Louisa Graf

Education

BSc (Hons), Deakin University, Australia, 2023

Research Interests

Louisa was a coastal marine scientist with the Marine Mapping team, with an interest in elasmobranch ecology and conservation. Louisa’s research involved 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 aimed 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 aimed 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 were to highlight temperate elasmobranch ecology and its importance, for overall advances in shark and ray conservation efforts.