Rachel Aitchison

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Grateful for the mentors, collaborators, and friends who make science stronger every day.
#WomeninSTEM
@rachhson.bsky.social
@sfubiosciences.bsky.social
@sfuscience.bsky.social

Bending back the biodiversity loss curve of sharks and rays. The loss of sharks and rays to date has involved serial depletion of the largest, most evolutionary and functionally distinct species, and the increasing prevalence of smaller-bodied species that have benefited from release from predation.

New paper out today in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com by the #GlobalSharkTrends team: Bending back the curve of shark & ray biodiversity loss;
Read the paper here: rdcu.be/eZ9n9
@sfu.ca
@sfubiosciences.bsky.social
@earth2ocean.bsky.social

Rachel standing at a lectern under her title slide

@rachhson.bsky.social at #EEA2025

Trait-based ecology uses biological features to predict an animal’s ecology.

Sharks with certain fin shapes shapes have bigger gillslits, faster swimming speeds.

Can be measured from museum specimens- Rachel spent months in museums all over Europe.

Two women smiling at each other in front of a statue of Charles Darwin

Two scientists measuring two skates in front of a row of jars contained preserved specimens.

Jars containing a preserved angler fish (left) and gulper eel (right).

A scientist in a lab coat using a tape measure to measure a guitarfish on a tray.

Successfully wrapped up our third and final week measuring rays in Europe at the Natural History Museum in London 🇬🇧 huge thank you to @nhm-london.bsky.social for hosting, and thank you @amandasodysseys.bsky.social and @nickdulvy.bsky.social for helping me measure 309 rays representing 123 species!

Three researchers in white lab coats stand smiling in a specimen room, holding a Mobula thurstoni specimen. Behind them are shelves lined with tall glass jars containing preserved fish.

A person gloves uses a measuring tape on a preserved ray specimen (Urobatis jamaicensis) on a lab tray. The photo focuses on the spiracles and eyes.

Four people smile for a selfie with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Two researchers in white lab coats hold a large preserved guitarfish specimen (Glaucostegus cemiculus). They’re smiling in front of shelves filled with jars containing preserved fish specimens.

A bit late, but we’ve (@rachhson.bsky.social @nickdulvy.bsky.social) wrapped up our second week measuring rays across Europe. Goodbye Paris and thank you to the teams at @mnhn.fr who made it possible! 🇫🇷✨on to London 🇬🇧!

@earth2ocean.bsky.social

#labwork #mobulamonday #scienceinaction #womeninstem

Day 1 in Museum du Naturalle Histoire du Paris

#MetabolicMorphology #SharksNearMe #DulvyLabGoesOutside #LoveMuseums #RaysNeedLoveToo #Paris #Brusselles #HamburgNaturalHistoryMuseum #NaturalHistoryMuseumDeParis

A selfie of four researchers in white lab coats smiling around a large ray specimen on a metal table. Measuring tapes are draped across the specimen (species: Dasyatis pastinaca)

Amanda standing among shelves filled with glass jars containing preserved shark and ray specimens. Several large sawfish rostra hang on the back wall.

Rachel examining rows of preserved specimens in glass jars inside a zoological collection room. Large sawfish rostra hang vertically in the background.

Nick and Olivia removing Ray specimens preserved in large vats.

Just wrapped up a great week measuring rays at the Museum der Natur Zoologie @leibnizlib.bsky.social in Hamburg 🇩🇪 for @rachhson.bsky.social’s PhD, over 135 specimens measured! 🦈✨ Next stop: Paris 🇫🇷, as our whirlwind tour through Europe’s ray collections continues
@nickdulvy.bsky.social

🚀 Sharks International 2026 website is LIVE!

We’re thrilled to officially announce the launch of our brand new website: si2026.org

This is your go-to hub for everything related to Sharks International 2026.
Follow our page for the latest updates on #SI2026!

A spectacle to behold, in the shallows, hugging this island, we see broad cowtail rays and mangrove whiprays - and looking with a close eye, few juvenile blacktip reef sharks weave between the rays.

Footage by Sebastian Staines.

