AQUAzone: June 2012

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Friday Feeds

SAASTA MD Visits SAIAB:

Penny and Jabu outside the SAIAB building

The Managing Director of the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) paid SAIAB a visit as part of SAASTA’s efforts to stimulate science advancement across the country through strengthening ties with sister organisations within the NRF. The meeting was attended by Angus, Penny, Noziphiwe from SAEON, Vanessa and Garth. In this meeting, Jabu pointed out that SAASTA is committed to aiding facilities such as SAIAB which have the capacity but not necessarily the human capital for science advancement. One of the main points from the meeting was the fact that in order for science advancement to be carried out effectively, SAASTA would need to have regional offices across the country. Angus assured Jabu that SAIAB would be more than happy to house such regional offices. SAIAB and SAASTA have always had strong ties particularly with events such as the upcoming annual National Science Week. For more information about this years’ National Science Week, to go http://www.saasta.ac.za/

Paul Cowley – SuperSport TV personality

Paul (extreme right, second row from top) with participants of his Catch and Release workshops

Paul Cowley recently did a couple of television shows stressing Catch and Release Practices. These shows were aired on SuperSports’ (SS6) Inside Angling show. The last show was filmed at Kleinemonde and they advertised the “A guide to the Ecology of Temporary Open/Closed Estuaries” booklet. Ever since, we have had a flood of requests coming in for this booklet. According to Vanessa, not only have we had hundreds of requests of the Estuaries booklet, this has also had a huge knock-on effect on pushing up the demand for other stock. “We’ve had people phoning about posters, other books (mostly coastal fishes) and there’s also been demand for the “Biology and Ecology of fishes in Southern African Estuaries” by Dr Alan Whitfield which is normally a very quiet book”. SAIAB will be purchasing the aired programmes and copies will be made available in the library.

American student joins SAIAB Family

Gavin and Jessica shortly after her arrival

Jessica Glass is a Masters student from the University of Alaska in Fairbairns. She’ll be with us for about two months (nine weeks to be exact). She’ll be doing a genetics and morphology research project with Dr Gavin Gouws as well as some telemetry work and outreach with Dr Paul Cowley. She says she’s looking forward to her experience at SAIAB.

Winter School 2012

The SAIAB Winter School kicks off in less than two weeks. This year we had a total of 25 applications from Universities around the Eastern Cape and a few from outside of the province. Applicants have been shortlisted to 16 participants. Three SAIAB interns (Elethu Duna, Jessica Glass and Kanya Ncoyo) will have the opportunity to attend the Winter School along with seven students from Walter Sisulu University, four from Fort Hare and two LG SETA interns from DIFS at Rhodes.

Friday, June 8, 2012

A word from the MD: GO FROM GOOD TO EXCELLENT AND WHY

We have just completed our performance appraisals as well as our next year’s performance agreements. Reviewing and moderating these I can only say how very lucky I am to have the staff that I do. Overall our appraisal from NRF corporate was just short of excellent and with very few exceptions the staff performed well. So the question we should all be asking ourselves is how we go from good to excellent. And if you are not thinking of this and are content to keep SAIAB as only a good Institute you need to apply your mind to where the world and South Africa are today. Simply put, we are in an era of uncertainty be it world finances and governance, South African politics and our economy or the shape and size of the National System of Research and Innovation (NSI).

I am confident that over the next two to three years we can move from good to excellent as I know we have the human intellectual capital, we fill a distinct and needed niche within the National research arena and we have excellent administrative systems. In order to move from good to excellent we need to achieve two things namely: improved quality and increase the scale of our activities. I firmly believe that the Institute produces enough output given our current resources and what we need to do is take these outputs from good to excellent through improving quality. The staff need to think strategically on how to improve on the quality of our activities - we need to ensure we do not offer good but rather excellent service (internally and most important externally) in terms of our collections, library and marine research platforms. Our researchers need to ensure we not only publish extensively but we also publish more high impact papers. In terms of supervision we must not only supervise but we must aim to ensure we produce well rounded young researchers from all demographic sectors. In turn the executive needs to convince NRF and DST that we are well positioned as a National Facility to grow in scale. The Institute urgently requires a 20% shift in baseline core funding and our administrative systems could easily cope with four more scientists, two outreach officers and two more technicians which would entail a 50% shift in funding. If we achieve the above, then I believe we will move from being a good Research Institute to being an excellent National Facility in the true sense of the word.

