Porcupine
Marine Natural History Society

 

Previous Porcupine Natural History Society Meetings

Details of the annual conference and other meetings held in previous years can be found on this page. These include:

• An annual conference involving the presentation of papers, progress reports and discussion on a particular theme.
• Workshops on topical issues or identification of particular taxonomic groups.
• Field meetings which provide an opportunity to learn to identify marine species and to appreciate the ecology and geographic variation of marine communities.
• Joint meetings with other Societies.

2007 Annual Meeting 16th - 18th March, Newcastle University SIGNS OF CHANGE IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

The reality of climate change and its consequent effects on the marine environment is now widely accepted. But what changes are occurring and what is the evidence? What other factors have caused significant change to marine species and communities? What other causes of change are being masked by, or blamed on, climate change? How has our approach to the study of the marine environment been modified? What technological developments are altering our understanding of marine ecological processes, or enabling new insights? The theme of this conference will address these sorts of questions

.

Provisional speakers include:-

• Keith Hiscock (MarLIN) - Linking natural history observations to environmental change
• Ivor Rees (Menai Bridge Marine Lab [retrd.]) - Sporadic recruitment of long-lived molluscs
• Jon Moore (Marine Environmental Consultant) - Impact of oil spills
• Carolyn Heeps (The Crown Estate) - Offshore renewables
• Jon Houghton (Swansea University) - Turtles
• Frances Dipper (Marine Biologist & Author) - Diver observations of 'new' fish records
• Richard Lord (Marine Biologist, Guernsey) -

Venue: The meeting is to be held in Newcastle upon Tyne. There will be two days of talks (Friday and Saturday) followed by a field trip based at Newcastle University's Dove Marine Laboratory at Cullercoats on the Sunday.

Costs: The conference fee, which includes coffee and tea, is £30 (£10 for students and unwaged) for members. Non-Porcupine members may join the Society at a special introductory rate of £5 (a 50% reduction!). If you wish to take advantage of this offer the total fee will be £35 (£15).

Annual Dinner: There will be a dinner on the Friday night at an approximate cost of £20-£25. A £10 deposit is required.

Papers presented at the conference will be published in the subsequent edition of the Society Newsletter.

Posters: There will be a poster display available for viewing during the conference. Poster submissions can be accepted up to the end of February.

Details including location maps, accommodation lists, provisional programme and membership form (where appropriate) will be sent on completion of a booking form.

Contact: For offers of papers or posters, or for booking, or general, enquiries contact the conference organiser, Judy Foster-Smith (judy.foster-smith@ncl.ac.uk). Delegates with special needs should make this clear on booking.

2006 Annual Meeting 'Marine Natural History - past, present and future' at the Port Erin Marine Lab, Isle of Man.

Thank you to Séamus and Peter for organising the excellent meeting, to the staff at Port Erin and to all the speakers. Look out for photographs of the field trip to be published here in the near future.

Friday 24th March
• Kevin Kennington Fluctuations at the base of the Irish Sea foodweb; climatic vs anthropogenic disturbances
• Frank Evans - Naming of the copepod genera Temora and Oithona
• Terry Holt/Salma Shalla  Status of the Horse Mussel Modiolus modiolus around the Isle of Man
• Anne Bunker - Milford Maerl - past, present and future
• Paul Brazier - When the tide goes out: the biodiversity and conservation of the shores of Wales
• Roberto Miguez - The Spirit of the Museum
• Photo ID Session with Frances Dipper
• Lab Session
• Conference dinner.

Saturday 25th March
• Trevor Norton - Trippers, kippers and biologists in flippers
• Fiona Gell - Overview of marine conservation on the Isle of Man
• Jean-Luc Solandt - Management applications of basking shark sightings data around the UK
• Jackie Hall - Manx Basking Shark Watch: A New Public Sighting Scheme for the Isle of Man.
• PMNHS AGM
• Roger Bamber - Monitoring of Coastal Saline Lagoon Habitats by Community Analysis
• Frances Dipper - Natural History or Science? The Semporna Islands Project.

Sunday 26th March
• Field Survey: Ronaldsway

2005 Annual Meeting 18th - 20th March "Collections, Collectors, Collecting" The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London.

