Brendan Godley

Wastewater pollution undermines coastal marine protection: Implications for 30x30 and effective conservation doi.org/10.1016/j.oc... 🦑 🧪 🌍️

a photo of Amazon River dolphins and some peaople in canoes observing them in a river.

🦤🌐🧪 Amazon River dolphins are elusive 🐬, but isotopes + satellite tracking reveal variation in their feeding behavior. Using δ15N-AA, this study sets a new baseline for their trophic ecology and highlights them as flexible top predators in the Amazon Basin. bit.ly/esr_58_303

Nesting short-tailed albatross on Torisihima Island, January 2020. Both the Torishima- and Senkaku-type birds breed on Torishima Island, but they are hardly distinguishable from their appearance.

We used satellite imagery to estimate the population of the short-tailed #albatross on the Senkaku Islands, recently classified as an independent species. The population comprised only about 150 pairs, indicating urgent conservation needs. bit.ly/esr01462
brendangodley.bsky.social

Zebra shark underwater with sand and rocks on the bottom and small dark-coloured fishes swimming around.

🦤🌐🧪ESR Special #27. Southern Africa is home to well over 200 species of #Chondrichthyans. Over a third are considered threatened. This Special is open to all authors, including submissions based on presentations at the 8th SARS in 2025. Contribute now! bit.ly/esr_special27

Photo of nesting sea turtle on a beach with the title of the special superimposed on it.

🐢🦤🧪 ESR Special #26. Initiated at the end of the 20th century, many #MarineTurtle monitoring programs have been ongoing for two or more decades and provide valuable insights into population dynamics and conservation. Contribute now! bit.ly/esr_special26
@brendangodley.bsky.social

Photo of a Mojave desert tortoise

🦤🌐🧪 We developed a novel modeling framework, integrating disparate data types over 45yrs, to estimate true survival of the Mojave desert tortoise. Our results suggest positive effects of precipitation and higher survival of adult males. bit.ly/esr01468
@brendangodley.bsky.social

The paper includes Dr Rachel Turner and Dr Louisa Evans from @exeter.ac.uk

@cornwall.exeter.ac.uk @natureportfolio.nature.com @exetermarine.bsky.social @brendangodley.bsky.social @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

The topography and climate on ‘the moor’ create varied habitats and these, in turn, support a wonderful array of both resident and migratory wildlife species.
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai...

longfin smelt

🦤🧪🌐 Our morphometric study of the endangered Longfin Smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) shows clear sex-based shape differences and weak geographic trends. These findings help inform conservation and reproductive biology in the San Francisco Estuary. bit.ly/esr01471
@brendangodley.bsky.social

Peirson’s milk-vetch within the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, California

🦤🌐🧪A three-year study to evaluate imagery classification techniques to assess the feasibility of modeling individual Peirson’s milk-vetch (Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii) within the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, California. bit.ly/esr01467
@brendangodley.bsky.social

Photograph of the complete reproductive tract of an adult female green turtle (Chelonia mydas), laid out on a black surface. The paired ovaries are centrally located and filled with numerous developing follicles of varying sizes. The infundibula extend from each ovary, leading into the coiled oviducts that flank both sides of the tract. A measurement scale is visible along the bottom edge of the image.

🦤🌐🧪#GreenTurtle reproductive dynamics! 🐢 Over half of harvested females off Nicaragua were adults, of which 6–39% bred each year. Size regulations in Nicaragua may disproportionately target large juvenile females, urging policy updates. 🌿 #TurtleConservation @brendangodley.bsky.social

Leatherback turtle lying on a beach with a tag attached to its carapace.

🦤🌐🧪 #Leatherback #seaturtles perform extensive post-nesting migrations, which can be influenced by mesoscale eddies and ocean currents. We use satellite telemetry to investigate the routes taken by turtles in the #IndianOcean. bit.ly/esr_58_417
@brendangodley.bsky.social

In 2025, the Environment and Sustainability Institute advanced vital research on environmental change, helped conserve and regenerate nature, informed sustainability policy, and developed cleaner ways to power the future.
This is our year in review.

vimeo.com/1147279648/e...

Crazy shit!

