Watch: Maltese Oceanography Students Blessed With Dolphin Appearance During Fieldwork Boat Trip
Students hailing from the Applied Oceanography course at the University of Malta had an exciting encounter while doing their fieldwork in the Malta-Comino Channel.
During a week’s worth of fieldwork, the students actually managed to get a glimpse of some playful dolphins swimming with the Gozo Channel Ferry.
“The MSc in Applied Oceanography students from the University of Malta just had an exciting week studying the beautiful waters of the Malta-Comino Channel!” the students told Lovin Malta.
Using technologies on the boat such as CTD, Niskin bottles, drifters, and sonar, these students collected vital data on temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a, current velocity, bathymetry, and more.
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They even managed to collect sediment samples and Posidonia Oceanica while being blessed by the ocean itself as a pod of bottlenose dolphins skipped through the water during their fieldwork.
The data is being analysed in the lab and hold the key to understanding our waters’ condition and the impacts of human activities.
“Basically in the lab, we had to process the data on the samples collected and by next week we will have to analyse and interpret them in terms of trends and variability. The samples were collected in different locations and at different depths so we will understand how this affects the parameters,” the student told Lovin Malta.
“In the lab, we had to: filter the samples of seawater to extract the content of chlorophyll a, measure the properties of samples of Posidonia Oceanica, as well as a sieve and weigh the sediments to understand the composition.”
“The boot camp was aimed at giving us a hands-on experience that complements what we studied during the year and at introducing us to the use of advanced technologies in the field of oceanography.”
“It was a really beautiful experience. Kudos to the incredible professors who made this expedition possible!” the students said.
Applications for the October 2023 course are now open.
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