Samantha Grusd

Samantha Grusd completed her Masters in Applied Marine Science in March 2017. Her Master’s thesis “Using mark-recapture methods to estimate population size and survival of pyjama sharks (Poroderma africanum) in Mossel Bay, South Africa” is the first known study on the population dynamics of this SA endemic species in Mossel Bay. It focused on using mark-recapture population models (Robust Design and Cormack-Jolly-Seber (CJS) models) to estimate abundance, temporary emigration and survival of this population over a five-year period.

With a background in marine biology and shark research and an increasing interest in ecosystem modeling, she is currently working on her PhD with Lynne Shannon and Astrid Jarre on spatialized ecosystem modeling to evaluate the influences of fishing pressures and invasive ecotourism on the spatial patterns and abundance of top predators from Mossel Bay to Algoa Bay, South Africa. This will include the use of Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace models and look at resource overlap and interactions between fisheries and top predators (e.g. elasmobranchs), trophic interactions and indicators of spatial change.