Warning: This blog contains images of sharks without fins or heads as part of a training exercise to identify species by their trunks. Some people may find this distressing. Since last we spoke It seems like a lifetime ago since …
It may come as a surprise to some that corals are not rocks or plants, but marine invertebrate animals made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny organisms called polyps, joined together by limestone skeletons. Corals are the building blocks …
This is the third in a series of short blogs focussing on Cefas’ fisheries science work in partnership with the fishing industry. Cefas Scientist, Jon Elson, who is responsible for the Cefas commercial catch sampling programme, is the next of …
This is the second in a series of short blogs focussing on Cefas’ fisheries science work in partnership with the fishing industry. Cefas Scientist, Rebecca Skirrow, who is the technical lead on Cefas’ Scientific Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) Programme, is …
This is the first in a series of short blogs focussing on Cefas’ fisheries science work in partnership with the fishing industry. Cefas Scientist Andy Lawler, who specialises in commercial shellfish, is the first of our mini blog authors. This …
Last month, the first ever CHART (CatcH And Release Tagging) pilot programme went live in England, with the start of the 13 week-long Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABT) fishing season. From 16th August, flying their specially designed CHART flags and with …
Serious diseases pose a threat to aquatic animal health both in aquaculture and in the wild. Many of these diseases have no effective treatment and have the potential to cause high numbers of mortalities in aquatic animals, with the consequent …
One of the less well-known aspects of Cefas’ seafood safety work is in support of seafood-borne human illness investigations. In the UK, an estimated 12,000-14,000 people per year experience sickness and diarrhoea after eating seafood, usually raw oysters. Frequently shellfish-borne …
Southern Water have recently been fined a record £90m for deliberately pouring sewage into sea. The Environment Agency also highlighted their response to the case which saw 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges taking place in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex between 2010 …
Safe and sustainable seafood is the core focus of research teams in Cefas’ Weymouth lab, investigating a range of hazards including bacteria, viruses and naturally occurring toxins that impact either human or animal health. Recently Cefas was bequeathed an entire …