Our purpose built £1.5 million research vessel, the ‘Mary Anning’ is an 18.5m catamaran designed primarily for teaching and research, along with commercial activities. The vessel is designed as a stable working platform, equipped to deploy a wide range of monitoring equipment and collect scientific samples in coastal and offshore waters, with the speed to reach destinations quickly if needed.
As a highly sophisticated research vessel which is dedicated also for teaching, we can equip our marine biology graduates with real-world and practical hands-on experience in the use of a wide range of sampling equipment and survey techniques. During the course of their studies, marine biology students will spend over 25 hours on the boat and throughout these boat-based modules students will learn how to sample different species and habitats across Swansea Bay and the stunning Gower coastline. This allows us to equip students with fundamentally important skills for their future research and professional life, including for careers in industry and government agencies.
The Mary Anning has a large stern deck where we carry out most of the deployment of sampling equipment, internally we have a wet and dry lab for sorting samples, an IT lab for data entry and analysis and a large galley area for breaks between work. On the upper deck, we have a dedicated platform for carrying out marine mammal observation surveys.
