Project Spotlight: AquaPLAN Update

The AquaPLAN Annual Meeting took place online from 27-28 January 2025. The meeting included a series of presentations from AquaPLAN researchers providing progress updates from each of the six work packages, followed by interactive discussions and planning activities for the year to come. The AquaPLAN EC Project Officer Colombe Warin attended along with representatives from our sister project PLAN-B. Read more. 

Evidence Week annually brings together the public, the UK’s leading researchers and parliamentarians to discuss how evidence is used and scrutinised at the Palace of Westminster in London. Researchers present briefings on the latest evidence on a wide range of topics, to inform pressing policy issues and future legislation in the public interest. AquaPLAN researchers, Professor Tim Smyth (Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)) and Dr Thomas Davies (University of Plymouth (UOP)) took part in Evidence Week (20-24 January 2025) to speak with Members of Parliament (MPs), peers and policy advisers during a quick-fire policy briefing about the impacts of underwater light pollution on marine ecosystems. Despite there being more than 200 published impacts of light pollution on marine ecosystems, marine light pollution remains completely unregulated! 

Tim Smyth commented: “Evidence Week at the Houses of Parliament was an excellent opportunity for scientists to directly engage with decision makers.  It was a real challenge to convey the importance of your work into a “three minute” sentence, but the policy brief handouts provided by UOP and PML really helped.  It was a real privilege to speak directly to Lord Patrick Vallance in particular about the importance of understanding the impacts of artificial light pollution on biodiversity”. Lord Patrick Vallance is a current member of the House of Lords and is Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation of the UK. Read more. 

AquaPLAN participant Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN) are organising the summer school, ECOWAVES. The course will take place from 26-30 May 2025 at Darwin-Dohrn Museum in Naples, Italy. Open to graduates, postgraduates, postdocs and early-career researchers, the course will provide a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the role of sound in marine ecosystems and the application of acoustics in ecological studies. Through a blend of theoretical knowledge and hands-on training, the course will equip participants with the skills to assess the role of sound and the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine organisms. Applications are open until 4 April and with only 20 places available on the course, if you want to attend and avoid disappointment, you should apply now!

We are planning other dissemination and communication activities, so please join us!

• Visit the AquaPLAN website to learn more about the project’s objectives, ongoing work, news, results and related links. Follow us on LinkedIn, X and our new BlueSky!
• AquaPLAN and PLAN-B are organising a joint session on the effect of light and noise pollution on biodiversity, at Forum Acusticum Euronoise 2025, the 11th European Acoustics Association (EAA) Annual European Conference on Acoustics and Noise Control Engineering (23-26 June 2025 in Málaga, Spain)
• Keep up to date – Subscribe to AquaPLAN News