South Carolina Aquarium’s very first rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle was recaptured this summer off the Georgia coast; this is only the second recapture out of over fifty releases.  Loggerheads are endangered sea turtles and each summer many large females visit Charleston’s beaches to nest.  The adult male loggerhead recaptured was considered healthy and ready to mate.  Dr. David Owens, professor and researcher at the College of Charleston, considers this recapture after a decade to be remarkable.  Nicknamed “Stinky,” this loggerhead is proof that rehabilitation does indeed work.  Read more about Stinky’s story or track other sea turtle’s travels.

Dr. Scott Harris, a Geology professor at the College of Charleston, was interviewed by the ETV program The Big Picture.  On Friday, August 5th, they discussed the Oil Spill in the Gulf and highlighted drilling for oil off the coast of South Carolina.  According to Scott, the structure of the ocean floor off the South Carolina coast suggests that it would not supply substantial deposits of oil or natural gas. Therefore, it would be not economically viable to extract such energy sources from South Carolina’s outer shelf.

When will the oil make it to South Carolina’s coast?  Nobody knows.  Dr. Jack DiTullio, College of Charleston professor and oceanographer, communicated the difficulty of predicting which way the oil may travel.  He explains how the physics of the ocean’s currents are erratic and quite complicated.  Numerous scientists are working around the clock in order to predict different scenarios of oil travel.  Dr. DiTullio believes that the winds would have to shift and come from the north in order for the oil to make it to South Carolina’s coast.

Dr. Louis Burnett, director of Grice Marine Laboratory and College of Charleston professor, has been named one of the College’s leading experts on the oil spill crisis.  On May 18, 2010 he attended the Senate Commerce Committee in Washington, DC regarding this environmental catastrophe.  Dr. Burnett expressed his concern for Charleston’s fragile marsh ecosystem, if the oil makes it further north.

The Grice Lab was well represented at the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle, Washington, January 3-7, 2010.  Members of the Burnett, Podolsky and McElroy labs were among the more than 1700 attendees at the international scientific conference.  The program included research presentations by undergraduates, graduate students and faculty, as well plenary talks by leading scientists, including Dr. Bruce Alberts, editor of Science magazine.  Representing the Grice laboratory, graduate students Daniel Fernandes, Kolo Rathburn, Nat Johnson and Kris Stover gave oral presentationsof their research, as did Drs. Bob Podolsky, Eric McElroy and Kristin Hardy.  They also took some time before and after the meeting to enjoy the sites of Seattle, including the Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, and even nearby Forks.