The covered the basic skills of monitoring sealife, including whales, dolphins and seabirds.

Cornwall students sample sealife surveying

University of Exeter students benefited from a marine surveying course at the Cornwall Campus, Penryn, on Friday 29 May.

Led by European marine conservation research charity Marinelife, the course gave students an insight into the wildlife observation skills required to become a marine surveyor.

Thirty students from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation attended the course. It covered the basic skills of monitoring sealife, including whales, dolphins and seabirds. As well as learning about observation and recording skills, the students had an insight into the work of Marinelife, a charity that aims to further the conservation of coastal and oceanic wildlife through research and education.

The students were also given practical advice on volunteering and some now plan to become volunteer surveyors with Marinelife. This could involve them taking part in Marinelife’s projects to monitor sealife around Europe, such as the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme. Marinelife has been monitoring wildlife in the Channel and European Atlantic continuously for over thirteen years through one of its main projects, the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme. The surveys are chiefly conducted from passenger ferries (known as ‘ships of opportunity’) travelling the same routes year round.

Dr Brendan Godley of the University of Exeter’s School of Biosciences (Cornwall Campus) said: “This course gave our students a fantastic insight into the work of Marinelife. We encourage all our students to get as much work experience as possible during their time with us so that they are well placed to find a career after they graduate. We are really grateful to the many organisations like Marinelife who can show our students how their academic studies can be applied in the field.”

John Arnott of Marinelife provided the training. He said: "It was a delight to meet such a motivated group of students. It will be a pleasure to welcome any of them onto our research teams and I know that already several of them have booked to join our 3-day Cetacean and Seabird Workshops on P&O's cruise-ferry Pride of Bilbao."

Date: 19 June 2009

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