About the event

The presenters will deliver their talks online.

There will be two talks.

1. Coming up for air

Kevin McIlwee, Chair & Founder of Jersey Marine Conservation, will provide an overview of the organisation’s wide-ranging conservation work. From Seasearch seabed surveys and grey seal monitoring to marina biodiversity surveys, pink sea fan research, and community outreach and education, Kevin will highlight the many initiatives underway to protect and better understand Jersey’s marine environment.

2. Pink sea fans of Alderney

Kaila Wheatley Kornblum, a PhD researcher studying pink sea fans, will present her work on this remarkable soft coral around Alderney. In summer 2024, the AWT supported researchers from the University of Exeter and Jersey Marine Conservation in collecting tissue samples from pink sea fans (Eunicella verrucosa) across Alderney’s territorial waters. These samples help scientists understand how connected pink sea fan populations are across the Channel Islands and beyond. The samples have now been analysed at the University of Exeter, and Kaila will share the findings with us.

Pink sea fans are pink, warty-looking soft corals, found on undersea rocky reefs, from 4-50 m deep. They prefer to live in fast flowing, tidal conditions and use their tentacles to grab passing plankton. The fans are slow growers, growing 1 cm a year and are known to last up to 50 years old. Pink sea fans are an important species as they provide crucial homes for other marine life, like cryptic species, including the endemic sea fan anemone (Amphianthus dohrnii).