As per the press release both the positions will fulfil specific roles to achieve real impact from highly applied marine science. Dr Clive Talbot (56) began in post yesterday (1 June) as Aquaculture Research Scientist. He is in the process of moving to Shetland from Fort William where he worked for almost three years as a self employed consultant for Aquaculture Research Services.
Dr Talbot has an international reputation, both in academia and in the aquaculture industry as an authority on fish biology and fish farming operations, including competence in nutrition, husbandry and environmental issues. He said that his academic background within fish nutrition, physiology and biology, combined with my industry research experience definitely helped me secure this role.
He told that this post is an ideal opportunity to help support the aquaculture industry in general and Shetland in particular. It is great chance to pass on some of the knowledge and experience ha has gained over the years to the new generation of students and workers coming into the industry, opined Dr Talbot.
Noelia Rodriguez is appointed as Research Associate. She was originally from Spain and worked as a fish monitor and sampler of tuna at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography for three years before moving to Shetland in 2008. She has since worked as a laboratory technician and benthic trainee taxonomist with Shetland Seafood Quality Control (SSQC) before taking up the new post. She has also been studying towards a degree in biology at the University of Oviedo in Spain.
Commenting on her new work she said that over the next two years she will investigate and develop the practical aspects of the use of Ballan wrasse as cleaner fish for the biological control of sea lice on farmed salmon. Sea lice are acknowledged as one of the major concerns industry currently faces in these financially challenging times.
On the new additions to his team, head of Marine Science and Technology, Dr Martin Robinson, said that he was pleased to them in his team. He also told that their main aim
within Marine Science and Technology is to design, develop and deliver work pogrammes that provide answers to gaps in current knowledge, technology or best practice.
