Dr. Catherine Macdonald

Believe it or not, this absolute unit of a goliath grouper is still just a youngster; adults can weigh over 800 pounds! 🫡🫡🐟 #goliathgrouper #grouper #endangeredspecies #bigfish #coralcitycamera

Interested in sharks, fossils, or biomechanics? We're advertising a competitively funded @centa.bsky.social PhD at the Uni. of Birmingham, with the NHM, looking at form and function in living and extinct shark jaws🦈 More details here centa.ac.uk/studentship/..., please email me with any questions.

The mullet run is absolutely magical.

Ever see a snake do a barrel roll? Scientists disentangle the locomotor kinematics of this behavior in rolling snakes. Learn more in Current Biology: spkl.io/633287ntaA Yosuke Kojima & colleagues @currentbiology.bsky.social

Meep! Meep!! Double crested cormorant coming through!!! #doublecrestedcormorant #cormorant #seabird #seabirdsofcoralcity #coralcitycamera

New paper in @pnas.org ! 🐟 Fish swim faster when they beat their tails faster... but not in a straight line, like we've assumed since 1958. It bends at low speeds, and the shape of the body wave matters a lot! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New paper in @royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans.R.Soc. B 🦈🌊 Our biomechanical model & field evidence reveal how shark size, buoyancy, and energy-saving opportunities in upwelling currents may shape the fine-scale distribution of shark species. Paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

PSA: For anyone writing a recommendation for the NSF grad fellowship this year, recs are due on Fri Oct 16, 8pm Eastern, cleverly *before* the actual application deadline. This tidbit isn't on the NSFGRF front page anymore; it's buried inside the program solicitation:

Harassment is never ok. Anywhere, in any form. Learn more about the prevalence of harassment in conservation, diving, and ecotourism: www.womeninoceanscience.com/sexual-haras... @womenoceanscience.bsky.social 📷: Jake Wilton 📷: Matthew During

@emilyyeager9.bsky.social is that chafing I see?!

Yeah, no shit that relentless public abuse of a small group that experiences extensive and growing discrimination isn’t good for their mental well-being. Take action now to make life safer, easier, and more welcoming for trans people.

78% of surveyed professional women in marine science experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, in case anyone still wrongly believes this is a matter of just partying too much in college. www.womeninoceanscience.com/sexual-haras...

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IOB "Cephalofoil curvature and sexual #dimorphism In both locations, males had more pointed cephalofoils than females, as exemplified in Fig. 5. from Liu et al A Head of the Curve: Bonnethead #Shark (Sphyrna tiburo) Cephalofoil #Morphology and Trophic #Ecology doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

New study finds #Florida waterway, Biscayne Bay, provides critically important refuge for sharks & rays. www.wlrn.org/environment/... via @jenstaletovich.bsky.social

Biscayne Bay provides a critical refuge for sharks and rays, new global study finds www.wlrn.org/environment/...

@emilyyeager9.bsky.social they’re at it again

NEW PUBLICATION ALERT Read the latest publication released by the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group with an update on the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project: North American and Caribbean Atlantic: A regional compendium of Important Shark and Ray Areas Read here: doi.org/10.59216/ssg...

No fear! The Rainbows follow Scarface through Coral City ✌️🌈🦜🐟🍋🦈 #lemonshark #sharksofcoralcity #scarface #nofear #coralcitycamera

Concern that executive action on recreational fishing and shark fishing may threaten the status of US fisheries as being well-managed, sustainable and science-based www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

“Thousands of the salmon were recorded passing a former dam site in 2024 and 2025, researchers say, and have reoccupied nearly the full extent of their known historical range.” By Rebecca Dzombak

NEW PUBLICATION ALERT | 259 important shark, ray, and chimaera habitats mapped across North America and the Caribbean New additions to the global ISRA eAtlas reveal major migration corridors, nursery grounds, and aggregation sites across Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific waters.

We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/

My latest for @therevelator.org is all about the important shark and ray areas project, a global-scale collaboration that has identified over 1,000 places significant for migration, reproduction, and more. 🧪🌎🦑🦈 To Save Sharks and Rays, Protect These Places therevelator.org/save-sharks-...

Today is #worldmantaday and we are throwing back to our episode all about cloacal diving! Guest @emilyyeager9.bsky.social spoke to us about these amazing animals and how symbiosis may be a bit more complicated than you think! Did you know that manta are basically mobile ecosystems? Check out our ep!

This is a legally and morally indefensible argument with horrifying potential repercussions for threatened species and habitats.

“Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them.” The @USFWS's new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, as revealed by Nesvik's memo, is the perfect blend of evil and stupidity. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/c...

Throwback this #WorldMantaDay to our paper on the little (and sometimes not so little) personal-space-violating fish mantas would probably like to forget.

I know there are many things to be righteously, importantly angry about, and many of them are more important than this decision (!) …and yet, I hope you all will still find it in yourselves to save just a little anger to deploy on behalf of science and scientists, too.

Chinook salmon have recolonised 88% of their historic range on the Klamath River, with more than 13,000 fish passing the old Iron Gate Dam site in 2025, up from 7,700 the year before. Two years after the dams’ removal, it’s going better than anyone predicted. buff.ly/pToC9gB #ShareGoodNewsToo

This is seismic news for fisheries scientists. Northern cod is *the* iconic symbol of total fisheries collapse due to overfishing (and other factors) *and* the iconic symbol of a complete failure to recover for decades afterwards. This is like announcing the complete recovery of bison on land.

One young researcher discusses the project that offered the first valuable insight into marine science, from fieldwork to publication, reflecting on the fieldwork, mentorship and practical experience that shaped his path into marine science. More below in Ryan McMullen’s blog.

Butterfly populations across the U.S. are in alarming decline, a 2025 Science study found. ⁠ The authors note that butterflies have the potential for rapid recovery under favorable conditions, showing the importance of proactive conservation strategies.⁠ https://scim.ag/46vegsb #NationalWildlifeDay

The US House passed the Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act (H.R. 9436) by a vote of 219-196, which stops NOAA from protecting endangered right whales through to 2035 by requiring more expensive ropeless lobster pots. 1/n defenders.org/newsroom/hou...

1/11 🐟 2nd new preprint today from @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social We investigated how losing the swim bladder, the organ that most fishes use to control their buoyancy, has shaped the diversity of ray-finned fishes over 90 million years of Earth history. The results surprised us. 🧵

Today day was sharky, very very sharky! Three species, nurse, lemon, and bull; more than fifty passes!! 🩺🦈🍋🦈🐂🦈 #nurseshark #lemonshark #bullshark #sharksofcoralcity #coralcitycamera

NSF just announced its GRFP solicitation due in October - deadline varies by field: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... Now for the bad news... * NSF estimates they will issue 1,500 awards, down from 2,500+ last year. * NSF removed STEM Education and Learning Research as a Major Field.

Come join us, PhD and postdoc positions! Please spread! Supervisor @patricepottier.bsky.social (patricepottierlab.com), me as co-supervisor. Impacts of climate change on different life-stages in fish.🐟🧪 PhD web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103... Postdoc web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103...

Yes hello when your swamp is on fire is that A) bad or B) very bad? Asking for a region.

Scarface checks in. The injury from a fight with a fisherman continues to heal from last year when the corners of his jaw was completely shredded. Sadly his jaw may never heal. He’s a bit skinnier than we’d like to see but he must be eating well enough to keep on swimming ✅🍋🦈 #coralcitycamera

I started my Ph.D. program 15 years ago this week. Which means I've now known @drcatmac.bsky.social and @drjuliawester.bsky.social for 15 years! I really hit the lottery with my Ph.D. cohort!

There are only 5 tickets left! 🎟️ Are you ready to experience sharks beyond what you see on a screen? Join us on September 27 as we head out on a live research vessel to learn about (and tag!) these amazing animals! 🦈 donate.misselasmo.org/event/shark-...

Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Freckled guitarfish occur in the western Atlantic Ocean, favouring sandy, muddy or weedy shorelines near patch reefs, when not actively hunting. As with all guitarfish, they swim like sharks usually do: through side-to-side sweeps of their tail. 📷: Bryant Turffs | © Marine Megafauna Foundation

Graysby shows off what nice teeth it has #graysby #grouper #teeth #showoff #coralcitycamera

What co-benefits do we gain when planting trees along stream margins? We don't fully know. Fully-funded PhD going now — mapping food webs across Mt Taranaki's "ring of restoration" 🌱🐟 Please repost among your networks Email: frank.burdon@waikato.ac.nz

We love our eels in Coral City! (That’s a moray!) 🙌🐉 #spottedmoray #moray #eel #thatsamoray #coralcitycamera

In 1963, WHOI biologist Dick Backus set his sights on a question that had puzzled scientists for decades: what caused the daily vertical movement of plankton? The sun or an internal clock? During an eclipse, Backus was able to monitor that the migration was triggered by changing light levels!