Very few people have any idea what we do – we are a research institute with our main purpose focused on marine science research

Very few people have any idea what we do – we are a research institute with our main purpose focused on marine science research

17 June 2015

QUEEN’S University’s marine biology laboratory in Portaferry enjoys a spectacular view of the stunningly beautiful Strangford Lough.

The laboratory is one of international significance, just like the acclaimed waterway it overlooks and one which attracts researchers from across the globe.

Last weekend, the public had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the lab during its annual open day, an event launched four years ago to provide people with an opportunity to see just how important the facility is and the ground breaking research it carries out.

Lab director, Dr Julia Sigwart, said while thousands of people have visited Portaferry over the years and looked at the historic university building as they disembark from the ferry which links the village with Strangford, the vast majority have no idea of the internationally significant research that takes place inside.

“Very few people have any idea about what we do,” said Dr Sigwart. “We are a research institute and part of Queen’s University, Belfast, with our main purpose focused primarily on marine science research.

“We are a specialist facility for marine science which encompasses marine biology and also coastal engineering. Some of our work has been involved in research of tidal energy devices, with some of our engineers involved in some of the research associated with the SeaGen underwater turbine located in Strangford Lough, understanding how it interacts with the biological environment.”

Dr Sigwart said the reason the marine lab is located in Portaferry is because Strangford Lough is a “really special place and puts researchers in this fantastic environment where they can use the environment to answer a lot of really important research questions.”

She said the waterway is “genuinely internationally important, special and unique,” describing the laboratory as a  “global institution” which attracts staff and researchers from all over the world.

She explained that what makes the waterway so special is its physical arrangement and the way it was formed in terms of its geology. She said the way the sea interacts with the lough is also “very unusual.”

She continued: “The fact Strangford Lough is enclosed means it is completely marine. Any place like this with a big body of water surrounded by land is usually a lake, but that is not we have here.

“What makes this place different is that it’s more like a fjord. The old Viking name for Strangford is Strang-fjord, but fjords like the kind they have in Norway or Sweden have a very specific structure; they are very deep and have a certain way of connecting the open oceans which means the water inside a fjord does not circulate very much, so it is quite still and a little stagnant almost.

“In Strangford Lough, the tide is so strong and the currents come in and out really fast which means the fresh sea water from the open oceans gets pushed way up into the top of the lough, so it really becomes an enclosed sea that makes it distinct from lake or normal fjord.”

Dr Sigwart said it is the “uniqueness” of the internationally acclaimed waterway that makes it and the Portaferry marine lab an attraction for researchers across the globe.

Queen’s University has had a research base in Portaferry since the 1940s, with the original facility utilised as a centre for field courses, but it was not used all year-round. Queen’s acquired a property in the 1940s to run field courses — the building is now a shop on the shorefront — where undergraduates visiting the village collected animals and seaweeds to examine.

Interestingly, the man who played a key tole in paving the way for a permanent marine laboratory in Portaferry was Australian native Professor T T Flynn, who was head of zoology at Queen’s and father of famous swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn.

Describing Professor Flynn as an “outstanding biologist,” Dr. Sigwart said his family owned a holiday home in Kilclief, and the head of Zoology identified the current site of the marine lab and making a case for Queen’s to have a permanent base in Portaferry to accommodate undergraduates’ field studies and to allow the university to expand the course it   offered.

Dr Sigwart said as a result of Professor Flynn’s vision, “the great and the good” of marine biology and environmental science in Northern Ireland are Queen’s alumni who have carried out research at the Portaferry facility.

She continued: “Many undergraduates choose to study at Queen’s as a direct result of this base in Portaferry. One of the major assets of studying at Queen’s is access to hands-on field courses at this centre. We also offer an opportunity for students to do a final year research project based in a specialist research institute which makes the university very attractive internationally if you want to study Zoology.”

Last weekend’s open day was another success and Dr Sigwart, who will be leaving her post shorty to move to California, to be replaced by Professor Jaimie Dick, is confident the marine lab will go from strength to strength, with increasing numbers of people aware of the key role it plays and what goes on behind the building’s whitewashed facade.

“The open day is very popular and we do see the same people coming back year after year. I think it is very important for local people to have some understanding of what we do because we are actually a very impressive organisation. The fact we don’t have a public face means people don’t know that,” she said.

Dr Sigwart added: “I think it’s important for people to have pride about where they live and where they are from. We are part of that and I want the people on both sides of Strangford Lough and the wider area to know why the waterway is important and that this is an important, international marine science lab.”