Vina “Gelli” Parducho, Q-quatics research staff and SeaLifeBase team member, traveled all the way from the Philippines to GEOMAR [Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research] in Kiel, Germany to undergo a one-month special training course (26 May to 23 June 2018) with none other than FishBase Coordinator and current FishBase Consortium (FBC) Chair, Dr. Rainer Froese. Gelli is in-charge of providing data on life history and population dynamics in SeaLifeBase and was recently assigned to handle the same task for FishBase. The said training gave her a deeper understanding and broadened her knowledge on the topic. She also learned how to do CMSY analyses which is something very new to her.
While in Kiel, she also took part in a one-day research cruise on board one of the research vessels of GEOMAR, the Alkor, which was organized by Dr. Joachim Dengg and Dr. Sally Soria-Dengg. The cruise is part of their monthly monitoring of environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, oxygen, pH, nutrients, plankton, chlorophyll) and benthos specimen collection in the Kiel Fjord conducted by students from their Freitags Forscher Club (Friday Researchers Club) aged 14 to 19 years old who mostly belong to the upper 5% in their school. The cruise is an opportunity for their students to get field exposure and conduct their projects outside the classroom. During the “Open Day” of GEOMAR and ERC (European Research Night), students get the chance to present their projects to thousands of visitors from Kiel and neighboring cities, some even made presentations in international conferences. [Author: Vina Angelica Parducho]