MBA Oceans Week: Be a Marine Biologist for the Day

In aid of national science week the MBA was hosting several classes of school groups to learn about the science that is conducted at the lab and to be a Marine Biologist for the Day.


I volunteered to help Asling and her team which are mainly responsible conducting fish surveys on board Sepia. No boat action today though- instead we were conducting a murder mystery, the kids being the detectives and the suspects are the fish!

After a brief introduction the kids were given a tray of 4 fish (mackeral, pounting, sardine and dargonet) it was there job to find out which fish was the main victim of a murder. Well 3 murders in fact a snail, a fish and plankton.

Armed with some desecting tools and a helper (me!) the kids had to investigated the fish. The biggest clue was the teeth which depending on there shape could be used to identify what fish was the likely suspect for each victim. After some desecting we found an even bigger clue.. inside the stomach of the pounting we found, much to everyone's excitement, a whole fish head!

It got really messy at points- one kid got some fishy eye juice in the face. Some kids really like smashing and cutting fish but that said everyone seemed to learn something.. me included!

Some keen marine biologist for the day

learning about kelp