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Displaying items by tag: Professor Mário Ruivo Prize

#MarineScience - EurOcean has extended the deadline to register for the Professor Mário Ruivo Prize to 31 March 2016.

School children aged 11-16 throughout Europe are invited to present a proposal for a study, experiment or project that supports the Blue Society theme 'Your Ocean, Your Future'.

The theme of the Professor Mário Ruivo Prize 2016 focuses on practical actions that can improve how humans interact with the ocean and is intended to raise public awareness on the importance of the ocean and ocean-related services to humankind.

Entrants can be groups who are mentored either through a school setting or through another social outlet, club, workshop, etc.

The top ten ideas from each country will be selected to go before the jury, and from these, three teams will be funded to carry out their marine science project. The best of the three teams will be awarded a money prize.

Through a series of stages, entrants will be invited to envision their project, make a plan of action, and sell their idea to the adjudicating panel.

Finally, three teams will be selected as finalists who will receive funding to do their project.

To participate you must register your team via the online form before the 31 March deadline and convince the jury why your project should be selected as one of the top ten to represent your country.

EurOcean will follow the process online and through social media, and the team that is most successful in realising their plan will be awarded the Professor Mário Ruivo Prize.

You will find more information about the competition along with dissemination materials in different languages on the EurOcean website HERE.

Published in Marine Science

Marine Wildlife Around Ireland One of the greatest memories of any day spent boating around the Irish coast is an encounter with marine wildlife.  It's a thrill for young and old to witness seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales right there in their own habitat. As boaters fortunate enough to have experienced it will testify even spotting a distant dorsal fin can be the highlight of any day afloat.  Was that a porpoise? Was it a whale? No matter how brief the glimpse it's a privilege to share the seas with Irish marine wildlife.

Thanks to the location of our beautiful little island, perched in the North Atlantic Ocean there appears to be no shortage of marine life to observe.

From whales to dolphins, seals, sharks and other ocean animals this page documents the most interesting accounts of marine wildlife around our shores. We're keen to receive your observations, your photos, links and youtube clips.

Boaters have a unique perspective and all those who go afloat, from inshore kayaking to offshore yacht racing that what they encounter can be of real value to specialist organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who compile a list of sightings and strandings. The IWDG knowledge base has increased over the past 21 years thanks in part at least to the observations of sailors, anglers, kayakers and boaters.

Thanks to the IWDG work we now know we share the seas with dozens of species who also call Ireland home. Here's the current list: Atlantic white-sided dolphin, beluga whale, blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, fin whale, Gervais' beaked whale, harbour porpoise, humpback whale, killer whale, minke whale, northern bottlenose whale, northern right whale, pilot whale, pygmy sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, sei whale, Sowerby's beaked whale, sperm whale, striped dolphin, True's beaked whale and white-beaked dolphin.

But as impressive as the species list is the IWDG believe there are still gaps in our knowledge. Next time you are out on the ocean waves keep a sharp look out!