Disease, pandemics and mass mortality events don’t affect only humans. Diseases caused by infectious agents, such as viruses, bacteria and fungi, are an important and necessary component of all healthy ecosystems, including our oceans. UGA Skidaway Institute researcher Marc Frischer will explore the range and diversity of marine disease outbreaks that are increasingly affecting marine organisms in an Evening @ Skidaway program, titled “Marine Pandemics: It’s Not Just People,” on Tuesday, October 10, at Skidaway Institute.

“In the same way predators are important to healthy ecosystems, so are diseases,” Frischer said. “Healthy ecosystems require balance, and disease is an important balancing process.”

The program will be presented to an in-person audience as well as online. The in-person program will be presented in the Ocean Sciences Instructional Center on the UGA Skidaway Marine Science Campus (10 Ocean Science Circle, Savannah, Georgia, 31411). The evening will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the talk at 7 p.m.

(Note: This venue is a change from previous Evening @ Skidaway programs. Look for directional signs.)

To view the program online, visit the UGA Skidaway Institute YouTube channel.

The program is open to the public and free of charge.