Marine Institute welcomes freshwater scientists to its Newport Facility

The Marine Institute was delighted to welcome a contingent of freshwater scientists from UKILN (the UK and Ireland Lakes Network https://www.ukandirelandlakes.org/) to its Newport facility on Thursday 17th October. The visit was organised as part of the UKILN's annual meeting. The theme of the meeting was "Lakes: protecting, enhancing and restoring". The group spent Thursday morning on the shores of Lough Carra, hearing about restoration efforts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUocAEbFMFs&feature=youtu.be). The group then travelled to the Marine Institute's Newport facility to hear about some of the exciting research projects taking place at the site.

The Marine Institute's Newport facility, which has been in operation since 1955, is a unique research centre, where a range of cutting edge research is undertaken including genetics work across several species of salmon, sea bass, pollock and bluefin tuna, as well as research on catchment ecosystems events, climate change, oceanography and aquaculture. The visitors had the opportunity to tour the state of the art facilities on offer including laboratories, a freshwater hatchery, fish rearing facilities, fish census trapping stations, a salmonid angling fishery and a monitored freshwater lake and river catchment. The visitors also had the opportunity to view the new recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) in the hatchery.