Author Archives: Jenny Ovenden

Conservation genetics of the rare Maugean skate

The Maugean skate (Zearaja maugeana) is found only estuarine embayments on the isolated western coast of Tasmania in southern Australia. PhD student Ms Kay Weltz (left, shown here discussing DNA results with MFL associate Jess Morgan) is using genetic markers to study the biology of this unique elasmobranch species. Kay is visiting MFL from the University […]

Genetics reveal not one but many breeding populations of Black Marlin

Project Black Marlin has reached a major milestone with the completion of Samuel William’s honours thesis. We have been able to reject the idea of only one breeding population of Black Marlin the Indian and Pacific Ocean, using fin-clips collected by the game-fishing community in Australia and by Sam from fish markets in Taiwan. Sam has evidence […]

MFL members among 301 scientists who reject Western Australian Government’s lethal approach to shark mitigation

MFL members feel strongly that there is no scientific evidence in favour of the Western Australian Government’s proposed use of drum lines (baited hooks suspended from large floats called drums) to reduce the shark hazard to ocean users. Jennifer Ovenden and other MFL members have added their names to the joint submission prepared by Jessica Meeuwig and colleagues. Read the submission […]

Project Black Marlin Update

Samuel Williams and collaborator Julian Pepperell have released the April edition of the Black Marlin Bulletin. Download the April Black Marlin Bulletin here. Find out more about Project Black Marlin on the MFL web site. Sam has completed population genetic analyses of the species in waters around Australia and in the South China Sea. The […]

Gemfish sample collection growing

Thanks to the efforts of Russell Hudson and commercial fishers, the Molecular Fisheries Laboratory has received 246 new samples. They represent fish populations from the Great Australian Bight and south-east Australia. Genetic data from the samples, along with information about the reproductive state of the fishes, will lead to increased understanding of the stock structure […]

Minor Update of software NeEstimator v2.01 released

The NeEstimator software development team has released a minor update to version 2.01. There was a typo in the v2.01 code that caused the lower jacknife confidence interval to be printed as ‘infinite’ when the upper interval was infinite. This has been corrected. Another minor issue has been fixed also. Previously the software did not […]

Record breaking PhD thesis submitted

Carlos Bustamante submitted his PhD thesis yesterday. In three years and three months, Carlos has published 10 papers – seven of which were included in his thesis entitled “Biology, Taxonomy and Distribution of south-east Pacific Cartilaginous Fishes” Carlos and colleagues celebrated yesterday (left to right, Carlos Bustamante, Bonnie Holmes, Carolina Vargas-Caro, Mike Bennett, Kate Burgess […]

Congratulations to Jenny Giles PhD

Jenny Giles completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in April 2014. Jenny was supervised by Jennifer Ovenden of MFL and Cynthia Riginos of School of Biological Sciences UQ. The title of Jenny’s thesis is “Phylogeographic variation in selected Indo-West Pacific shark and ray species, and application to monitoring and enforcement of the international […]