WBOC reports on student researchers collecting data at White Marlin Open

WBOC (Channel 16 in Maryland) reported on University of Maine student researchers collecting data at the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland. Brenda Rudnicky and Riley Austin, graduate students in the School of Marine Sciences, collected different body parts from some of the fish caught during the tournament for research on the diet and age of marlins. “We really want to update the amount of research that’s been done on the marlin because to our knowledge, the last diet study on marlin was in 1985,” Rudnicky told WBOC. “Especially when it comes to highly migratory species like marlin, we don’t have a lot of sampling opportunities. So coming to the White Marlin Open is a great opportunity because there’s a high volume of samples that we can get,” said Austin.