This project will expose students to a variety of skills associated with the sampling and analysis of seafood species (fish and others) to examine their trophic ecology (i.e., what they eat and where they are positioned in food webs). In addition to sampling and dissecting seafood specimens from wet markets, students will learn how to apply stable isotope analyses (SIA) to explore the trophic ecology of key marine species that represent significant economic value as seafood resources. While tissue SIA offer considerable potential for clarifying diets in hard to observe organisms, a range of confounding factors mean that variations in bulk tissue isotopes do not necessarily reflect variations in diet. Students will also be exposed to cutting-edge compound-specific isotope analyses (CSIA) that address many of the confounding variations in bulk SIA, thereby allowing assessment of inter- and intra-species variations in resource dependence and trophic positions across unprecedented scales. Overall, the research project is expected to provide fundamental understanding of variations in the structure of marine food webs, which is needed to guide effective stewardship of marine resources that are under unprecedented pressure on a global scale. Students will learn a range of transferable skills in the study of marine organisms and trophic ecology.