To those of you who ask why do we need to do this – we are quite happy being good and why should we buy into this competitive academic/research rat race? The simple answer is we are regarded as a mature Institution and because the research arena is highly dynamic we need to remain relevant and ensure we communicate our worth to the decision makers. There are a number of new and “hot” research mechanisms such as the DST/NRF Research Chairs and Centres of Excellence which are receiving considerable, and growing funding, while our funding level has plateaued out at best. We need to ensure the role and worth of National Facilities is revitalised in the mind of the decision makers and the only way we can do this is by ensuring we offer excellent value for each research rand allocated to us and we communicate our success.

I have every confidence in the SAIAB team and I look forward to moving from Good to Excellent over the next few years.

Ofer shares his experience and findings on his expedition to the Prince Edwards Islands

The Prince Edward Islands (PEI) are a South African territory in the South Indian Ocean, about 2000 km southeast of Cape Town. This island group comprises two sub-Antarctic islands, Marion and Prince Edward that are actually two peaks, about 20 km apart, of a large volcano rising out of the sea bed. Over the last four years I visited these islands three times to collect material for Tshoanelo's PhD study. She is researching the systematics and biological antifreeze attributes of several benthic species residing in habitats around the islands, ranging from shallow inshore water to about 500 m. One of these species is the bullhead notothen (Notothenia coriiceps), a shallow water species that was common in the 1980s, but seems to have disappeared as we have not found it since the beginning of the project in 2009. Trying to find this species was the main objective during this year's trip to the islands, during April-May, either by collecting or observing it in its habitat. Collecting methods included fishing from a small boat and dredging (towing a large metal cage along the bottom) from the ship. Observation methods included snorkelling and, for the first time, underwater video photography. Snorkelling has the advantage of covering a relatively large area, but one cannot swim (in a thick wetsuit) in the islands' cold water (7°C) more than 20 minutes. By contrast, the underwater video camera filmed continuously for over 2 hours, but it was stationary. So the two methods complemented each other. As I anticipated we did not find the bullhead notothen and the reasons for its potential disappearance will be discussed at an international conference in July. Nevertheless, the dredging yielded species that are of interest to the project as well as a juvenile of the spiny horse fish (Zanclorhynhcus spinifer). The latter is the second specimen and the first genetic sample of this species collected at the PEI.

This year's visit to the Prince Edward Islands was also the last voyage of the SA Agulhas, the supply and research vessel that serviced South Africa’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic bases since the mid-1970s. A short official ceremony to commemorate this voyage took place at the South African National Antarctic Programme building at the V&A Waterfront on the morning before the ship sailed. At the same time the new vessel that will replace the SA Agulhas was on its way to South Africa from the shipyard that built it in Finland. When I returned from the PEI, the new vessel had already docked in Cape Town and I was fortunate to have a tour of it. I was impressed. Presently named SA Agulhas II, this ship is larger and more specious in internal design. It has a larger hangar and landing deck for the helicopters. All cabins are above water level and none with more than 2 beds (as opposed to 4 in the old ship). The labs are much larger, equipped with internet connections and printers, and in the case of the wet lab with more water connections and basins. The winches are housed inside the ship which makes operations in cold and/or rough conditions easier. There is also a ‘Moon Pool’, a well in mid-ship that opens to the water through the bottom of the ship and will serve as the launching area for oceanographic equipment when working in pack-ice. While the ship is also equipped with an A-frame it does not have a slipway and so will not be able to launch bottom trawls. Unfortunately, this means limited capacity for fish work.

I placed a brochure of the new ship at the library for all to see.

Marion Island Base

SA Agulhas II

Invasive freshwater fishes in a South African RAMSAR wetland

The Wilderness Lakes system, situated in the Western Cape of South Africa, forms a major component of the SANParks managed Garden Route National Park. The lakes and interconnecting channels are part of a RAMSAR site. As a result of introductions into the catchment area, four alien fishes occur in the lakes system. Three of these, the common carp Cyprinus carpio, Mozambique tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus and largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides are popular angling species and the fourth, the mosquitofish Gambusia affinis was most likely introduced for mosquito control. These alien fishes are recognised as being among the worst invasive fish species worldwide. Elsewhere, they have been linked to a variety of impacts including competition with native biota, alterations of invertebrate and vertebrate communities through predation, habitat alteration and introduction of fish diseases. Understanding the status and establishment of these fishes in the Wilderness Lakes is therefore important for the development of strategies with which to manage these invasions.

In an ongoing assessment of the fish fauna initiated in 2009 through a SANParks/South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity collaboration. The main aim is to better understand the functioning of the wilderness lakes system and the long term impacts that alien fishes may have on the system. The research has has also had considerable training impacts with more than 30 BSc Honours students from Rhodes University learning through participating in the research over the last four years. This year, the field trip was held from the 6th to 11th May and 8 honours students participated in a variety of sampling techniques including setting and retrieval of gill nets and fyke nets as well as seine netting. Students also undertook biological analyses on some of the fish sampled which involved dissection, sex and maturity determinations, otolith removal and isotope sample collection.

Group photo of the Honours class

Dr Olaf Weyl out in the field with his students

From the students desk: SABI Student Workshop

Participants at the workshop

SAIAB students and interns recently formed part of a South African Biosystematics Initiative (SABI) student workshop on scientific presentations skills in Richards Bay. SABI is aimed at assisting the scientific community in promoting the awareness and the importance of bio-systematic research in the broader community through education and outreach projects. The workshop attracted 26 students from 13 institutions across the country. These students came from Univ. of Fort Hare, Limpopo, Venda, W. Cape, Free State, Walter Sisulu University, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University, Natal and Iziko Museums, SAIAB, SANBI, and the ARC. According to SABI student committee chairperson and workshop organizer, Thabo Maake, the workshop kicked off with a “snowball fight”, as an ice breaker. Participants had to pick up a snowball with a name of someone they didn’t know which encouraged interaction and team work, giving good networking opportunities among participants. Participants were then requested to express their expectations of the workshop which was later used to direct the emphasis of the workshop. The workshop focused on issues such as good abstract writing, structuring presentations, hiding nerves, timing and confidence, keeping audience interested, K.I.S.S. (something students call, Keep It Short & Simple), etc. The workshop was a general success with one University of Limpopo student was noted as saying: “I have to say I now have much knowledge with regard to compiling a good scientific and attractive abstract and I can now proudly say I am no longer a 'Nervous Nelly' when it comes to Oral presentations.”

ACEP INCEPTION WORKSHOP

ACEP launched its postgraduate programme with an Inception Workshop of Honours students and supervisors from the University of Fort Hare and Walter Sisulu Univiersity on Friday 25th May. The participants spent the day learning more about SAIAB, SAEON and ACEP through presentations by various SAIAB and SAEON staff. The ACEP postgraduate programme aims to support postgraduate studies in Marine Science at Historically Black Universities with the aim of redress and transformation. UFH and WSU is participating as strategic partners and jointly we offer a managed programme approach where student are not only given financial assistance but also logistic support as well as academic and professional development including various scientific and life skills courses.

This year, 9 honours students from Fort Hare and 5 from Walter Sisulu will be supported by the programme and in the next 2 years the ACEP programme will grow to include MSc and PhD candidates as this year’s student progress and new candidates join the programme.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

News from the library

Our Margaret Smith Library recently hosted 34 second year Library and Information Science students from the University of Fort Hare. Upon arrival, the students watched the SAIAB video and were given a tour of the Collections Management Centre. Sally Schramm also gave the students a short presentation focusing how the library operates, the kind of books and journals the library keeps and the library website which is hosted by the Rhodes University Library site. According to Sally, these students had also visited the NELM and the Cory Library for Historical Research and their aim was to see how special research libraries are run. Nceba Ndzoyiya said he found the mobile shelves at the M.S Library most impressive.

Sally showing the students some of the Journals kept at the library

Hanoria says goodbye to the library

“Having worked at the library has been a great experience. I’ll miss Sally dearly but most importantly, I’ll miss my babies (the students).”

Sally and Hanoria at Hanoria's farewell tea

Hanoria receiving her farewell card from SAIAB MD Angus Paterson

Andrew’s I.T Lesson of the month:

share large files with others

As you know, sharing large files with others can be impossible using email. To help people easily handle this task, a file exchange site has been set up by the NRF and is open to anyone.

To Share:

Visit http://filesend.nrf.ac.za/ and fill out the form.

· Click ‘choose file’ and select the file you wish to share (repeat until all the files you want to share are listed).

· Set the expiry time (how long the download will be available for) and a password.

· Set your email address and name to the other person can see who you are.

· Fill in the email address of the person you are sending the message to in the ‘send to’ space

· Type in a message if necessary

· Click ‘Process upload’

· Tell the recipient what the password is

Receiving:

Your recipient will receive an e-mail with a link to the download. When they click on the link, they will be taken to the Filesend site and asked for the password.

After typing in the password, a .zip file will start download. This file will contain the files you’ve shared.

Note: Each time the file is downloaded, you will receive a notification. This is useful for determining whether the recipient was able to retrieve the files or not.