Autumn thoughts

Change of colours, change of scenery, even change of people. Autumn 2019 is a crucial period of passage. We are facing it with trepidation and excitement: SeaDNA is in its final stages, but its legacy will likely extend into the coming years. Chris and Marine are transferring the core of their work to LJMU. Andhika is about to face his IA and Tim his IE. Andhika and Marine are also both preparing for a big adventure (about which you will soon hear on this page…). Meanwhile, we have just welcomed two young researchers, Luara (University of Para’, Brazil) and Simone (University of Rome “La Sapienza”), who will be with us for a year, working on seafood identification and environmental DNA projects.

From left to right: Luara Falcão, Marine (winking unintentionally), Simone D’Alessandro, Stefano.

We visited the North East of England, by the mouth of the River Tyne. We had some business to do. Quite exciting stuff, with potentially big impact in our field; but we can’t really get into the detail of it, because we are under “purdah” (big thing, over here). In fact, he who writes is also a bit under some sort of self-enforced purdah: essentially, it really is better if I keep my mouth shut on anything related to British politics.

Instead, we prefer to think about the trawlers that catch Norway lobster, or scampi, or langoustines, there, out in this leaden, shelfy, muddy North Sea. And the little lights over the masts, and the pungent, yet comforting, evocative smells coming off the quays… can you feel it?

And then came the rain, the hot chocolate (and the beers) in the pub. And there was a fishmonger, which was sampled, and observed carefully. Some of the curios, you can see on twitter and on Marine's Instagram.

Goodbye and see you soon, North East shores of this puzzling island. We are the calm before the storm; we are the news yet to be announced.