Rachel Mawer
@rmawer.bsky.social
Researcher interested in fish movement + acoustic telemetry
Currently at Swansea Uni
Currently at Swansea Uni
Beautiful winters day to tag some skate - today is also our first tagging trip with our ultrasound scanner to start collecting reproductive data alongside our movement data 😁
November 17, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Beautiful winters day to tag some skate - today is also our first tagging trip with our ultrasound scanner to start collecting reproductive data alongside our movement data 😁
Day 3 at #EEA2025 , great to hear from Steven Benjamins about the current status of Skatespotter, a flapper skate photo ID database I was briefly involved with in 2018/19 for my masters! One individual has been recaptured 28 times in 6 years!! 🤯 Very cool
October 31, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Day 3 at #EEA2025 , great to hear from Steven Benjamins about the current status of Skatespotter, a flapper skate photo ID database I was briefly involved with in 2018/19 for my masters! One individual has been recaptured 28 times in 6 years!! 🤯 Very cool
Two great days this week tagging skate in the Bristol Channel - we managed to catch + tag individuals across four species of skate 🥳 These skate will be tracked for the next few years across our channel-wide array so we can learn about their movement patterns and spatial usage #trackingnotslacking
October 8, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Two great days this week tagging skate in the Bristol Channel - we managed to catch + tag individuals across four species of skate 🥳 These skate will be tracked for the next few years across our channel-wide array so we can learn about their movement patterns and spatial usage #trackingnotslacking
This week we've deployed another line of acoustic receivers across the Bristol Channel 🥳 hopefully, these receivers will give us a better idea of when our tagged fish, sharks + skate migrate out from the channel, and maybe detect some animals from further afield 👀
September 25, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This week we've deployed another line of acoustic receivers across the Bristol Channel 🥳 hopefully, these receivers will give us a better idea of when our tagged fish, sharks + skate migrate out from the channel, and maybe detect some animals from further afield 👀
Yesterday out downloading receivers along the Gower, perfect day for it and a highlight being the sunfish we saw on the way out 🤩
July 10, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Yesterday out downloading receivers along the Gower, perfect day for it and a highlight being the sunfish we saw on the way out 🤩
It's #worldalbatrossday ! I was lucky enough to see lots of adult Atlantic yellow-nose albatrosses nesting back in September, such gorgeous birds 😍
June 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
It's #worldalbatrossday ! I was lucky enough to see lots of adult Atlantic yellow-nose albatrosses nesting back in September, such gorgeous birds 😍
The study also gave us insight into wound persistence in flapper skate - one bite was observed 102 days apart which is pretty cool! (Might need to zoom into the picture to see it!)
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
The study also gave us insight into wound persistence in flapper skate - one bite was observed 102 days apart which is pretty cool! (Might need to zoom into the picture to see it!)
Looking at all features together, the trend for bites and swelling suggests a potential winter-spring mating and egg-laying period for flapper skate. The scratches had the opposite trend, suggesting it might not be a direct result of mating but something else...
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Looking at all features together, the trend for bites and swelling suggests a potential winter-spring mating and egg-laying period for flapper skate. The scratches had the opposite trend, suggesting it might not be a direct result of mating but something else...
The scratch wounds were more common in males. While it also had the same trend in male and female skate, the seasonal trend was very different to swelling + bites, peaking in Sep/Oct
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
The scratch wounds were more common in males. While it also had the same trend in male and female skate, the seasonal trend was very different to swelling + bites, peaking in Sep/Oct
Bite wounds were also more common in females, but had the same seasonal trend for males and females. Bites were also more likely in winter-spring
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Bite wounds were also more common in females, but had the same seasonal trend for males and females. Bites were also more likely in winter-spring
Firstly, we found that pelvic swelling was more common in females and only had a seasonal trend in females - supporting the idea it can indicate egg carrying, as there is something unique to females that a) makes this more common and b) has a seasonal pattern. Swelling peaked over winter into spring
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Firstly, we found that pelvic swelling was more common in females and only had a seasonal trend in females - supporting the idea it can indicate egg carrying, as there is something unique to females that a) makes this more common and b) has a seasonal pattern. Swelling peaked over winter into spring
3) Scratch wounds. We don't know the mechanism behind these but anglers and skippers have reported them and see them more on males, speculating they might be due to male on male competition - potentially during reproductive periods
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
3) Scratch wounds. We don't know the mechanism behind these but anglers and skippers have reported them and see them more on males, speculating they might be due to male on male competition - potentially during reproductive periods
2) Bite wounds are also visible - a widely recognised sign of elasmobranch reproduction. Generally, bites increase during reproductive periods
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
2) Bite wounds are also visible - a widely recognised sign of elasmobranch reproduction. Generally, bites increase during reproductive periods
1) Sometimes, skate are visibly swollen over the pelvic region (compare left image to right) - there is some literature on other skate linking this to the presence of eggs. Anglers + skippers have also noticed this swelling with flapper skate, so it might be a sign of egg carrying
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
1) Sometimes, skate are visibly swollen over the pelvic region (compare left image to right) - there is some literature on other skate linking this to the presence of eggs. Anglers + skippers have also noticed this swelling with flapper skate, so it might be a sign of egg carrying
New paper! We estimated the reproductive timing of the critically endangered #flapperskate by making use of a pre-existing #citizenscience photo ID database 📸 with @davemarinebio.glasgow.ac.uk @jathorburn.bsky.social Paper ⏩ doi.org/10.1111/jfb.... & summary below ⏬
April 10, 2025 at 9:04 AM
New paper! We estimated the reproductive timing of the critically endangered #flapperskate by making use of a pre-existing #citizenscience photo ID database 📸 with @davemarinebio.glasgow.ac.uk @jathorburn.bsky.social Paper ⏩ doi.org/10.1111/jfb.... & summary below ⏬
Monday was my last day working at Plymouth uni, as the #PollackFISP project came to an end - been a great few months hopping in and working on some cool research including #acoustictelemetry !! Onto the next job 🤩
April 2, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Monday was my last day working at Plymouth uni, as the #PollackFISP project came to an end - been a great few months hopping in and working on some cool research including #acoustictelemetry !! Onto the next job 🤩
Out again today servicing more acoustic receivers - that's all our Plymouth ones done! Looking forward to cracking into all of our new pollack data as part of the pollack FISP #trackingnotslacking
March 4, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Out again today servicing more acoustic receivers - that's all our Plymouth ones done! Looking forward to cracking into all of our new pollack data as part of the pollack FISP #trackingnotslacking
Perfect February day out servicing receivers, some of which we hadn't downloaded data from since April! Time to see what the fish have been doing 🐟 #trackingnotslacking
February 28, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Perfect February day out servicing receivers, some of which we hadn't downloaded data from since April! Time to see what the fish have been doing 🐟 #trackingnotslacking
Happy to share another paper from my PhD was published recently - covering 2 chapters! Using hidden Markov models and step selection functions to analyse fine-scale acoustic telemetry data and then predict spatial usage from model output 🐟 #trackingnotslacking
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
December 27, 2024 at 5:41 PM
Happy to share another paper from my PhD was published recently - covering 2 chapters! Using hidden Markov models and step selection functions to analyse fine-scale acoustic telemetry data and then predict spatial usage from model output 🐟 #trackingnotslacking
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...