Rebecca Hunt is one of our ESI Partners in Residence (www.exeter.ac.uk/research/ins...). She is also our MSc alumna.

Do attend her talk 'Ancient British Wisdom for a Hopeful Climate Future' organised by TEDxPorthtowan Women on 8 March.
👉 tedxporthtowanwomen.co.uk/tickets

Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers China is practicing vast maneuvers that could be used to disrupt U.S. naval movement, a New York Times analysis of ship data reveals.

Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Phenology of nesting marine turtles in the Cayman Islands Climate-driven shifts in the phenology of species are altering ecosystems worldwide and have been documented in many species, including marine turtles. We present a 26 year analysis of population tren...

New paper on SEA TURTLE phenology 🐢 in the Cayman Islands.
Collaborative effort between @exeter.ac.uk and Cayman Islands DoE.

Full paper here - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

IG reel - www.instagram.com/p/DTz3wiUDKyA/

@brendangodley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social
🦑🌐🌍🐢🧪 #AcademicSky

Scientists map the genetic distribution of maerl-forming algae across South West A habitat-building coralline algae that provides a vital nursing ground for marine species and an important blue carbon ecosystem has been genetically mapped around south-west Britain in a first-of-it...

New research from the University of Exeter shows maerl-forming algae in Cornwall have unique genetic profiles. Read more: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
@exetermarine.bsky.social

a flyer for a phd opportunity. the background is a save, the overlay text reads: PhD opportunity, Submesoscale ocean flows and processes in the Southern Ocean. Logos are at the bottom on a white background for: NERC GW4+. University of Exeter, and National Oceanography Centre

PhD Opportunity! 🚨
Working with Dr Pauline Tedesco on "Submesoscale ocean flows and processes in the Southern Ocean."

NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2026.

DEADLINE: 8th Jan 2026

Find out more - www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

🌊🌐🌍🦑🧪 #PhDsky #AcademicSky

A huge congratulations to our staff at the CEC and @exetermarine.bsky.social for their success at the 2025 Teaching Awards!

A wet and wild day along the Cornish coast today, but that didn't hold back our second year undergraduates from collecting some great biodiversity data!

#marinebiologylife #exetermarine @exetermarine.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social

Our final UK marine jobs round up of the year has arrived! 🎄🌟

Find the roles and links all here on our LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

🦑🐟🧪🌊🌐

Penguins living off the coast of South Africa have likely starved to death, en masse, due to a 25% drop in food supply levels - a new study finds ⬇️

Some populations are estimated to have fallen by 95% across just eight years ⚠️

t.co/NaaFeZXvwB

@exetermarine.bsky.social

Pleased to announce that @exetermarine.bsky.social will be a founding member of Marine Science UK - an umbrella organisation that will champion the ocean and communicate robust and coherent marine science evidence to government, industry and the wider community. 🌍🧪🦑
See also: marinescience.org.uk

Funding agencies can end profit-first science publishing Funding organisations can fix the science publishing system – which currently puts profit first and science second – according to new research. The new paper says the current relationship between rese...

Funding organisations can fix the science publishing system – which currently puts profit first and science second – according to new research.

@uniexecec.bsky.social

New preprint to round off 2025, wrapping up work I did @zslscience.bsky.social and continued @uniexecec.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We studied skin bacterial community diversity in Palmate Newts from the Isle of Rum.

Pic: dramatic AI newt emerging from (hovering on?) a pond

How can we scale up sustainable seaweed farming on land? 🌱🐟

This Exeter Marine Fund student project, by Benjamin Grecic, explores the possibilities.

Find out more in our latest blog post - sites.exeter.ac.uk/exetermarine...

🦑🌱🌍🌐🌊🧪

@brendangodley.bsky.social

Nesting flatback turtle

🦤🧪🌐 🐢 Concern about nesting #flatback #turtles on Delambre Island, Western Australia. Despite natural cycles, population currently appears to be dropping. Monitoring and adaptive management are vital to understand and protect this unique population.
bit.ly/esr_58_287

I am a freelance writer, have written about sea turtles for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Emory Magazine, am a frequent visitor and patron of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, and looking for ways to contribute to sea turtle and ecological conservation.