Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

@seafloorscience.bsky.social

8.7K followers 900 following 2K posts

Dr of small crawly things that live on the ocean floor. I study what they do, how they do it, and how they respond to disturbance, including climate change. Marine Biologist, Ocean Optimist, Invert Advocate, "Worm Girl" Opinions mine. She/her

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · May 25

Is it time for a bsky introduction?
Hello I’m Rachel Hale, a Marine Biologist based in Aotearoa NZ. I study benthic ecosystems. I am interested in small animals that live on the seafloor, what they do, & how the diversity & behaviour of these ecosystems is affected by stresses like climate change

7 14 130

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

GOA-ON @goa-on.bsky.social · 2d

#OAWeek will kick off on Monday, 13 Oct. at 7:00 UTC with a session led by the International CO2 Natural Analogues Network: “ICONA Research: From Understanding and Predicting to Action”. 🌊🐚🌍 Register for this free, virtual session today! tinyurl.com/ICONAOA25

2 3

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

GOA-ON @goa-on.bsky.social · 7d

🌊 GOA-ON is excited to invite you to OA Week 2025 — a virtual forum showcasing OA knowledge from around the world!

📅 13-17 October, 2025
🌏 Learn from over 50 international ocean acidification experts across 22 sessions!

🔗 View the schedule and register for sessions here: tinyurl.com/OAW2025

2 2

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

GOA-ON @goa-on.bsky.social · 6d

📢Ocean Acidification Week will highlight OA knowledge from around the world, ranging from co-development of research and OA Education to Technology Development in OA Research and mCDR 🌊🌏📝📚📡🫧

Find details on these and other sessions on our website: tinyurl.com/OAW2025

1 2

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 1d

I live at the top of the South Island in New Zealand. There are eels everywhere here.

1 2

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 2d

An abundance of eels at the bottom of my road!

2 2 40

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 9d

I love how marine mammal sightings are always slightly disappointing but if you see a nudibranch it's genuinely the shit 🥹
Inverts will never be beat for sheer beauty.

5 35

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 15d

Being anti vaccines for babies is one of the surest signs of a declining civilisation. There could be no clearer evidence on childhood vaccination saving lives and preserving health and yet we’re being distracted by debating this issue.

6 99 380

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 16d

😞

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 17d

I feel this. Sending strength!

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 18d

I strongly second this! 👏🏾

When talking about science communication, I also always stress that *all* forms and forums of communication matter 🔄

Whether it’s a big, factually correct but details-lite TV show or movie…or just chatting to granny or your mates in a pub 🗣️

Tracy Bale @thebalelab.bsky.social · 20d

Fantastic piece in Nature Reviews Neuro by @nicolecrust.bsky.social on the importance of science communication. My take? Everything matters - just do something. It will make a difference for how science is valued and trusted, how community understands. Let's get out there and communicate! 👏

The unexpected value of communicating science to the public

Nature Reviews Neuroscience - As a group, our scientific community has a responsibility to unpack the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind our work for the public, not least because much...

rdcu.be

3 38 110

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Mollusc_Lab @naturaearchive.bsky.social · 18d

Although minute in size, they represent remarkable taxonomic and ecological diversity.
Some species are widespread, while others may be highly localized or even undescribed.
For malacologists, such micro-snails offer valuable insight into biodiversity, biogeography, and conservation.

4 4

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Mollusc_Lab @naturaearchive.bsky.social · 18d

From a handful of forest leaf litter, a hidden world emerges.
These tiny land snails — each only a few millimeters across — were sorted from decomposed leaves and soil under the microscope.

#陸産貝類 #軟体動物 #貝類 #巻貝 #カタツムリ #無脊椎動物 #photography #mollusk #landsnail #invertebrate #マイマイ #Diplommatina

1 5 21

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Nick Bezio @beziostudio.bsky.social · 19d

Day 19 - Depths. blood belly comb jelly (Ctenophora), helmet jellyfish (Cnidaria). Animals in the deep sea are some of the most beautiful, particularly the jellies with bodies like abstract portraits that move ethereally in the abyss. Here are two drawings of jellies you can find in the deep sea.

12 58

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 21d

#WormWednesday
ANNiKEY Linear – diagnoses, descriptions, and a single-access identification key to Annelida family-level taxa in @zookeys.pensoft.net by Glasby et al.

A great resource!

zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1376...

ANNiKEY Linear – diagnoses, descriptions, and a single-access identification key to Annelida family-level taxa

Phylum Annelida are ubiquitous metazoans found in almost every terrestrial and aquatic habitat on Earth. Historically, taxonomic studies on the phylum have been focused largely on its majorgroups, pol...

zookeys.pensoft.net

2 6

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 21d

Yeesh

Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · 21d

Some numbers:
46% of New Zealanders think that gender equality has been achieved
33% of male respondents aged 18-34 believe that gender equality has gone too far
47% of men believe Gender Equality has been achieved for senior management
40% don’t believe that sexism is still a significant issue

2 9

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 21d

It's not jellyfish mode?

