Name: SHARKS, SKATES and RAYS: Consume, Conserve, Consider?
Start: 2024-11-07T18:30:00+00:00
End: 2024-11-07T20:00:00+00:00
Location: Booth Lecture Theatre, University of St Andrews

This year’s Buckland Professor, Sophy McCully Phillips will be giving the first ever Buckland lecture on elasmobranchs.
About this Event

Sophy will be giving a series of lectures around the UK focussing on “Sharks, skates and rays: Consume, Conserve, Consider.”, reflecting on the nature of elasmobranchs as charismatic marine species of conservation concern, but also a sustainable food source. This is informed by Sophy’s 19-years at Cefas, advising UK government on elasmobranch issues, chairing the ICES Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes responsible for assessing 56 stocks and chairing the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG) for Northern Europe.

Sophy will be joined by Dr James Thorburn who will also be giving a lecture on "Tracking Scotlands Sharks: Research and Conservation in local waters". James is an Associate Professor of Marine Ecology at Edinburgh Napier University.

The Buckland Foundation is a charity endowed from the estate of Victorian naturalist Frank Buckland (1826-1880). He was famous for the lectures and public information that helped Londoners and wider society learn about better nutrition, the importance of sustainable fishing, and the potential for aquaculture to provide valuable and affordable protein. On his death, Buckland bequeathed a sum of money in his will to support the public communication of fisheries science, leading to the establishment of the Buckland Foundation in 1926. The trust of the charity is made up of representatives from the fishing or seafood industry, as well as representatives from the national fisheries laboratories.

Each year, the trustees appoint a 'Buckland Professor' to give public talks throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland on matters of current interest in commercial fisheries, aquaculture and the marine environment.