Honorable Mention: Cowrie Eggs and Rainbow
Photography by Elle Linetsky, undergraduate student,
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
The Thrush Cowrie (Naria turdus) is a marine gastropod native to the Indian Ocean which has recently been spreading throughout the Caribbean. It was first discovered in Â̲èÖ±²¥ just two years ago in 2022. Since then, this non-native species has rapidly multiplied in South Â̲èÖ±²¥'s waters and very little is known about its potential impacts. I have been observing the Thrush Cowrie population in the Southern Indian River Lagoon to understand its ecology here in Â̲èÖ±²¥. I photographed a female Thrush Cowrie incubating eggs in an empty oyster shell in the mangroves of the Indian River Lagoon, Jupiter Island.