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Jamie Clark- seaturtleager 🐢

@seaturtleager

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Marine Bio PhD Candidate- UNCW, studying sea turtle age & growth 🐢
NOAA Fisheries 🐢🐠
BSc & MSc - U of SC, Marine Sci 🐚
Stay curious! 👩‍🔬

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UNCW’s Center for Marine Science Open House was a BLAST! @uncwilmington @uncwcms 🌊⛴️🔬🐟

This past Saturday, UNCW’s CMS and the recently commissioned, R/V Osprey, were open to the public. I helped operate vessel tours at the dock while showcasing incredible research occurring at UNCW.

Over 500 people visited CMS within 5hrs, from which ~200 toured the research vessel. With this 78ft aluminum research catamaran, UNCW students are able to use state-of-the-art equipment, learn practical skills, and collaborate with faculty and community organizations.

With a lab like the Center for Marine Science and a research vessel like the Osprey, UNCW students can soar to their fullest potential! 🌊🐟⛴️🔬

Photos by @madelinepgray

#uncw #research #vessel #marinescience #openhouse

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Scientists in the wild 🌊

After days of field work, the brain takes a while to load😂

#marinebiology #graduateschool #fieldwork #scientistlife #sciencehumor

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We’d like to give a big thank you to Jamie (@seaturtleager) for visiting the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island and spending time with Finn, our Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. A little background on Finn the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, she originally came to us about 12 years ago as a patient after suffering a boat‑strike injury. Because of the extent of her injuries, she was deemed unreleasable and now lives permanently at the aquarium!

Now, a little background on Jamie! Jamie is conducting a study to develop new tools for aging sea turtles—specifically Kemp’s Ridley's—using two methods: a light-based technique with NIRS and a genomic approach using DNA biomarkers. These new tools are being calibrated against the current aging method, skeletochronology, which involves counting growth rings in bones (similar to counting tree rings). Traditionally, this could only be done with deceased, stranded turtles.

In an important step forward, Jamie and Lizzy, an undergraduate researcher, have been able to collect samples from living Kemp’s Ridley turtles like Finn over the past few weeks.
Once NIRS and DNA methylation biomarkers are fully calibrated, researchers will be able to estimate the age of living sea turtles with much greater accuracy—an exciting advancement for real-time conservation and species management! Again thank you Jamie for making the aquarium and Finn apart of this important step in sea turtle aging!

All sea turtle work is permitted by (NC WRC ESP-25ST41 issued to Dr. Mathew Ramirez & 2026 Research Permit by NC State Parks to Jamie Clark.)

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We are so thankful to @seaturtleager for letting us spend the day with her. Getting to learn about her amazing sea turtle aging research was incredibly informative and rewarding.

Jamie’s PhD research aims to develop new aging tools (a light method using NIRS, and a genomic method using DNA biomarkers) for sea turtles by calibrating them with the current method called Skeletochronology. With this method, we count growth rings within sectioned humerus bones similar to counting tree rings, but this can only be achieved in deceased, stranded turtles. However, a crucial step when applying these newly developed tools to living animals is assessing the effects of tissue decomposition of stranded animals. Over the past 2 weeks, Jamie and Lizzy, an undergraduate researcher, have sampled Kemp’s ridley sea turtle carcasses at known time points to assess the impacts of decomposition and when aging accuracy declines. Once NIRS and DNA methylation biomarkers are calibrated, we can estimate the age of living sea turtles with better precision than current methods- a huge win for realtime conservation and management!

All work is permitted research (NC WRC ESP-25ST41 issued to Dr. Matthew Ramirez & 2026 Research Permit by NC State Parks to Jamie Clark).

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Keeping the bloopers because they’re too good not to.

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Looking good from every angle.

@bluerobotics

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Good crew. Good laughs. Great cruise.

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Recovering traps aboard the R/V Savannah for NOAA’s Southeast Fishery Independent Survey (SEFIS). Each trap helps scientists collect data on reef fish like red snapper, grouper, and other important species.

@skioinsavannah

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Netflix may not have called… but the interviews are happening anyway.

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One of my favorite pieces of gear on the ship.

@bluerobotics @skioinsavannah

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The performance nobody expected.

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Guess we’ll stick to watching the sunset instead.

@skioinsavannah

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