November 11, 2024 — The coastal lifestyle runs through the veins of Molly Spencer, a School of Ocean Science and Engineering (SOSE) student at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). Her passion for fisheries has sparked her to create dynamic solutions for coastal communities and federal agencies, allowing her to land an internship at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass.
In October 2023, Spencer packed her bags for a six-month internship to survey the Atlantic Surfclam stock and climate change impact on its migrating population. Spencer explained that changes in water temperature greatly affect the surfclam population over time while also impacting commercial and governmental agencies. The shifting range of the Atlantic Surfclam is important information to the local fishers and the stock assessors that produce their yearly quotas.
“This research is important to me because it has a direct correlation to real problems occurring in our coastal oceans right now. This work has the potential to be put into the hands of policymakers and those of fisheries influence. I’m hoping my research will be able to make changes for the better. I’m hoping to bridge the science with coastal fishers,” said Spencer.
Spencer is excited to participate in a first-ever research manuscript detailing studies done on assessing a federal stock assessment on the future abundance of a commercially valuable species. The goal is to inform top U.S. shellfish fisheries on changes in stock sustainability resulting from climate change.