The work for the trial phase of PacMAN is well on its way, as detailed in the PacMAN monitoring plan. With multiple field campaigns already completed and samples processed by morphological sorting and for molecular work, the PacMAN team is collecting invaluable data on marine biodiversity at the Suva harbour. Read more…
The developments of PacMAN were presented at the 22nd International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species (ICAIS), in Oostende, Belgium on the 19th of April 2022, in the session regarding genetic tools for monitoring. A total of about 400 people were following this conference with approximately 200 at site and 200 on-line Read more…
The first field sampling campaign of PacMAN has been successfully completed. Settlement plates were replaced, plankton and water samples collected and environmental parameters recorded. Three settlement plates from each site were used for sorting and collecting specimens for genetic vouchering. These initial sampling campaigns will help in refining the sampling Read more…
As an initiation of PacMAN monitoring settlement plates have been deployed to four sites in the Suva harbour. Each site has three sets of three settlement plates at different depths along the water column depending on the total water depth and tides. Along with deployments, sampling for plankton, water and Read more…
PacMAN monitoring activities were officially launched on the morning of 24.11 at 10 am (FJT, UTC+12). This launch was the first step to begin research activities at the harbor site as part of the project’s commitment to establishing a marine invasive species monitoring plan and a desktop decision support tool Read more…
The PacMAN team from the Institute of Applied Sciences visited the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji’s technical and laboratory facility based in Koronivia, Nausori. The visit was scheduled following the official signing of an Operational Arrangement Agreement between IAS-USP and BAF on the 10th of November 2021. The IAS team consisted Read more…
An operational arrangement between the University of the South Pacific’s Institute of Applied Science (IAS) and the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF) was made to enable activities under the PacMAN project. This will strengthen Fiji’s capability in detecting marine invasions and enhancing marine environment by monitoring high-risk marine invasive alien Read more…
On the 14th of September 2021, PacMAN held the full advisory board meeting. The full report is available here. This first session of the IODE steering group for PacMAN (i.e. PacMAN advisory board) brought together the PacMAN coordinating team with major local stakeholders, representatives of the donor (Flanders Government) and Read more…
The PacMAN coordination team is pleased to announce that the PacMAN marine invasive species monitoring plan was endorsed by the advisory board at the meeting on the 14.9.2021. The first version of the monitoring plan is now available online. The monitoring plan outlines the plans for the PacMAN team for Read more…
The full PacMAN advisory board will come together on the 14.9.2021 to adopt the PacMAN monitoring plan for the next two years. This includes local stakeholders as well as international scientific experts and the Flanders UNESCO Science Trust Fund (FUST). This meeting will mark the start of the trial sampling Read more…