Junior SeaKeepers Webinar 5: Alanna Mnich - Fish in Early Life

Overview

On Monday, January 29th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted the fifth Junior SeaKeepers Program webinar for 2023-24 cohort students. For this virtual talk, we were thrilled to have Alanna Mnich, M.S., Doctoral Candidate at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology.

Alanna is a fisheries oceanographer and biogeochemist with an interest in the early life history of highly migratory species. Alanna got her start in marine science at the University of Miami and later went on to work for the NOAA Miami Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Her research focuses thus far have been on the larval Atlantic bluefin tuna, as well as squid and octopus larvae. Currently, Alanna is using chemical signatures to investigate new spawning sites used by Atlantic bluefin tuna to figure out how to better protect this species.

Outing Goal

By attending webinars led by research scientists, our Junior SeaKeepers have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the diversity of work that exists in the marine conservation realm. Additionally, students get direct access to accomplished professionals and are able to see the advancements in the field that are the result of research happening every day all over the world. Alanna’s research was a great addition to our webinar series, as it highlighted the importance of studying the early life history of sensitive marine animals like tuna and cephalopods which have economic and even cultural importance globally. Through speaking with Alanna about her research and personal history, we hope that our JSKs were able to collect some inspiration for both their research projects and their professional futures moving forward.