FSUCML Lecture Series featuring Dr. Dean Grubbs

Come to the FSUCML and join us for our next lecture in our Lecture Series featuring our very own Dr. Dean Grubbs! The lecture will last from 7:00 - 8:00 pm at the FSUCML (3618 Coastal Hwy 98, St. Teresa, FL 32358). Admission is free! No registration is required. Refreshments provided. 

Dr. Dean Grubbs is a fish ecologist with >30 years of experience studying the biology and ecology of sharks and rays in coastal, pelagic, and deep-sea environs. Dean’s interest in sharks stems from being raised in Florida’s Gulf coast. After 15 years away doing research based in south Florida, The Bahamas, Virginia and Hawaii, Dean returned “home” in 2007 and has been research faculty at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory since, where he maintains an active and highly collaborative lab and mentors graduate and undergraduate students. Dean also serves on numerous federal and international advisory panels and is a Scientific Advisor to the Save Our Seas Foundation. Much of the research conducted by Dean and his students addresses specific biological gaps necessary for management and conservation coastal and deep-water sharks and rays. This work has focused in three areas 1) the ecology of smalltooth sawfish in Florida and the Bahamas, addressing questions directly related to promoting the recovery of this critically endangered species, 2) deep sea shark biology and ecology including response of deep-sea communities to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and 3) the ecology of coastal shark populations including investigating community structure, stock dynamics, post-release survival, and bycatch mitigation.

Dean has a passion for teaching and uses his research to bring real world experience into the classroom. He has taught college courses on the biology of sharks and rays for more than 25 years, including a long-time partnership co-teaching with Dr. Dan Abel from Coastal Carolina University. This partnership led Dan and Dean to publish two recent books stemming from decades of teaching shark courses: Shark Biology and Conservation: Essential Information for Enthusiasts, Educators, Naturalists, and Students, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2020 and The Lives of Shark: A Natural History of Shark Life, to be released by Princeton University Press this August. In this lecture, Dean will pull examples from his research and books to display the diversity and splendor of shark life, the roles sharks play in marine ecosystems, the challenges and successes of shark fisheries management and conservation, and illustrated with some “highlights” and “lowlights” from his own research career.