Dermot Lynott @dermotlynott.bsky.social · 21d

It’s that time of the year again

Image of blue high beam icon lit up on a car. Text says “I don’t know who needs to hear this but this means your fucking high beams are on and I can’t see shit”

3 2 25

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 22d

"As empiricists, we can take encouragement from the fact that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change itself recognises, with ‘high confidence’, that “collective action as part of social or lifestyle movements underpins system change”."

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 22d

"These movements provide vital opportunities to push for change and we argue there are myriad ways for the science community to support them."

1 1

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 22d

"In response to the systemic failure of governments to act on the scientific evidence, over the past 5 yrs a new wave of environmental social movements has been actively challenging the balance of power & elevating these crises up the public, media & political agenda."
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

How scientists can contribute to the social movements essential to protecting climate and nature - npj Climate Action

Scientists have much to contribute to the growing social movements pushing for urgent and transformative change to address the climate and biodiversity crises. Depending on their skills, interests and...

www.nature.com

1 6 11

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Bella Duncan @antarcticabella.bsky.social · 23d

Geologists of bluesky, great opportunity at Otago Uni, NZ for a Lecturer in Earth Science! Special shout out to my #biomarker colleagues, the dept has a well set up, near new Org Geochem lab without a PI, with GCMS/FID and HPLC, if anyone wants a change of scene! ⚒🧪🥼🌊
otago.taleo.net/careersectio...

Lecturer/Pūkenga - Geology

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

otago.taleo.net

1 38 41

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 23d

I'm less fussy. Especially if it's tasty

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 23d

Surely there is enough cheese and other food products for all of us?! I'll share!

1 1

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

JA Fields | NonCompliantCyborg @noncompliantcyborg.bsky.social · 24d

I created a BioBlitz project on iNaturalist folks can join to celebrate:

www.inaturalist.org/projects/cte...

JA Fields | NonCompliantCyborg @noncompliantcyborg.bsky.social · 24d

Okay, y’all, what are we doing for Ctenophore Day on October 4th?

I was trying to get to 1004 ctenophore observations on @inaturalist.bsky.social by then but I don’t think I’m gonna make it…

We need some festivities though…

🦑🐙🧪

3 9

Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist @seafloorscience.bsky.social · 24d

Science needs this kind of sponsorship. I am 100% open to posing with cheese or really most foods in exchange for social media posts, large logos on conferences presentations, and copiously talking about said food.

Call me anytime. DMs are open.

A retweet quoted with "it hurts to see people living your dream (being sponsored by Parmesan cheese) (not an Olympic silver medal)".
The quoted post shows two pictures of an athlete with a large cheese wheel and a slice of Parmesan and is captioned "I need the people to know that Olympic silver medalist Georgia Villa is sponsored by Parmesan cheese and regularly posts pics of herself with giant wheels of cheese"

3 12 100

Reposted by Dr Rachel Hale Marine Biologist

Dr Michelle LaRue @drmichellelarue.bsky.social · 24d

Wow I've been off Bluesky for so long I forgot about the emojis

If you're interested in a PhD about tracking Antarctic wildlife, consider joining my group... And, spread the word!
🧪🌍🦑🦉🦊

Dr Michelle LaRue @drmichellelarue.bsky.social · 24d

Join Mia Wege and me to study niche partitioning among three Antarctic mesopredators!

Fully-funded PhD opportunity at U Canterbury, please email [email protected] if you're interested!

Applications will be reviewed until filled.

Fluffy Weddell seal pup looks straight into the camera

We are seeking a motivated PhD student to investigate how multiple mesopredators share space and resources in the Southern Ross Sea. The project will address questions about niche partitioning (both spatial and temporal) and foraging ecology in the Southern Ocean using three years of animal tracking data deployed on penguins (n = 60) and seals (n = 30). Specifically, we wish to uncover aspects of three-dimensional space use in Adélie penguins, emperor penguins, and Weddell seals at Cape Crozier, in the southern Ross Sea. There exists one of the largest colonies of Adélie penguins, a small colony of emperor penguins, and a small group of Weddell seals. We ask: How are these animals using the same space at the same time? How can that part of the ocean support hundreds of thousands of central-place foragers in a relatively small foraging halo, during the short summer window of time? Answers to these questions will provide fine-scale insights as part of the larger project which seeks to understand the metacommunity structure of marine mesopredators in the Southern Ocean and will inform conservation in the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (one of the largest in the world). With the first 10-year evaluation of the MPA coming up, this project will have immediate real-world impact.
We cannot guarantee Antarctic field work as part of the PhD project.
Funding: Rutherford Discovery Fellowship ($27,000 NZD/year for three years + fees), plus potential school-supported (School of Earth and Environment) conference travel opportunities.
Requirements: Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Ecology, Marine Biology, Geography, Zoology or Statistics required; good communication skills (written and verbal), with previous publication experience a bonus; strong work ethic, strong initiative, and team attitude; previous experience handling biologging data (in any system), large datasets, and data wrangling a plus.

3 21 61