Cyclone Grant Final Update - Genetic Sequencing

May 2023

Isabella Ossiander, the successful recipient of the 2022 Cyclone grant, has been busy investigating the prevalence of seafood mislabelling of threatened mobulids in markets of Mexico. She is an MSc marine biology student from the University of Santa Cruz, currently working with our affiliate project Mobula Conservation in Mexico, and is excited to share with you the final updates from her MSc project which the Cyclone grant has supported!

After having collected 145 samples from 27 sample sites in La Paz of “mantarraya”, which is a general label used for any ray species sold in Baja Mexico, Isabella began the task of sequencing the samples at the lab of the University of Santa Cruz.

She was able to identify 121 of these samples to species level, which provided her with some interesting findings! Watch the video below to find out more.