Assessing the environmental impacts arising from burying marine wildlife carcasses containing euthanasia and sedative drugs

Summary

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This is a collaborative and innovative project between the University of Sydney, DCCEEW, NSW Environment Protection Authority, and NSW Health Pathology. The project will evaluate tissue and environmental samples from buried cetaceans to understand impacts from euthanasia and sedative drugs and management options for carcass burials in the natural environment

Supervisor

Dr Rachael Beverly Gray.

Research location

Sydney School of Veterinary Science

Synopsis

The main aim of this project is to determine whether there are environmental impacts arising from the burial of marine wildlife carcasses. The project aims to:

1. Assess the persistence of euthanasia and sedative drugs in different organs of whale carcasses.
2. Determine if drugs leach from buried carcasses and, if so, assess the temporal and spatial extent and associated environmental harm, if any.
3. Investigate whether differing burial conditions affect persistence and leaching of the drugs from whale carcasses and their movement in the environment.

With the assistance of scientists at DCCEEW and NSW Health Pathology, the candidate will extract and quantify euthanasia and sedative drugs in water, soil and animal tissues from whale carcass burial sites in NSW. The results of this project will be used to inform the management and burial of culturally significant marine carcasses in NSW.

Project keywords: carcasses, marine, burial, environment, residues, cetaceans.

Additional information

The PhD candidate will be enrolled as a Higher Degree Research student at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney.

Addtional supervisor(s):     Professor Merran Govendir, relevant industry partners

Assiociated scholarship opportunity: The project comes with a DCCEEW funded top-up stipend of $15,000 annually for up to three years. Applicants must be eligible and competitive (first class honours degree) for application for a Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship through the University of Sydney.

Required:
The candidate must have a Bachelor of Veterinary Science/Doctor of Veterinary Medicine or Bachelor of Science/Advanced Science majoring in chemistry or environmental science or equivalent and be eligible and competitive (first class honours degree) for application for a Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship through the University of Sydney. The project comes with a DCCEEW funded top-up stipend of $15,000 annually for up to three years.
Current NSW Driver’s License and capacity for travel within NSW for sample collection.

Desirable:
Experience in sample extraction techniques (from biological and non-biological specimens) and performing identification and quantitation of drugs and their metabolites using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) techniques.

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Opportunity ID

The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3468

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