The successful and enjoyable meeting was held in The Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Many thanks to Roger Bamber and Roni Robbins for organising everything. On Friday and Saturday the meeting followed the format of talks and presentations:

FRIDAY 18th MARCH
• Geoff Boxshall - An introduction to MarBEF [a Network of Excellence in Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning] and its facilities for managing data on the distribution of marine organisms
• Julia Nunn - Irish marine Mollusca in the collections of the Natural History Museum, Dublin
• Kathryn Birch Marine life in the intertidal around Wales  an overview of CCWs Phase 1 intertidal survey
• Natasha Lough Distribution and character of Sabellaria alveolata reefs around Wales
• Martin Angel - Towards an Atlas of North Atlantic Planktonic Ostracoda
• Brendan 'Chip' Barrett - The analysis of the Order Amphinomida (Annelida: Polychaeta) utilizing several collections and the specific case of Paramphinome jeffreysii (McIntosh 1868)
• Brian Bett - Viewing the depths of the sea
• Richard Warwick - An All Taxon Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) for the Isles of Scilly: Progress Report
• Brian Zimmermann - Regional Collection Planning for Lower Vertebrates and Invertebrates.
• Peter Davis - 19th century marine biology in north east England

SATURDAY 19th MARCH
• John Hartley - Offshore oil & gas surveys - opportunities at every turn
• Tim Ferrero - Nematodes and the environment: taking the long view with short worms
• Peter Henderson - How long-term Collecting has increased our knowledge about Community Dynamics in the Bristol Channel.
• Tammy Horton - Deep-Sea Scavenging Amphipods of the North East Atlantic
• Geoff Moore - Richard Elmhirst: the 'other' Cumbrae naturalist
• Ian Tittley - Marine Algal (Seaweed) Collections at the Natural History Museum (BM)
• Kim Last - Biological rhythms of Nereis virens (Sars)
• Andie Mackie - From Seabed to Spirit....and Beyond
• Amra Kazic - Molecular data on preserved fish specimens from the collections of the Natural History Museum, London
• Phil Rainbow - Collections Of Discovery
• The Annual General Meeting of the Society took place during Saturday's proceedings.

SUNDAY 20th MARCH In the laboratory, Darwin Centre.

Museum staff gave behind-the-scenes tours of the collections and delegates studied a variety of unsorted taxa. Many thanks to all the helpful staff who made the day so useful and enjoyable.

Richard Lord took this photograph of a Phyllosoma larva from the Discovery Expedition material he was sorting. "The larva was captured on the surface at 8° 53' 24" north and 23° 15' 30" west.

According to charts this is in the region of the equatorial counter current about 120 nautical miles to the west of the Sierra Leone Rise. In reply to an email I sent to crust-l Jocelyne Martin wrote: The photo represents one of the last phyllosoma stage of the family Palinuridae, perhaps the last one before metamorphosis. It looks like the eleventh stage of Palinurus argus, the common spiny lobster of Florida but I can't tell you if the specimen corresponds to this species or not. However, because this larva was captured close to Africa I believe it is of an African palinurid. Jason Goldstein form the marine ecology laboratory in Norfolk, Virginia replied writing that the larva could be one of the following species: 1) Palinurus mauritanicus, pink spiny lobster, 2) Panulirus regius, royal spiny lobster, 3) Scyllarides herklotsii, red slipper lobster (they tend to have very broad bodies in the larval stages compared to spinys 4) Panulirus echinatus, brown spiny lobster (unlikely but you never know). This list represents the species with phyllosoma larva off the coast of West Africa.

Other Porcupine delegates were sorting material from elsewhere. The attached photo of the tray of goodies includes a redmouth whalefish, family rondeletiidae (bottom of image above shrimp), which was collected from 27 degrees 38 minutes 24 seconds North and 15 degrees 7 minutes 6 seconds west.

Papers will be published in the newsletter. Web sites for some of the speakers/organisations are given in the links page.

2004 Annual Meeting 20th - 21st March 'Marine Species at the Limits of their Range' Bournemouth University.

Many of the papers have been published in the newsletter. Thankyou to all the people who gave a paper or a poster. Thankyou to Lin Baldock for organising the most enjoyable meeting and field trip.

For information regarding upcoming meetings click here