Don't forget to bookmark the Cefas web site to keep abreast of the imprtant work carried out to support our fishing industry - research methodology has come along way and there is now increased opportuntiy for the fishing industry and the scientists involved to work closely together - the Cefas Endeavour blog now gives a daily account of the survey work undertaken. Hopefully, the site will soon support a comments facility which will allow fishermen to contact the boat and the scientists while thay are at sea on station - here's the final entry from this year's Irish Beam Trawl Survey:
Smartbuoys and bloggers
Posted by Mark on 03 October 2012
This morning we picked up the Smartbuoy near Weymouth and thus completed all the tasks of the survey. The clean down has begun and we are busy packing everything away ready for the next survey. The steam home is underway and we expect to dock in Lowestoft tomorrow lunchtime.
After blogging for the last three weeks, I thought I should say something about myself on the last entry:
I have worked at Cefas for 20 years now and it seems to have gone by in a flash. I started work in Fisheries Division in 1992 on a temporary six week contract to do some data input as a mere boy. That contract was soon extended to three months and then everyone seemed to forget I was supposed to leave and I kept being paid, so here I still am.
I soon found myself part of the market sampling team and learning to read otoliths - our way of determining the age of fish. The former found me travelling all over the country to ports, sampling the catch and taking otoliths from fish. The latter fascinated me from day one; learning to age megrim and then herring and sprat in my early years. I moved away from market sampling and eventually took over the co-ordination of the age determination programme, having expanded my expertise across many species and being involved in and running a number of international workshops around Europe and numerous otolith exchange programmes between different institutes.
Sea-going has always been an element of my work at Cefas and it is one that I always look forward to, providing a complete change to the office and a wonderful experience of being out on the waves in our own research vessel.