Life has not slowed down after a surprisingly hectic Christmas period. Last minute requirements for PAM systems saw directors Ian and Victoria Todd in our Spott Road warehouse preparing PAM systems for mobilisation on Christmas Day, prior to heading offshore on Boxing Day.
All staff are back on land now after a very exciting and successful project aboard a gas production platform-drilling rig complex. T-PODs and C-PODs are still in the field collecting data, but initial results are looking promising, and in line with previous studies of harbour porpoise around offshore installations. Our PAM Operators were particularly excited to detect harbour porpoises from a drilling rig using a commercial PAM system, and plan to publish the findings.
In the office, work continues to flood in, and we have multiple publications in progress that we hope to publish in peer-reviewed journals soon. We have received news from the boat yard that work on our research vessel Porpoise is finished, so we are hoping to get her in the water for a trial run soon, once the weather improves.
On another note, we are preparing for two up-and-coming conferences, The Australasian Oil and Gas Exhibition & Conference (AOG), which takes place in Perth, Australia on 19–21st February 2014, and the All Energy conference in Aberdeen, Scotland on the 21-22nd May. We are hoping that both will provide excellent networking opportunities. To reach a more local audience, we will also be attending the Dunbar Science Festival in the summer. Plans are still in their infancy, but like last year, there will be a chance to win some prizes.
