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Celebrating our Most Excellent Colleague
29th March 2018
Last week a number of us congregated in our Lecture Theatre to celebrate our colleague Dr Ian Davies receiving his very well deserved MBE. The MBE, or Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, is an award that recognises and rewards contributions to the arts, sciences, charity and welfare organisations and Dr…
Monitoring the Effect of Noise on Marine Environments
26th March 2018
Survey: 0418A Duration: 25 March – 11 April 2018 Gear: Subsurface passive acoustic moorings (incl. cetacean detectors and sound recorders); Subsurface VEMCO VR2 salmon tag detector moorings; and Subsurface Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) mooring. Objectives: To deploy 95 moorings with VR2 salmon detectors between Ythan Estuary and Findon Ness (‘outer array’ shown on Figure…
What’s the (Organic) Matter?
13th March 2018
Picture of MRV Sir John Murray (SJM) provided courtesy of SEPA. Survey: 0118SJM Duration: 12-16 March 2018 Gear: Craib corer, CTD, Day grab and Auto sieve. Objective: To compare pore-water nutrients, sediment chlorophyll-a and organic matter content among seabed sediments from the Outer and Inner Firth of Clyde and sea lochs. Procedure: Figure 1 shows the stations…
Trans-Atlantic Co-operation
8th March 2018
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in Massachusetts contacted Marine Scotland on the 20th February, requesting assistance to retrieve one of their gliders. The glider was deployed near Iceland, but had broken down and had been drifting at the surface since November 2017, and was now approaching the western coast of Scotland …fortuitously near to where…
Bright lights; Big fish trials
2nd March 2018
Survey: 0318A Duration: 8-22 March 2018 Equipment: BT 201 Prawn net – rigged with separator grid and two 80mm codends; Trawl doors, sweeps, bridles, backstrops and pennants; Spare netting and twine; Safety-Net Technologies light unit; PSL5000 light unit x 2; Lindgren Pitman Electralume light x10; 4 x 10m side emitting light cables; Battery pods; Video…
Trawling for ICES in the north and west of Scotland
16th February 2018
Duration: 15 February – 7 March 2018 Fishing Gear: GOV Trawl (BT 137) fitted with ground gear D. Objectives: Demersal trawling survey of the grounds off the north and west of Scotland in ICES Subarea VIa. To obtain temperature and salinity data from the surface and seabed at each trawling station. Collect additional biological data…
The Lives and Afterlives of Plastic: A nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference
26th July 2017
Over the last month New Zealand’s Massey University Political Ecology Research Centre (PERC) has been hosting a conference to address social and environmental issues surrounding: toxicity, waste and plastic. The only difference being that this conference was a nearly carbon-neutral conference being held entirely online. While traditional conferences involve academics flying from all over the…
STEM Students becoming Careerwise
19th July 2017
Always keen to invest in new talent, and promote women in science, Marine Scotland has taken on two students for two twelve-week placements under Equate Scotland’s Careerwise scheme. Careerwise is a partnership between industry and academia to: encourage the participation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas; increase awareness of STEM occupations…
Scallop Dredging and Octopus Spotting
14th July 2017
Last month our Ships Co-ordinator joined the Alba na Mara for a day to observe colleagues during the East Coast Scallop Dredging Survey 0917A. The aim of this visit was to get a better understanding of the scallop dredging process, the equipment and techniques used, and the challenges associated with this sampling method. The feedback…
SCObs Weekly Sampling to Expand at St Abbs
7th April 2017
The Scottish Coastal Observatory (SCObs) monitors the temperature, salinity, nutrients and plankton community at a number of sites around the Scottish coast. The efforts of Marine Scotland scientists are supported by a network of local citizen-scientists who deploy small temperature sensors and collect water samples for analysis. Many of the SCObs sites have been collecting…