June 9, 2026 — Humans put many demands on the ocean — for fishing, shipping, raw materials, and more. Those demands can threaten marine life and the communities that depend on local fisheries. A new lab at UMass Dartmouth aims to help us share the ocean. CAI’s Jennette Barnes takes us there.
“Over here, we’ve got field supplies.”
Assistant Professor Melissa Cronin is showing me around the room. It has a work table, white boards on the walls, supply cabinets, and a refrigerator.
What we’re really in this room to see, though, are the manta tails.
She invites me to put on some gloves.
“It’s just really … so you don’t, like, shed skin cells,” she says. “And I’ll just show you what we’ve got in here.”
She brings out a plastic tube, labeled with the name of a fishing boat. She uncaps the tube and gently pours a pile of white silica beads onto a piece of bubble wrap.
“And here’s the tail.”
Among the beads sits a dried piece of a manta ray tail. It looks like a short length of dark-gray wire.