Bio
Originally from Colorado, Reilly’s passion for the marine world was sparked at an early age while visiting the ocean and exploring the tidepools during family vacations. Her deep love for feeding ecology studies grew from her first job at the National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, CO where she dug around in Coyote stomachs for a diet and feeding ecology study. She then attended the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) from the University of California San Diego where she earned her undergraduate degree in Marine Biology. During her final year at SIO she interned at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego where she assisted in diet studies of various keystone shark and fish species using traditional stomach analysis.
Reilly was awarded the Experiment Ocean Solutions grant (2023), the Hatfield Marine Science Center Bill Wick Marine Fisheries Award (2024), a FWCS Travel Award (2024), and a American Elasmobranch Society Student Travel Award (2024).
Research
Reilly is a graduate student in the Chapple Big Fish Lab and is interested in the diet and feeding ecology of top predators and the impact they have on key fisheries and their ecosystems around them. Her research aims to determine the diet and feeding ecology of Salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) using a variety of biochemical tracers. Her project will assist in the advancement of standard practices used in feeding ecology studies, creating methodology that can be built upon and further developed. Using the novel approach of eDNA and fatty acid analyses her work will supplement current data sets, leading to the much- needed enhancement of current conservation and management practices.
