AFBI at the Belfast Maritime Festival

Staff from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) participated in the Titanic Belfast Maritime Festival over the recent Bank Holiday weekend.

As Saturday 24th May coincided with International World Fish Migration Day (www.worldfishmigrationday.com), AFBI’s freshwater fisheries scientists set up a migratory fish display covering the reintroduction of salmon to the River Lagan, and work on monitoring eel populations. The display tanks of River Lagan glass eels and elvers were clearly a special attraction, particularly with younger visitors. Fish tagging and tracking studies were also on show. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) assisted with a poster on their work covering assessments of the passability of river barriers to fish migration.

AFBI staff also presented several marine topics at the event, including seabed mapping, video images from seabed camera surveys, and fish and shellfish age determination.  There were also hands on exhibits of shells and fish otoliths showing annual rings, and information on marine plankton.

AFBI is a partner in the EU-funded INTERREG IVa “SPRES” (Oil Spill prevention and response at local scales) research project (http://spres.ihcantabria.com/) in which Belfast Harbour is also an associate partner. This project is aimed at addressing growing concerns coming from the number of accidental oil spills affecting the Atlantic coast of Europe in the last few decades. The SPRES project brings together researchers from Spain, France, Portugal and United Kingdom. It seeks to develop tools which will be used in these emergency situations. Close to shore, most damage occurs in sheltered bays and inlets, where oil is concentrated.

To fulfil incoming legislation, to prevent, prepare for and respond to oil spills, SPRES has developed two different approaches. The first is developing planning tools to allow multiple agencies to work together in dealing with a spill. The second is creating oceanographic systems which use research data to predict how an oils spill will behave in a local area.
The SPRES project locally looks at the Belfast Lough area, and tools developed from this work will be tested in the coming months.
 

Notes to editors: 

AFBI carries out high quality technology research and development, statutory, analytical, and diagnostic testing functions for DARD and other Government departments, public bodies and commercial companies. 

AFBI's Vision is “Scientific excellence in Northern Ireland …  serving the world”.

All media enquiries to AFBI Press Office.

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