Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research

Our project partner West Wales Rivers Trust currently has four vacancies click on the link to find out more and apply 👉

Vacancies - West Wales Rivers Trust Vacancies All West Wales Rivers Trust vacancies will be advertised on this page. We also publicise vacancies on leading environmental job websites and via o ...

Thank you to everyone that joined us recently for a screening of Jack Perks Wildlife Media 'Britains Hidden Fishes' West Wales Rivers TrustInstitute of Fisheries Management Welsh BranchSwansea University a great insight into life in our rivers

CSAR Director Prof Carlos Garcia de Leaniz has won a Falling Walls award in the category of Science & Innovation Management !! You can find out more and read his interview here https://falling-walls.com/discover/articles/pioneering-river-restoration-the-work-of-carlos-garcia-de-leaniz/ Swansea University

Pioneering river restoration: The work of Carlos Garcia de Leaniz | Falling Walls My research is helping to break walls (both epistemological and physical) that fragment rivers, thereby helping to reconnect them. Rivers provide 12 million tonnes of fish/year, the only source of drinking water for 2 billion people and the sediments that sustain the livelihoods of 500 million human...

In collaboration with West Wales Rivers Trust and the Institute of Fisheries Management Welsh Branch we are screening Jack Perk's incredible Britain's Hidden Fishes film at Swansea University at 7pm on the 30th August. The event is free, but registration essential at this link:

IFM Wales Branch – ‘Britains Hidden Fishes’ – Institute of Fisheries Management Institute of Fisheries Management

Great opportunity to work with one of our project partners West Wales Rivers Trust as a Community Engagement Officer, follow the link for more info

Community Engagement Officers x3 Do you want to connect people with their local river and wildlife as part of an exciting engagement project? Do you see the opportunities for connection with nature to improve people’s health and ...

Check out all the latest project updates on our website https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/csar/

Rivers in Europe are heavily fragmented by barriers such big dams, culverts, and weirs. These barriers provide essential services - drinking water, irrigation, or energy production, but barriers also block and fragment waterways, isolate habitats and weaken wildlife populations.

To help combat this issue Professor Carlos Garcia de Leaniz and his team of researchers have taken action to help reconnect hundreds of kilometres of waterways - improving wildlife habitats & fish migration routes and developing the tools needed to manage European rivers.

Adaptive Management of Barriers in European Rivers - Swansea University Our researchers are helping reconnect hundreds of kilometres of river from barriers, improve fish migration and develop tools to help manage European rivers.

MSc by Research Scholarship for UK or EU applicants in the field of Biosciences. AI to assess the welfare of cleaner fish in the salmon industry.
What is this project about?
This project aims to use novel techniques to monitor fish health and welfare. The Centre for Sustainable Aquatic research in collaboration with Visifish are working on AI based tools to detect fish with poor health and welfare.
This is a unique opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges of aquaculture: to monitor cleaner fish health and welfare. Cleaner fish such as wrasse and lumpfish are used by salmon industry to combat sea lice and reduce dependence on anti-parasitic chemicals. But very little is known about cleaner fish health and welfare.
What will I be doing?
You will combine know-how on aquaculture and fish welfare, machine vision and deep-learning algorithms to develop and optimise tools to assess and improve the welfare of cleaner fish in salmon cages. The project will provide the first insight into behavioural, health and welfare effects of multi-species aquaculture. This will make the long-term use of cleaner fish in the salmon sector more sustainable and allow Wales (the UK’s largest producer of cleaner fish) to further expand this industry.

Which techniques and skills will I use and develop?
You will develop tools to assess, maintain and optimise cleaner fish welfare through machine learning. You will be using Visifish telematics and AI tools to monitor mortality, feeding frequency, growth rate, as well as individual and population-based behaviour, useful for animal health and welfare assessment. Baseline testing of fish interactions at the CSAR state-of-the art aquaculture facilities using the Lumpfish Operational Welfare Score Index as a benchmark protocol to access welfare.

Which companies are involved in this project?
Visifish is a UK-based company working on machine vision telematics, which uses mathematical models to manage risks in Aquaculture.

Where will I be based?
The work will be based at the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research, Swansea University (Wales) and you will join the FISHBEE group

You will be supervised by Professor Carlos Garcia de Leaniz and Professor Sonia Consuegra. Some of the data have already been collected and you will be able to work remotely. We will encourage you to do lab work and interact with other colleagues when possible.

How long does this scholarship last?
The scholarship provides 1-year funding with a 3 month period to complete the thesis. The achievement of a postgraduate skills development award, PSDA, is compulsory for each KESS II scholar and is based on a 40-credit award.

What is it like to work in the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research?

The Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research (CSAR) is a centre of excellence founded in 2003 and one of the most comprehensive university based aquatic research facilities in Europe.
Our facilities include £3.5 million state-of-the-art suite of living labs specifically designed to raise and/or optimally maintain a range of aquatic species for use in research and/or teaching. We also have a CRISPR lab, for gene editing work, a comprehensive genetics laboratory and a dry lab with essential equipment (e.g. microscopes, flow hood, centrifuges, etc.).
At CSAR we believe that supporting the Industry, delivering excellent Education and, impactful Research are essential to achieve excellence and shape the next generation of entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators.
• Every year we secure over £150k in research scholarships and awards to support our community of students.
• Our research is published in the top international journals, such as Nature and Reviews in Aquaculture. CSAR researchers are frequently interviewed by national and international news channels (The Guardian, National Geographic, Le Monde)
• We co-create and develop new products for the aquaculture industry. CSAR contributes to the success and expansion of the Welsh aquaculture.
But don’t take it from us, here’s what Arc’hantael Labrière - Year in Industry student had to say about her experience with CSAR:

“CSAR is an amazing learning environment and the University lecturers and staff were very supportive, passionate and really enthusiastic.”

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/csar/opportunities/ =on