Researchers Track Sharks and Whales Using DNA in Seawater Samples

In addition to detecting unseen organisms in the ocean, studies of environmental DNA can shed light on the genetic structure of marine populations.

Written byJef Akst

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ABOVE: Marine ecologist Kevin Lafferty filters water in search of great white shark eDNA.
KEVIN LAFFERTY

Several years ago, University of California, Santa Barbara, marine ecologist Kevin Lafferty was confronted with dozens of dying black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) in his open-water enclosures. He was trying to raise the critically endangered species to test whether any individuals were resistant to the Rickettsiales-like prokaryote (RLP; Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis) that had nearly wiped out the black abalone along the southern Pacific coast. With no local populations remaining, Lafferty wondered where the pathogen was coming from.

To solve the mystery, he collected water near the outflow pipe of a farm growing red abalone (H. rufescens)—a species that has been hit less hard by the disease—five miles up the coast from his enclosures, and found that the samples contained the bacterium’s DNA (Front Microbiol, 4:373, 2013). Somehow, red abalone can survive an RLP infection, perhaps thanks ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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