#saveourseasfoundation #sharksandrays #conservation #videography

Two women scientists, Rachel Aitchison and Amanda Arnold, examine a museum specimen of a reef manta ray as they prepare to measure it.

Always glad to celebrate my sisters in STEM! Happy International Day of Women & Girls in Science 👩‍🔬🦈- Grateful for the incredible women who have supported me and for all the amazing women scientists blazing trails and making a difference every day. #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM @rachhson.bsky.social

Not yet, but I'm intrigued! Thanks for sharing!!

My research uses data from the book Rays of the World, museum specimens, and taxonomic papers to develop meaningful indices of ecological function.
If you're a part of the ray fan club, let's be friends!

Wow, hi new followers 👋! I'm Rachel, a PhD Candidate with @nickdulvy.bsky.social in the @earth2ocean.bsky.social group. My research explores the ecofunctional morphology of sharks and rays, so I'm working on connecting what species look like to the role they play in their environment.

OPEN CALL for Sharks International 2026 proposals for keynote speakers, themed sessions and panels, workshops, and side events 📢 🦈
Please submit proposals via: forms.gle/9EiKJVncMoa7...
Deadline: 15th March 2025

New summary of 2 massive recent publications documenting the status and trends of sharks, rays, and chimaeras 🧪🦈🌎 @mongabay.bsky.social
news.mongabay.com/2025/01/new-...

Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) IUCN Critically Endangered © Masayuki Agawa_Ocean Image Bank

New #GlobalSharkTrends study published in @science.org reveals #overfishing has more than halved shark & ray populations over the past 50-years causing widespread erosion of ecological function and exceptionally high extinction risk
👉Full article bit.ly/GlobalSharkTrends
🧵1/20

Ok, this one I *do* want your help with.

Making a starter pack of shark and ray scientists and conservationists.

There are a lot of folks I missed, help me fill this out.

go.bsky.app/Q1x1gJB

🧪🌎🦑🦈🐠

Royal Society of Canada bestows three SFU scholars with country’s highest academic honour Three Simon Fraser University (SFU) scholars have been named to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) as Fellows, bringing SFU's total number of active RSC members to more than 70 researchers.    Membersh...

Congrats @nickdulvy.bsky.social !

www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stor...

🦑🌎🧪🐠

If you want to present at the upcoming 7th International Marine Conservation Congress, today is the last day to submit an abstract! 🧪🦑🌎

A school of ghostly blue and white squid float in midnight blue water, their bodies blurred by their fast movements through the sea. The each have large, round black eyes that almost seem to catch the light and reflect back in a silvery shine, long arms that are tucked in closely together to be more streamlined, and a small siphon pointed downwards and to the left. On the image is a logo for the game FathomVerse, with a caricature of a crab made of bubbles next to it.

👾It’s finally here! 👾The community science mobile game that we’ve been working on with our fronds at FathomVerse and @mbarinews.bsky.social is now available for FREE in the Google Play and Apple App stores! Download it here: www.fathomverse.game

What a great weekend for E2O!

The Palen & Côté labs made waves at #PEEC2024 at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.
Meanwhile, the Dulvy lab shared insights at #NEPSSVI at the Seattle Aquarium.
From local invasive species to global protected areas, we are passionate about sharing our science! 🌊🦈

Velvet Belly Lanternshark (Etmopterus spinax) photographed at 20 m in Trondheim, Norway. Photo by Elias Neuman

Deepwater sharks and rays make up half the global shark and ray diversity but have been largely left in the dark for shark and ray conservation. 🦑🌍🐟
 
#SharksintheDark #GlobalSharkTrend
bit.ly/SharksInTheD...

Happy #International_Womens_Day to these amazing scientists who provide me with *constant* support in the lab @rachhson.bsky.social @hannahvwatkins.bsky.social

Rachel discovers the high point of SFU

Rachel and the Passenger Pigeon at California Academy of Sciences

Rachel and Amanda Arnold thrilled to find super cute SF mako shark

Its just like unwrapping a birthday pressie, opening tank of preserved shark and ray specimens at California Academy of Sciences

Super excited to welcome new PhD student Rachel Aitchison to the Earth to Ocean Research group at Simon Fraser University. She's working on "Metabolic morphology of rays"