Uni to attend shark victim's memorial

Tuesday, 30 August 2005

Staff and students of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, together with other senior members of the University including Vice-Chancellor Professor James McWha, will attend the memorial service of a young researcher who was fatally attacked by a shark off Glenelg last Wednesday.

Jarrod Stehbens, who last year graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours), was on a field trip with three of his colleagues when the incident occurred.

The three surviving members, Melita de Vries (BSc Honours), Research Assistant; Bayden Russell (PhD candidate), Research Associate; and Justin Rowntree (B EnvSc Honours), Research Assistant, all from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, will be at the memorial service.

The service will be held in Jarrod's hometown of Beachport on the lawned area at the Rotunda on the Beachport Foreshore at 2pm this Saturday, September 3. The Stehbens family have decided to make it a "public memorial to celebrate his life".

Jarrod's Honours project investigated the potential interactive effects of disturbance and productivity on the diversity and structure of a benthic marine community. His study was the Australian contribution to the Global Approach by Modular Experiments (GAME) program.

It enabled him to travel to the Leibniz-Institute for Marine Science in Kiel, Germany, to collaborate with other participants from around the world. His diving, boating and data collection skills were utilised while a Research Assistant in the Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories.

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