New College Foundation’s New Topics Lecture Series Continues

April 18, 2022 – Sarasota

The New College Foundation’s 2021-2022 season of New Topics is a six-part lecture series showcasing regional and national speakers from a broad range of disciplines exploring topical issues. The series runs October through April. This April lecture is presented at 5 p.m. via Zoom. Tickets are $10, and free for New College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Registration is required and can be made at ncf.edu/new-topics or by calling the New College events hotline at 941-487-4888. Reservations must be made at least 48 hours in advance to allow for processing and receipt email for Zoom link. The series is sponsored, in part, by Sarasota Magazine and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.

New Topics 2021-2022 Continues With:

Thursday, April 21, 5 p.m., via Zoom

The Many Angles of Shark Conservation

With Jayne Gardiner and Melissa Cristina Márquez ’11

New College professor Dr. Jayne Gardiner and alum Melissa Cristina Márquez explore how both research and outreach are vital when determining the fate of one of our planet’s oldest predators: sharks. Gardiner and her students use advanced tagging techniques to identify local nursery areas and study how young sharks use these habitats, which are thought to be critically important for management and conservation, especially for threatened and endangered species. This work informs the selection of future marine preserves and protected areas for imperiled species. Across the world in Australia, PhD candidate Márquez also uses marine technology to understand shark habitat use (such as underwater video cameras and drones). Once she pinpoints the most critical environments for sharks here, she figures out how the local community feels about sharks by analyzing ongoing media coverage and how their attitude can lead to conservation success or failure in the area. Is there hope for these rapidly disappearing animals? By joining forces, perhaps.

Melissa Cristina Márquez is a Ph.D. candidate at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. She is interested in what environmental factors influence the composition and distribution of elasmobranchs using a variety of marine technology. Márquez is the author of the Scholastic series “Wild Survival” and hosts the podcast ConCiencia Azul. Márquez has served as a host on various science-themed shows on BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and OceanX. Her articles appear regularly in Forbes Science and has also been featured in The Washington Post, USA Today, People Chica, and GQ. Márquez is a Forbes “30 Under 30” honoree and was listed as one of InStyle’s “BadAss Women for 2021.”

Jayne Gardiner is an associate professor of biology and director of the Pritzker Marine Biology Research Center at New College. She specializes in the sensory biology and behavior of fishes. Gardiner’s research focuses primarily on multisensory integration – understanding how animals use multiple sensory cues simultaneously to perform complex behaviors such as feeding, navigation, and homing. She is also interested in how fish learn to use sensory information and how human activities and environmental disturbances affect sensory perception and behavioral performance. Her research employs both laboratory and field-based techniques to study these questions in elasmobranchs (sharks, skates, and rays), as well as bony fishes.