CETUS Update

The CETUS team has been busy acoustic tagging dogfish (small spotted catshark) over in Arklow to study potential reef effects created by Ireland’s only existing offshore wind site. Our current understanding of how sharks interact with offshore wind farms is very limited. However, fixed bottom turbines can introduce potential structures and habitat for dogfish prey such as crabs. We have acoustic tagged 25 dogfish so far, and over the next few years we hope to test this theory by tracking movements of dogfish across the current turbine site and neighbouring areas. 

Arklow is a challenging site with large volumes of suspended sand in the water column, shallow banks, and strong tides Huge thanks to the experienced skippers Kit Dunne and Anthony Rice of Wicklow Boat charters for facilitating this work. 

The CETUS dogfish work is supported by Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UCC, MaREI Centre and ERI. Partnered with Inland Fisheries Ireland. Facilitated by Wicklow Boat Charters. Funded by SEAI. 

Feature Project

CETUS

CETUS aims to find and compile all available datasets on sensitive megafauna species (cetaceans, elasmobranchs, turtles, and seabirds) and build a national standardised database which can support visualization and mapping of species distributions.

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Meet the Team

All MaREI Team Members
Danielle Orrell
Post Doctoral Researcher
Damien Haberlin
Post Doctoral Researcher
Astrid Dedieu
PhD Student
Jasmine Stavenow
PhD Student
Mark Jessopp
Tom Doyle
Funded Investigator