Louisa Graf
Honours Student
Education
Bachelor of Environmental Science (Honours), Deakin University, Australia, 2023 - Current
Bachelor of Marine Science, Deakin University, Australia, 2020-2022
Research Interests
Louisa is a coastal marine scientist with an interest in elasmobranch ecology and conservation. Louisa’s research involves using Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUVs) as a non-destructive method to assess the density, abundance and habitat associations of coastal temperate sharks and rays. Through spatial ecology, Louisa aims to relate shark and ray distributions to habitat and environmental characteristics and use statistical relationships to predict distributions across the state of Victoria, Australia. Louisa aims to utilise spatial data for variables including depth, habitat complexity, reefs, chlorophyll, salinity, temperature and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to create map outputs via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assist in quantifying the amount of suitable habitat for specific elasmobranch species or assemblages within MPAs. Louisa’s overall research aims to highlight temperate elasmobranch ecology and its importance, for overall advances in shark and ray conservation efforts.