SMRU researchers had a fin-tastic time in Hull
On the 10th September Grant Ellis and Jennifer Coxon from the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) ran an outreach stand at the University of Hull Science Festival 2022.
The festival is designed to engage and inspire children with research and innovation in the Yorkshire and Humber region. We took our Citizen Fins project on the road, using fun Photo-ID activities to encourage families to look out for UK marine mammal species on the East-Yorkshire coastline and contribute to our citizen led project to understand bottlenose dolphin movements between East Scotland and Northeast England. It was amazing to see how enthusiastic and knowledgeable families were about their local wildlife – very inspiring! Children were also invited to submit an entry for our Name a Dolphin competition, with the winning name to be featured in our online catalogue of East-Coast bottlenose dolphins! We were delighted to be joined by Stuart Baines, a regional coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation and Citizen Fins contributor, who helped us run the stand and provided expert local knowledge on marine mammal watching in East Yorkshire. Thanks also to everyone at SMRU who donated marine mammal skulls, skeletons, artefacts, artworks and acoustic recordings which made the day so engaging for young people! Visit Citizen Fins to learn more about how you can get involved in our project, and check out Sea Watch Foundation for more info about your local watch group.
