Stepping Stones Reports

Kathryn Whittey

Fish Hives into the Caribbean sea

Charel Wohl

Visit Aerodyne in Boston

Bex Turner

European Coral Reef Symposium (ECRS)

Dr Natalie Sinclair

Bringing Humpback Whale Song Science to Remote Scottish Communities

Dr Ellen White

AMIGOS cruise: Monitoring Marine Mammals from the Strait of Gibraltar to the west coast of Ireland

Dr Mark Stevenson

BIOCARBON Cruise: Biological Influence on Future Ocean Storage of Carbon

Neill Mackay

Sydney Research Visit

Alastair Lough

Euromarine Foresight Workshop

Rehemat Bhatia

The 13th International Conference on Paleoceanography - Sydney, Australia

Coleen Sucking

Investigating natural challenges alongside the threat of microplastics on Florida’s marine life

Dr Imogen Napper

Visiting Researcher and Teacher in Plastic Pollution

Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year

The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.

The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.

If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.

THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?

The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.

NOC Association AGM 2025

NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025

The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk