Mai Bonomo

a man in a suit and tie is standing in a field of flowers . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in a field of flowers .

Submitted revisions for my first paper!
Me trying to be casual about it for the next however long:

I'm looking for some good resources to discuss AI and how it meets us grad students/researchers in the biological sciences, including the good, the bad, and the ugly - ethics, useful tools, considerations, etc.
Please share if you've come across anything good!

YouTube video by Nestflix Nestflix BeardedVulture 20 Aug 2025-7

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR56...

Officially having this on during all work hours. Beautiful feed! 🦅

A New Approach to Coral Reef Monitoring / Aqaba, Jordan - May 2025 This is "A New Approach to Coral Reef Monitoring / Aqaba, Jordan - May 2025" by TRSC on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

This fantastic scientific group, the Transnational Red Sea Center, attempts to stimulate Red Sea reef research and promotes regional cooperation. I love what these guys do and have had the pleasure of working with them a bit!

Great new video of their work in Aqaba, Jordan:
vimeo.com/1110945817

A few weeks ago I went on a whale watching tour from Gloucester and we came across this beautiful male, Satula 🐋
He has a unique trait where he “purrs” before taking a dive - he is the only whale they’ve heard do it, and they don’t know why! Guesses?

Volume up to hear the purr (and excitement lol)

Preparing to apply to PhDs in the US as an international student is… confusing. 😵‍💫

If anybody wants to share their academic CV or take a look at mine, let me know!

I want to believe that the author didn't know what she was looking at

Really interesting! We are seeing the same in the Eastern Med - constant new species popping up, and the climate is getting nice and tropical for those migrating Red Sea species

Sex on the reef! 😛 Video I captured a couple of weeks ago in the Red Sea.

Every year, masses of these brown surgeonfish get together to spawn for a few weeks at sunset. Other fish love to join the party, like the Seargant Major fish here that immediately go for the egg and sperm.

Here's a close up I got of one eating! Very common in the northern Red Sea

Yep, looks like it!

Me waiting for my first (!!) paper that's under review

Cultural transmission of animal tool use driven by trade-offs: insights from sponge-using dolphins | Royal Society Open Science Although tool use offers obvious benefits to the user, the role of costs in the spread of tool use has received scant attention. Sponge tool use is a foraging technique restricted to a small subpopula...

Full paper:

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Dolphins learn to wear sponges ‘like a clown nose’ to hunt fish Some dolphins in Australia learn to wear a sponge on their beak – which allows them to safely forage through rocky seabeds

We love a marine mammal trend!
Sponges are IN baby 🧽

www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

(and let me know if you hear of anything good)

Starting my search for a marine bio/eco/conservation/molecular PhD! 🫣

I'm planning to track how many emails/apps I send in, how many responses I get, how many interviews, etc., and see what the stats are like at the end. Obviously it's person-dependent, but fun to see.

Let's gooooooo!

It’s one of those things where the more you find out, the more you realize how little we know, and how incredibly much there is under that [blue] surface.

I can recommend reading Ian Urbina’s book of the same name (warning: it’s hard to swallow) and reading articles on their website and newsletter.

🎧 Podcast recommendation!

The Outlaw Ocean is an independent investigative journalism project dedicated to exposing the myriad of crimes happening today in the ocean.

I can recommend it as one of the most fascinating and harrowing investigative series I’ve listened to.

theoutlawocean.com/podcast

This documentary was such a difficult watch - but important!

Bottom trawling doesn't just catch fish for consumption, it completely uplifts, disrupts, and destroys the local seafloor habitat and its benthic community, often catching much more than the intended catch.

I will forever be haunted by this footage.

Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.

What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪

Hello world! 🌞