in NOAA mission science and create a divers NOAA mission enterprise workforce.
Goals of the CSC Education Webinar Series
TITLE: Re-immersion time for reduction of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus to ambient concentrations in Eastern Oysters
NOAA NERTO Mentor: John Jacobs, NCCOS/Oxford, NOAA NOS
Oyster aquaculture is an important industry in the State of Maryland. When oysters are grown in submerged cages fouling organisms attach to the cage and oysters, impacting water flow and feeding. To reduce fouling, farmers remove cages and oysters from the water for a desiccation period for up to 24 hours. This has been recognized to elevate levels of Vibrio spp., heterotrophic bacteria found in coastal waters world-wide.
Some species such as V. vulnificus cause illness in people associated with consumption of raw shellfish including gastroenteritis, and in more extreme cases, mortality. Oysters can depurate Vibrio, and a 14-day re-immersion period has been suggested as adequate to return to background levels. Currently, there have been no studies specific to Maryland waters that examine Vibrio levels following antifouling dry periods and re-immersion for various intervals.
To address this information gap, we initiated ISSC-sponsored research to determine the time needed to return V. vulnificus levels to background and to determine whether salinity, temperature, or intersite differences impact depuration rates. V. vulnificus levels were measured using the most-probable number enrichment protocol followed by real-time PCR to determine presence/absence. Preliminary data from one site suggests that a 7-10 day period is sufficient to reduce Vibrio vulnificus levels to background; data from other sites is being processed.