Meeting #24 Fins on Wheels Fundraiser.

Thanks to all of your support, the FINS ON WHEELS fundraiser was a massive success! With your help , we were able to celebrate reaching our $1000 fundraising goal! In total we raised over $1500!

The fundraiser opened with Ph.D student Sophia Emmons introducing her readership looking at the metabolic rates of epaulette sharks (hemiscyllium ocellatum) on Heron Island.

Sophia then discussed the purpose of the fundraiser: “The Great Epaulette Road Trip” to transport 40 sharks from Heron Island to the AIMS SeaSim!

THANK YOU to our raffle prize donors, including the Rummer Lab, Yonglala Dive, as well as Reef Rebelion and congratulations to all our raffle winners!

Next, we heard from Miriam Zanforlin about her research on how neonate epaulette sharks balance digestion with energetic needs in the face of climate change.

Thank you so much to Sophia and Miriam for sharing a bit about their work and the importance of the fundraiser.

Some highlights from the talks included:

• Hearing about Sophia’s research on the hypoxia tolerance of epaulette sharks under different temperatures and the aim to establish critical limits of the sharks under environmental condition simulations in the AIMS SeaSim

• Learning about a day in the life of an epaulette shark in the Rummer Lab, including both tagging and candling eggs to monitor embryonic growth

• Participated in an incredible egg tagging workshop of “wind” eggs from the Rummer Lab run by Miriam and Aurelie Benoit, another masters student in the Rummer Lab!