by Carles Carreras
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| The conference about how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours. |
The last 9th of August we participated at the
III Posidonia Summer Festival in the beautiful town of Colera. This annual event, organised by the town council and the
Som-hi Association, aims to approach people to the sea by organising a large variety of talks and activities, like scientific snorkel, marine biodiversity family workshops or a marine renewable energies conference.
In this context we had the opportunity to explain the
ChallenGen Project to local villagers and tourists by describing them several examples of how molecular tools can be used to study our marine neighbours. The talk took place at the Colera Trull, an ancient olive oil cellar, and people from all ages had the opportunity to became scientists for an hour by investigating with genetic markers the life of some of the animals of the Mediterranean sea. We thus discovered how littoral fishes structure their populations and adapt to local environment conditions, or how marine turtles migrate and reproduce, among others interesting examples. The talk was followed by an intense debate were we could answer everybody’s questions including the importance to study and conserve our marine biodiversity.
