Jose M. Fariñas-Franco

UK sand eel fishing ban remains in place despite EU legal challenge Creatures make up the bulk of seabirds’ diet but they are fished for commercial pig food

“Sand eels eels make up the bulk of the diet of seabirds,

but they are fished for commercial pig food”

That short sentence exemplifies just how screwed up things are

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

One week left to apply to this postdoc opportunity I'm offering in native oyster restoration in Ireland. Get your applications in before the 9th May 12 pm deadline! Any questions contact me. Details in the application documents, link below.

#jobalert 📢 Delighted to offer a 3-year postdoctoral position in my research group at ATU Galway, Ireland. This is an exciting role in the new and ambitious native oyster reef restoration #BRICONS Project funded by the Marine Institute. To apply www.atu.ie/connect/jobs....
Deadline: 9 May 2025 12pm

🧵Commercial fishing is the most damaging thing we do to the ocean. In addition to killing lots of fish and other organisms, it also kills >300k dauphins and whales annually.

For a fishing company to oppose research on marine CO₂ removal because it might harm the environment is ironic. 1/n 🌊

Marine habitat as a Nature-Based Solution in Belfast Harbour: developing Native Oyster restoration in modified water bodies. at Queen’s University Belfast on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Marine habitat as a Nature-Based Solution in Belfast Harbour: developing Native Oyster restoration in modified water bodies. at Queen’s University Belfast, listed on FindAPhD.com

We have a #PhD opportunity on #oyster restoration in modified water bodies as a potential #NatureBasedSolution with @nessocon.bsky.social as part of the new BRICONS project! See www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
🌊🦪

We are looking for a #PhD student to work on the impacts of multiple stressors on native #oysters as part of the BRICONS Project co-supervised by @annikaclements.bsky.social - contact me for details on how to apply @tcddublin.bsky.social

De officieel beschermde Doggersbank heeft het zwaar te verduren. Nu is er geld voor natuurherstel Een internationale coalitie van natuurbeschermers heeft anderhalf miljoen euro gekregen om de natuur op de Doggersbank, in de Noordzee te herstellen. ‘Dit is in theorie een strikt beschermd gebied, ma...

Delighted to be playing a part on this rewilding project in the North Sea and to provide some of the imagery for the press releases www.trouw.nl/duurzaamheid...

It's a cracking place Dan, serendipitously came across it looking for an oyster bank. A mosaic of really great maerl and dense seagrass, and plenty of clams/tapes and ostrea eilis shell. It is in Cuan Chasla, Conamara, co.Galway. Very shallow at low water like most of these bays,but still subtidal.

In the biogenic habitats lab we also get to study Irish seagrass beds, from some of the deepest ones in Europe down in Kerry (1st), to rich mosaic seagrass-oyster-maerl biotopes in Conamara (2nd) to almost urban seagrass meadows near Galway city (3rd and 4th picture ).
#worldseagrassday

Left: Sparse Modiolus modiolus bed in Scapa Flow, Orkney, May 2014.
Right: Native oyster bed in the Galway coast, Ireland, February 2024

Old habits are hard to break and I have defaulted to the old site for posting lately. I need to transition proper and will start posting more here. I'll start with news of two successful collaborative project proposals for shellfish reef restoration projects due to start in 2025. Cue these photos 👇

Thanks @ruththurstan.bsky.social! delighted to see two of those photos 👇 in yesterday's BBC Wildlife Magazine piece. I am hopeful too, hopeful they'll receive the protection they need as the last pockets of a lost habitat, clinging here in Ireland. We are documenting them also in case we lose them.

More BRUV footage with unexpected species. Following that Atlantic salmon, here we have a pair of common squid (Loligo vulgaris) gliding in front of the camera. The footage is part of our ongoing study of fish utilisation of seaweed farms but as it happens there is a #seagrass meadow nearby.

The Substantial First Impact of Bottom Fishing on Rare Biodiversity Hotspots: A Dilemma for Evidence-Based Conservation This study describes the impact of the first passage of two types of bottom-towed fishing gear on rare protected shellfish-reefs formed by the horse mussel Modiolus modiolus (L.). One of the study sit...

Small potatoes compared to others' but at 124 citations mine is a study with UK colleagues on the 1st pass impact by bottom fishing gears on horse mussel, Modiolus modiolus, reefs. We found wholesale reef degradation with up to 90% declines in epifaunal diversity.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Nice to see this article by @mbaldwin.bsky.social surface again. Lots of academics aren't aware how recent and dynamic the peer-review system is. Entire thing worth a read, but this quote always floors me (page 8 of PDF ethos.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/19/g... ):

Are you interested in the #restoration of marine ecosystems?

I'm co-chairing a @icesmarine.bsky.social Workshop on Nature Restoration (WKREST) in March, join if you're interested!

www.ices.dk/community/gr...

Hi Grant, I'd like to be added as well. We use BRUVs for fish use in reef habitats and seaweed farms, in addition to old school, direct recording via diving (photoquadrats and videotransects with DSLRs and GoPros). Dabbing into biotope mapping with fancier drop cameras and acoustics (sidescan).

Muchas gracias Ángel, me alegra formar parte del grupo

Photo is from quite a deep (for seagrass) subtidal bed in southwest Ireland, September 2018 if I remember correctly.

Could I be added to the pack, Angel? Gracias!

It's not just shellfish reefs we study in my group, I have a lot of love for seagrass. A new found, serendipitous love as a result of a completely different project on seaweed farming. Some of the nicest dives I have ever done are on seagrass beds. Esp. summer, with all the juvenile fish thriving.

Hi Caleb, can you point them out in the photo? The only colonial cnidarians we find are hydroids and some dead mans fingers but can't see them in that photo, at least I can't. There are red filamentous and red crustose algae (maerl) in that pic. But I wouldn't say those are the ones you refer to?

The seagrass is also quite something.

It's fantastic Ben, a very special mosaic habitat indeed, with native oysters, seagrass and maerl (both Phymatolithon and Lithothamnion). West coast of Ireland. Not going to go into too many specifics location wise.

We are in the process of documenting their biodiversity and structure, which we believe fits the definition of an Ostrea edulis biotope as listed by OSPAR in their Threatened and Endangered Habitats classification, before it's too late.

Thanks for sharing Ruth. And I'm glad you used the word reefs because here (in Ireland) I have got push back from saying they fit the criteria as biogenic reefs. The interesting bit here is these areas don't feature as oyster biotopes in maps, but 'mixed sediment' in between maerl. Go figure.

Sharing this photo of a native oyster bed in one of our survey sites here for the first time. This was my coelacanth moment, especially as many deny these oyster habitats even exist. Same as eels, Ostrea edulis (the species and the habitat) are threatened and yet we keep managing them as a fishery.

That's always my thinking. Conversations of sustainability and quotas aside, it's the utter contempt. Treated as things, commodities, resources (how I hate that word).

It shouldn't be allowed anywhere.