Day 1

Meet the Shark Camp interns!

Day 1 in the Malin Head Community Centre involved a meet and greet with education facilitator Rosemary McCloskey, Basking Shark researcher Emmett Johnston and the Shark Camp interns. After a morning re-cap on all things shark related the group played a few team building games where we got to know our fellow interns a bit more! Later we learned all about plankton (what Basking Sharks eat). Plankton comes from the greek word planktos which means to wander/drift. The distribution of plankton in the ocean is not only to do with having enough sunlight and nutrients, its also about the ocean currents and mixing. Plankton blooms form at ocean fronts, which are boundary layers between two different water masses. These are usually warmer and colder waters meeting. The southern edge of such a front exists off Malin Head and is called the Islay front and this is potentially why Malin Head is such a hotspot for them.

Learning about water densities and ocean currents in the shark camp lab

See the following link for more information about plankton blooms http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/blooming-oceans-phytoplankton-1104.html