About Me

Samantha Sherman grew up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She has always had a passion for the ocean, particularly sharks and rays. Samm completed her undergraduate honours degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 2012. Her honours thesis at the Hagen Aqualab looked at the metabolism of methylamines in the Brownbanded Bamboo Shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum). After moving to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia to teach SCUBA diving, Samantha returned to academia and began a Masters at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Her Masters project involved a management effectiveness evaluation on Australian commercial fisheries and their management of shark catch. Throughout her Masters, Samm worked at Billabong Sanctuary as a casual ranger. Samm is currently a PhD candidate at JCU. Her project looks at the ecology of rays on coral reefs, and she is proudly part of the Global Fin Print project. She hopes to add to our limited knowledge of ray diversity, abundance and distribution, particularly in SE Asia. In addition to her PhD, Samantha is involved in the Global FinPrint project as a research assistant and volunteer coordinator. She is also the secretary of the Oceania Chondrichthyan Society (OCS). Follow her research blog for updates!