Boothbay Register features Olivera research about white shark DNA
The Boothbay Register featured the research of University of Maine postdoctoral student Kyle Olivera, who is working at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to develop detection methods for white sharks. Part of his work is quantifying how much eDNA white sharks shed into the environment, as well as how that eDNA moves and degrades, to better understand how eDNA can be used as a tool for monitoring sharks. “Each species is going to be different in terms of how much eDNA they shed, which also changes with how active an organism is, and what happens to that eDNA once it’s shed. We’re trying to understand all of that while at the whims of the ocean,” Olivera said.