Prince Madog Prize cruise report

An integrated marine monitoring workshop onboard the RV Prince Madog 14-18 November 2003

This workshop was organised to assess the contaminant related health status of Cardigan Bay's marine ecosystem. This was achieved by conducting an integrated sea going workshop employing a series of novel molecular, biochemical, chemical, pathological and whole organism endpoints. The workshop brought together leading UK scientists from both academic and end-user communities. In doing so, further developed links between two of the UK's leading marine research institutions (Cefas and PML), along with university departments involved in contaminant-related marine research.

The workshop primarily focused on flatfish populations present in Cardigan Bay, which for reasons yet to be identified display elevated levels of liver pathology relative to prevalences considered to represent a background level of disease. Furthermore, it is hoped the project will provide an integrated overview of the health status of Cardigan Bay, one of the UK's most important marine environments. For further information on the Prince Madog Prize see related news item.

Cruise achievements

• Collected demersal fish for chemical analysis (bioaccumulation), fish disease assessment and biomarker analysis Target species dab (Limanda limanda).  
• Collected representative invertebrate species for pathological, bioaccumulation and biomarker analysis.  
• Tested the high ecological reference values for Cardigan Bay by collecting a series of water samples, specifically dissolved nutrients, chlorophyll biomass and phytoplankton species in reference to the water framework directive (WFD) classification tools
• Sampled invertebrate and vertebrate benthic organisms (macrofauna and epifauna) to study the benthic ecology and biodiversity

If you would like any further information please contact Brett Lyons (brett.lyons@cefas.co.uk; +44 (0)1502 562244) or Grant Stentiford (grant.stentiford@cefas.co.uk; +44 (0) 1305 206722)