Weaver presents on mapping and habitat
Doug Weaver, an HRI student and Coastal Marine System Science Ph.D. student at TAMU-CC, attended the 25th annual Gulf of Mexico Information Transfer Meeting, sponsored by the Minerals Management Service January 6-8 in New Orleans. At the meeting, he presented a paper entitled “Recent Research on the South Texas Topographic Features: Mapping and Habitat,” co-authored with Dr. Wes Tunnell and Dr. Thomas Shirley. He presented results of a 2006 multi-beam mapping cruise and recent tow-camera surveys, including high-resolution topographic maps of five banks and the addition of 15 new records of fishes from these features, which range in depth from 52 to 85 meters in depth and are located between 60 and 120 km from Port Aransas, Texas.

HRI student's research presented at Deep Sea Corals Symposium
Two papers focusing on research conducted by HRI PhD student Peter Etnoyer were presented at the 4th International Symposium on Deep Sea Corals in Wellington, New Zealand, December 1-5. Co-author Emma Hickerson of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary presented research results from Etnoyer’s dissertation on deep-sea corals in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, Etnoyer was invited to contribute a manuscript to the forthcoming proceedings of the Marine Ecology Progress Series. A second presentation at the symposium that involved Etnoyer's work was presented by co-author Dr. Jeff Hyland on the relationship between catsharks and their nursery substrate, deep-sea gorgonians.

HRI student conducts molecular genetics research at Univ. of Louisiana Lafayette
HRI PhD student Morgan Kilgour conducted research and training at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) for two weeks in January. She began the molecular genetics portion of her dissertation research under the direction of Dr. Darryl Felder and Dr. Rafael Robles. This research contributed to the ongoing Tree of Life Program by sequencing the galatheoid crabs of the Gulf of Mexico. Morgan returned to ULL for two weeks in February to continue her genetics research.

German student joins HRI program
Michael Reuscher joined the TAMU-CC Marine Biology doctoral program in the fall of 2008 and is studying under HRI Endowed Chair Dr. Thomas Shirley in the HRI Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science program. For his dissertation at TAMU-CC he will study the biodiversity, taxonomy, ecology and biogeography of deep-sea polychaetes, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Before coming to Texas, Reuscher graduated from the Ruprecht Karl University Heidelberg with a Diploma (German equivalent to M.S.) in biology. His thesis title "Polychaetes of the deep-sea with special emphasis on the fauna of hot vents and cold seeps" was an examination of the terebellomorph polychaetes from vent and seep sites from the Aleutian Trench, the Juan de Fuca Plate, the Pacific Antarctic Ridge, the Bismarck Archipelago, the North Fiji Basin and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.