Dr. Sasha Whitmarsh Joins the DU Marine Mappin Group

Dr. Sasha Whitmarsh, a PhD graduate from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, joins our group.

Image Courtesy: Sasha Whitmarsh

Her thesis is titled ‘Investigating the Anthropocene influence on temperate fish assemblages through Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS)’ and involved the collection and analysis of over 700 baited video deployments. Sasha’s research has been conducted in a wide range of habitats and across a diversity of species. She worked with a range of collaborators including state government departments, researchers, private consulting agencies and commercial operators, to incorporate studies linking fish assemblages to white shark tourism activities, dolphin prey abundance, marine protected areas, and other anthropogenic stressors along with methodological development.

Her research interests include emerging technologies for ecological sampling, community ecology, and temperate fish ecology. Sasha has worked with National BRUVS working groups on large-scale collaborative projects and throughout her career has watched well over 1,000 hours of footage. Sasha has also had experience working and researching on a variety of coastal and freshwater habitats and across a range of taxonomic groups including macroinvertebrates, marine mammals, sharks and rays, and aquatic plants and vegetation. She has worked as a research assistant and lab manager at Flinders University conducting projects on assessing sampling techniques, shark deterrents, rocky seashore sampling, and aquatic revegetation surveys. Sasha has co-supervised Honours and PhD students and has been involved in teaching numerous topics at Flinders University.

At Deakin, Sasha’s research will focus on assessing anthropogenic influences using baited underwater video and remote operated video on temperate and tropical fish assemblages.

We are looking forwards for more news and advances on this exceptional project and wish Sasha excellent stay in Warrnambool.