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Pre-Juvenile Naked Goby (Gobiosoma Bosc) Age And Growth, Annamaria Deitz, Juliana Harding Dec 2019

Pre-Juvenile Naked Goby (Gobiosoma Bosc) Age And Growth, Annamaria Deitz, Juliana Harding

Honors Theses

Due to the abundance of larval naked gobies, Gobiosoma bosc, within the estuarine ichthyoplankton, it is important to understand their age and growth. Naked gobies are a largely distributed, both geographically and within an estuary, small, benthic fish species. There are 3 pairs of otoliths, calcium carbonate structures within the ear canal, that detect vibrations and record the age of the fish, both daily and annually. Using laboratory-reared gobies of a known age (Tremont et al. 2015), daily signatures on the sagittal otoliths were first validated to be daily, then a growth curve for the wild caught larvae was …


Microplastics In The Digestive System Of The Atlantic Sharpnose Shark (Rhizoprionodon Terraenovae) In Winyah Bay, Sc, Elise Virginia Pullen May 2019

Microplastics In The Digestive System Of The Atlantic Sharpnose Shark (Rhizoprionodon Terraenovae) In Winyah Bay, Sc, Elise Virginia Pullen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The digestive tracts and livers of adult male Atlantic sharpnose sharks (N=16), Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, from Winyah Bay, South Carolina were examined for ingested microplastics. R. terraenovae is a small, locally abundant, coastal mesopredatory elasmobranch belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. Microfibers comprised the largest categories of plastics (94% of the total), and were found in 100% of sharks examined. The number of micro- and other plastics ranged from 34 to 75 per individual and totaled 927. The majority of plastics (40%) were blue in coloration, and 55% were <1 mm in length. Microplastics were observed on both the interior and exterior of the organs examined, and three microfibers were embedded within the stomach lining, an observation not previously reported in marine vertebrates and one which represents a potential pathway for the translocation of ingested microplastics.