Professional Writing Portfolio

This Literature Review was one of the main writing assignments from my Advanced Writing in the Scientific Disciplines course. This paper focuses on the electromagnetic senses in marine megafauna and how man-made objects interact with that sense. I was inspired to research this topic based on an article I had read years ago about the Shark Exclusion Barrier, a non-invasive barrier that uses electromagnets to keep sharks away from areas filled with people. This project tested our ability to research a topic extensively and write about it in a formal academic paper. In conducting my research on this subject, what started as a small query about the shark exclusion barrier and how it really works, turned into hours of learning about electromagnetic waves in the oceans. When I started this, I had never stopped to consider that man-made electromagnetic devices may be interfering with the lives of marine organisms in a negative manner. In this paper I explore the problems created by man-made devices upon marine organisms, and the ‘how’ and ‘why’ that makes up this issue.